Deliberate Renunciation of the Vanities of the World

Deliberate Renunciation of the Vanities of the World

From her earliest Youth until her death she kept away from everything that could be a temptation for her senses. She resolutely turned away from false values; she despised all the vanities of the world and kept her attention firmly on Jesus Christ and eternal life. Already as a child she left the games in order to pray. At the age of seven, she told her parents that she did not want any gifts any more. She wanted to become a saint. When she was twelve years old, the desire to become a sister germinated in her soul and she felt the strong need to completely separate from the world: “I incessantly asked God to protect me from the world”. She wants to protect her Daughters from any attack of the world: “You will not find consolation and joy with God as long as you are seeking them in the world”. “You wear the religious habit to show the world that you are dead to it”. “Avoid irrelevant discourses and above all those about matters of the world!” One could multiply the quotations.

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Calm and Serenity

Calm and Serenity in Difficult Moments

She impressed her surroundings by her calm and serenity in spite of the difficulties and responsibilities of her charge. Various witnesses confirm this. Father Reichard writes: “Her suffering because of her weakness never reduced her ardor and her calm. Nothing disturbs her, nothing can distract her, not even for a few moments. For each matter she asks for God’s help and recommends it to Him as His own affair.” She is serious and dignified. One always notices in her a soft serenity, which attracts and delights. Mother Alphonse Maria says in one of her instructions: “I will carry this heavy burden as God wants me to because I have burdened myself with it only by obedience to His holy will”. Continue reading

Manifestation and Expression of the Virtue of Hope

Manifestation and Expression of the Virtue of Hope

From her early childhood, the Servant of God turned to God to bring before Him her request for a life of perfection. When she saw a Sister pass, she expressed this wish as a prayer: “Good God, grant me the grace to serve You one day like this sister”.
Still very young, she says again and again to God: “I want to love You […]. Won’t You grant me the grace to love You, good God?”
Conscious of her weakness before God, she confesses her unworthiness turning to God: “Who am I, oh good God, that You have the goodness to visit me and remain with me?”
But she was so touched, so penetrated, by the goodness and mercy of the Savior of the world, that she firmly hoped that through His grace He would complete what was deficient in the inclination of her heart. Continue reading

Practice of the Virtue of Hope

Practice of the Virtue of Hope throughout the Life

For the Servant of God, from her first childhood to her death, God was always her only goal, her only destination, her reason for living and acting. In Him she placed all her trust without reserve. One day, when Elizabeth was sick and Father Busson asked her: “What is the greatest happiness for you down here and in the next life?” She answered: “Only the possession of God (belonging to God). God is everything. Where He is, there is plenitude. Where He is not, there is nothingness. Possessing (belonging to) God down here is substantially the same happiness as that of the saints in heaven. If we rejoice in God less fully on earth, this does not mean that we love Him less.” 

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