The souls of the just are in the hand of God,
and no torment shall touch them.
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;
and their passing away was thought an affliction
and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But they are in peace.
For if before men, indeed, they be punished,
yet is their hope full of immortality;
chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed,
because God tried them
and found them worthy of himself.
As gold in the furnace, he proved them,
and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
In the time of their visitation they shall shine,
and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;
they shall judge nations and rule over peoples,
and the LORD shall be their King forever.
Those who trust in him shall understand truth,
and the faithful shall abide with him in love:
because grace and mercy are with his holy ones,
and his care is with his elect.
Msgr. John A. Esseff is a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Scranton. Msgr. Esseff served as a retreat director and confessor to St. Teresa of Calcutta. He continues to offer direction and retreats for the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity around the world. Msgr. Esseff encountered St. Padre Pio, who would become a spiritual father to him. He has lived in areas around the world, serving in the Pontifical missions, a Catholic organization established by Pope St. John Paul II to bring the Good News to the world, especially to the poor. Msgr. Esseff assisted the founders of the Institute for Priestly Formation and continues to serve as a spiritual director for the Institute. He continues to serve as a retreat leader and director to bishops, priests and sisters and seminarians, and other religious leaders around the world.
Day Four – For the grace to be captivated by Christ
In her prayer to the Trinity, Saint Elizabeth asks particular graces of each of the Divine Persons. From Christ, she asks to be captivated by Him. She refers to Him as the Radiant Star and asks for the grace to fixate on Him and to learn all from Him. She situates this petition within her awareness of her own inadequacies, voids, weaknesses and failings. She does not run from these struggles, but she also knows that she cannot overcome these on her own. She needs help – the help that comes from Christ alone. When we look to Him, it is not our failures that ultimately define us – instead, it is the love that He has for us that becomes definitive in our lives. If we allow the dynamism of His presence to draw our hearts to Him, rather than self-pity or despair, we find the strength to trust Him even as everything in our lives seems to be falling apart. If we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, He will lead us to the victory of good over evil in our hearts, our families and our communities. He is greater than every evil and He loves to reveal His strength in our weakness. When we come across that painful emptiness in which everything seems impossible, Jesus is present there too — ready to shine on us anew and to help us find our way once again.
In the spiritual mission of Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, she knows how much it brings the Radiant Star great delight when we allow Him to be the light that shines in the darkness of our lives – and, when we ask her to help us find this light, it increases Saint Elizabeth’s joy to help us triumph. Let us pray:
O My God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely so as to be established in you as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to disturb my peace, nor make me depart from you, o my Unchanging One, but may each moment carry me further into the depths of your Mystery. Pacify my soul, make it your heaven, your beloved abode, your resting place. May I never leave you there alone, but may I be entirely present, my faith completely ready, wholly adoring, fully surrendered to your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I would like to be a bride for your heart. I would like to cover you with glory, I would like to love you… unto death. I feel my powerlessness, however, and I ask you to clothe me with yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, to defeat me, to overwhelm me, to substitute yourself for me, that my life might be but the radiation of your Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Healer, as Savior. O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you, I want to be completely docile, ready to learn everything from you. Then, through all nights, all voids, all weakness, I want to fixate on you always and to remain under your great light. O My beloved Star, fascinate me so that I would not be able to forsake your shining light.
O Consuming Flame, Spirit of love, come over me until my soul is render into an incarnation of the Word; may I be for Him another humanity in which he renews His whole Mystery.
And you, O Father, bend over your little creature, cover her with your shadow, and see in her only the Beloved in whom You are well-pleased.
O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, Infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I loose myself, I surrender myself as prey. Bury yourself in me in order that I might bury myself in you, while waiting to contemplate in your light the immeasurable depths of your grandeur.
Amen
The Novena to St. Elizabeth of the Trinity is authored by Dr. Anthony Lilles S.T.D.
