Sr. Giovanna Della Croce - Elizabeth of the Trinity: A Life of Praise to God

SISTER GIOVANNA DELLA CROCE, O.C.D.

Translated by Julie Enzler

Elizabeth
OF THE

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 2016 by Congregazione delle Suore Carmelitane Scalze di Milano, Monastero Santa Teresa di Ges Bambino; English translation Copyright 2016 by Julie Enzler

Elizabeth of the Trinity is a translation of Elisabetta della Trinit: una vita di lode (Milano: Figlie di San Paolo, 1993).

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Perceptions Design Studio.

Cover photograph courtesy of the Carmel in Dijon-Flavignerot.

Unless otherwise noted, biblical references in this book are taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108
1-800-888-9344

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Sophia Institute Press is a registered trademark of Sophia Institute.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Giovanna della Croce, OCD, author.

Title: Elizabeth of the Trinity / Sister Giovanna della Croce, O.C.D. ;

translated by Julie Enzler.

Other titles: Elisabetta della Trinit. English

Description: Manchester, New Hampshire : Sophia Institute Press, 2016. |

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016029812 | ISBN 9781622823772 (pbk. : alk. paper) ePub ISBN 9781622823789

Subjects: LCSH: Elizabeth of the Trinity, Sister, 1880-1906 | Christian

saints France Biography. | Carmelite Nuns France Biography. |

Mystics France Biography.

Classification: LCC BX4705.E44 G5613 2016 | DDC 271/.97102 [B] dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016029812

With loving gratitude to M. and our children and to my dear sisters at St. Michaels

J.E.

CONTENTS

, by Dr. Anthony Lilles

FOREWORD

We need the life of praise. In the twentieth century, a renewal of spiritual teaching helped the Church proclaim that only a gaze that searches for God discovers the truth about our humanity and the greatness of the particular calling each of us has received. Conversely, without a wholehearted return to prayer to God, all that is tender and good in life is at risk. The spiritual wisdom of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity contributed to this important teaching, and her canonization comes at a time when her witness and message are most needed.

We are all survivors of a society that is quickly losing sight of what is most essential and beautiful about life. We are suddenly coming to realize that the very heart of our culture is now hardened. Grasping for some real encounter, we amuse ourselves to death with cold and lifeless technology only to discover how disconnected we have become. We are schooled in all forms of tolerance even as we lose the capacity for friendship and sincerity with one another. Because we have averted our gaze from the Source of Life, our relationships, even in the intimacy of marriage and family, cannot find the warmth and light that they need to thrive.

While our noisy culture and our fragmented personal lives are spiraling out of control, a Carmelite mystic reminds us about Gods power to establish us in a profound and peaceful stillness. While all kinds of social, political, and psychological strife tear at us, she has a mission to remind us that the Lamb has already won the victory. While we feel alienated and disconnected, she proclaims that there is a Being who is Love who remains with us and that the Trinity is none other than our true home, the bosom where we are awaited with love. From the vantage point that she gained through Gods work in her, even in this time of social cacophony, she invites us to rediscover the simple joy of deep prayer, adoration, and praise.

In my last conversation with Father Jordan Aumann, O.P., at the Angelicum, he expressed concern that spiritual theologians had not yet really understood or explored the doctrine of Elizabeth of the Trinity. He lamented the fact that most approaches to the Mystic of Dijon had imposed theological frameworks extrinsic to her works without really understanding her distinctly Carmelite worldview. He insisted that better explorations of her doctrine would come from those who would enter into her thought with greater humility and explore the questions that her Carmelite spirituality evokes. He was suggesting a more empathetic and interiorized approach to her wisdom.

This is what Sister Giovanna della Croce, O.C.D., achieves in this present, brief, and insightful introduction to the teachings of Elizabeth of the Trinity. Until now, however, this work could be accessed only by an Italian and Carmelite readership. On the eve of her canonization, Julie Enzlers adept translation of this work provides access for the English-speaking world to this important starting point for understanding the spiritual mission of Elizabeth of the Trinity.

This work and the translation provided in these pages are themselves the products of personal prayer and the spiritual mission of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity at work in the Church in our time. Several years ago, I asked Mrs. Enzlers assistance in translating a portion of this text for private use in my research. As a mother and wife, Mrs. Enzler also found encouragement in the writings of St. Elizabeth and in Sister Giovannas presentation of her teachings. In no time, she produced a preliminary translation of this spiritual goldmine. Now revised and carefully edited, this work promises to be a blessing for everyone seeking authentic contemplative prayer.

There are several reasons for this. First, Sr. Giovannas text conveys an empathetic exploration of the mystical wisdom that lives at the heart of the Carmelite vocation. She shares deeply in the same alignment of doctrine, mental prayer, and life that Carmel proposes to the Church and that lives in the spiritual wisdom of Blessed Elizabeth. Sister Giovannas work and Mrs. Enzlers translation of it share in Blessed Elizabeths feminine genius, a genius that can come only from the heart of the Church, the vantage point of being a living icon of the Churchs bridal reality.

Sister Giovanna della Croce, O.C.D., is a Carmelite nun in a contemplative Carmelite convent in Milan. She is a brilliant intellectual. Her pursuit of the truth led her, as it did other intellectuals, to the contemplative life and to the mystery of the Carmelite vocation. Like many contemplatives, however, she discovered the magnetism of the writings of Elizabeth of the Trinity, and she presents her powerful insights in this volume.

If scholars such as Father Conrad De Meester, O.C.D., describe Elizabeths writings as a mosaic in the apse, Sister Giovanna della Croce helps us appreciate the sacred truths portrayed in this mosaic of biblical, patristic, medieval, and modern piety. Like an apse over a sanctuary, the writings of the Carmelite of Dijon surround a sacred space of encounter in which Christ comes anew for the Church. Within her message, one discovers a holy meeting place in which the soul suddenly finds itself enveloped by the life of the Trinity. The kind of contemplation to which she directs us rises above mere private acts of piety or the exercise of devout emotions and religious fantasy. Authentic contemplative prayer flows from and leads to the liturgy: grounded by baptism in this drama of praise unfolding in the heavens above, prayer extends the ways we participate in this mystery now, here below.