Day Three – For the Grace that makes our sins into a source of humility
Today we ask Saint Elizabeth to intercede for us against the temptation to be discouraged by our sins. It is possible to take sin too lightly, to not realize the great price that was paid so that we might live as sons and daughters of God. It is also possible to allow our awareness of sin to discourage us, even to the point of abandoning prayer. Saint Elizabeth is adamant that we should never abandon prayer, that even our awareness of sin can help us go deeper into the silence in which the Lord wants to heal and transform us. This is because she keeps her eyes fixed on “God, who is rich in mercy.”
Those who keep the mercy of God before them never grow tired of confessing their sins and deepening their life of conversion. Mercy is love that suffers the misery of another, and Christ has justified us by suffering the misery of our sin for our sake. He has rescued our dignity and given us standing before the Father by accepting the consequences of our sin out of love for us and dying for us. This is the reason that Saint Elizabeth refers to Christ “crucified by love.” As long as we keep our eyes fixed on this love, rather than discourage us, our sins can become occasions for gratitude to the Lord and confidence in the immensity of His devotion to us.
Saint Elizabeth says that the Lord has found a way to convert our sins into instruments of salvation. This does not diminish the horror that we should have for sin. It opens up, instead, a source of humility. We are a little more free from self-love when we accept how broken we are and how much we need God’s love. Less self-satisfied, we discover in our hearts a new openness to die to ourselves and to live the life that the Lord would have for us instead. Whenever we humbly repent of what we have done and turn with confidence to the Lord, He is ready to give us peace and help us to begin again.
In her mission, Saint Elizabeth wants us to plunge into humility before the mercy of God. She does not want us to be discouraged by sin, but with a simple movement of love and confidence to confess it, to feel sorrow over it, and to humbly work to repair the damage that we have done. Instead of being pre-occupied with personal failure or even the hurt we have caused, we must see how God is turning even our weakness into a new kind of wisdom. We must allow God to love us in this way. Saint Elizabeth explains, “Love rebuilds what you have destroyed.”
O My God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely so as to be established in you as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to disturb my peace, nor make me depart from you, o my Unchanging One, but may each moment carry me further into the depths of your Mystery. Pacify my soul, make it your heaven, your beloved abode, your resting place. May I never leave you there alone, but may I be entirely present, my faith completely ready, wholly adoring, fully surrendered to your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I would like to be a bride for your heart. I would like to cover you with glory, I would like to love you… unto death. I feel my powerlessness, however, and I ask you to clothe me with yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, to defeat me, to overwhelm me, to substitute yourself for me, that my life might be but the radiation of your Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Healer, as Savior. O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you, I want to be completely docile, ready to learn everything from you. Then, through all nights, all voids, all weakness, I want to fixate on you always and to remain under your great light. O My beloved Star, fascinate me so that I would not be able to forsake your shining light.
O Consuming Flame, Spirit of love, come over me until my soul is render into an incarnation of the Word; may I be for Him another humanity in which he renews His whole Mystery.
And you, O Father, bend over your little creature, cover her with your shadow, and see in her only the Beloved in whom You are well-pleased.
O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, Infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I loose myself, I surrender myself as prey. Bury yourself in me in order that I might bury myself in you, while waiting to contemplate in your light the immeasurable depths of your grandeur.
Amen
The Novena to St. Elizabeth of the Trinity is authored by Dr. Anthony Lilles S.T.D.
164. In catechesis too, we have rediscovered the fundamental role of the first announcement or kerygma, which needs to be the centre of all evangelizing activity and all efforts at Church renewal. The kerygma is trinitarian. The fire of the Spirit is given in the form of tongues and leads us to believe in Jesus Christ who, by his death and resurrection, reveals and communicates to us the Father’s infinite mercy. On the lips of the catechist the first proclamation must ring out over and over: “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.” This first proclamation is called “first” not because it exists at the beginning and can then be forgotten or replaced by other more important things. It is first in a qualitative sense because it is the principal proclamation, the one which we must hear again and again in different ways, the one which we must announce one way or another throughout the process of catechesis, at every level and moment.[126] For this reason too, “the priest – like every other member of the Church – ought to grow in awareness that he himself is continually in need of being evangelized”.[127]
165. We must not think that in catechesis the kerygma gives way to a supposedly more “solid” formation. Nothing is more solid, profound, secure, meaningful and wisdom-filled than that initial proclamation. All Christian formation consists of entering more deeply into the kerygma, which is reflected in and constantly illumines, the work of catechesis, thereby enabling us to understand more fully the significance of every subject which the latter treats. It is the message capable of responding to the desire for the infinite which abides in every human heart. The centrality of the kerygma calls for stressing those elements which are most needed today: it has to express God’s saving love which precedes any moral and religious obligation on our part; it should not impose the truth but appeal to freedom; it should be marked by joy, encouragement, liveliness and a harmonious balance which will not reduce preaching to a few doctrines which are at times more philosophical than evangelical. All this demands on the part of the evangelizer certain attitudes which foster openness to the message: approachability, readiness for dialogue, patience, a warmth and welcome which is non-judgmental.
Day Two – For the grace to give our hearts to Jesus
Saint Elizabeth wants us to give our heart to Jesus, to enter into a prayer so deep and beautiful, that we hear Him ask for it. She invites us to hear the Word of the Father speak to our souls the way the Samaritan Woman heard Christ speak to hers. Our Lord wants adorers “in spirit and truth.”
For Saint Elizabeth, Jesus is the great Adorer, and he wants us to become what He is. When we look at how He adored the Father, we see that his prayer was not a good intention or a nice wish, but a lived reality. What Christ offered to the Father in the silence of prayer, He gave up on the Cross for our sake. His whole existence became an act of worship and spiritual sacrifice.
This means that to be an adorer in “truth,” we must also live out the truth in our actions. We must give Jesus the gift of our hearts not only in our words and intentions but our actions as well. Here, however, our weaknesses seem to hinder us. The truth is that God loves us, and He does so, even in the face of our sins. Christ-crucified lived in the love of the Father, even as He took on the consequences of our sins to show us that God’s love is greater than sin. Everything for Jesus was done out of love for the Father. For us to be adorers in truth, we must, like Christ, live in God’s love – until every decision, every action is carried out in that love, by that love, and for that love. Even in the midst of difficult trials, our actions must be Christ-like – just as Jesus Christ lived by complete confidence in the Father, we must live in complete confidence in Him.
How do we acquire this is childlike posture before the Lord? Saint Elizabeth wants to help us spend time in the silence of prayer. Trying to stay in this silence is difficult. We must face our tendencies to brood over injuries or else simply not deal with the interior pain that we carry. Silence wasted on such interior rancor is dangerous. Saint Elizabeth describes another kind of silence, and it this silence that we must seek in prayer by renouncing every thought or feeling or fantasy that is not worthy of it. Each renunciation deepens childlike confidence and trust. The greater this trust, the deeper the silence God guides us into. She describes this silence as allowing the Lord to sit us on His knee and caress us like a mother comforts her child — an image from Isaiah. Throughout the trials and difficulties in life, the silent and tender love of God surrounds us and is completely present to us. This is the same love that gave Christ the strength to die for us. Now the Trinity gently offers it to strengthen us, too. In the silence of prayer, we can hear and respond to God’s gentle invitation, “Give me your heart.”
The spiritual mission of Saint Elizabeth is to keep us in the deep silence in which we can hear this tender voice. So that she might help us give our hearts in the stillness of this immense love, let us pray:
O My God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely so as to be established in you as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to disturb my peace, nor make me depart from you, o my Unchanging One, but may each moment carry me further into the depths of your Mystery. Pacify my soul, make it your heaven, your beloved abode, your resting place. May I never leave you there alone, but may I be entirely present, my faith completely ready, wholly adoring, fully surrendered to your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I would like to be a bride for your heart. I would like to cover you with glory, I would like to love you… unto death. I feel my powerlessness, however, and I ask you to clothe me with yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, to defeat me, to overwhelm me, to substitute yourself for me, that my life might be but the radiation of your Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Healer, as Savior. O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you, I want to be completely docile, ready to learn everything from you. Then, through all nights, all voids, all weakness, I want to fixate on you always and to remain under your great light. O My beloved Star, fascinate me so that I would not be able to forsake your shining light.
O Consuming Flame, Spirit of love, come over me until my soul is render into an incarnation of the Word; may I be for Him another humanity in which he renews His whole Mystery.
And you, O Father, bend over your little creature, cover her with your shadow, and see in her only the Beloved in whom You are well-pleased.
O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, Infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I loose myself, I surrender myself as prey. Bury yourself in me in order that I might bury myself in you, while waiting to contemplate in your light the immeasurable depths of your grandeur.
Amen
The Novena to St. Elizabeth of the Trinity is authored by Dr. Anthony Lilles S.T.D.
“The pilgrim Church on earth lifts its gaze to Heaven and exultantly joins the choir of those with whom God shares his glory. It is the communion of saints!”
Prayer for the Intercession of St. John Paul II
O Blessed Trinity, we thank you
for having graced the Church with
Saint John Paul II and for allowing
the tenderness of your fatherly care,
the glory of the Cross of Christ
and the splendor of the Spirit of love
to shine through him.
Trusting fully in your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary,
he has given us a living image of
Jesus the Good Shepherd.
He has shown us that holiness
is the necessary measure of ordinary
Christian life and is the way of
achieving eternal communion with you.
Grant us, by his intercession,
and according to your will,
the graces we implore,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Prayer composed by St. John Paul II
Jesus said…”Abide in Me, and I in you…for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
I leave you now with this prayer: that the Lord Jesus will reveal Himself to each one of you, that He will give you the strength to go out and profess that you are Christian, that He will show you that He alone can fill your hearts. Accept His freedom and embrace His truth, and be messengers of the certainty that you have been truly liberated through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This will be the new experience, the powerful experience, that will generate, through you, a more just society and a better world.
God bless you and may the joy of Jesus be always with you!
“Thus the great gift of redemption – our being ‘brought forth’ to divine life – is a mighty work of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It must be received by us in faith. It must be lived. It must be proclaimed.”
Prayer for the Intercession of St. John Paul II
O Blessed Trinity, we thank you
for having graced the Church with
Saint John Paul II and for allowing
the tenderness of your fatherly care,
the glory of the Cross of Christ
and the splendor of the Spirit of love
to shine through him.
Trusting fully in your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary,
he has given us a living image of
Jesus the Good Shepherd.
He has shown us that holiness
is the necessary measure of ordinary
Christian life and is the way of
achieving eternal communion with you.
Grant us, by his intercession,
and according to your will,
the graces we implore,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Prayer composed by St. John Paul II
Thanksgiving for the Eucharist
For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast!
O Christ the Savior, we give You thanks for Your redeeming sacrifice, the only hope of men!
O Christ the Savior, we give You thanks for the eucharistic breaking of bread, which You instituted in order to really meet Your brothers, in the course of the centuries!
Christ the Savior, put into the hearts of the baptized the desire to offer themselves with You and to commit themselves for the salvation of their brothers!
You who are really present in the Blessed Sacrament, spread Your blessings abundantly on Your people…Amen.
“Certainly the whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of light. He is the ‘light of the world.’”
Prayer for the Intercession of St. John Paul II
O Blessed Trinity, we thank you
for having graced the Church with
Saint John Paul II and for allowing
the tenderness of your fatherly care,
the glory of the Cross of Christ
and the splendor of the Spirit of love
to shine through him.
Trusting fully in your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary,
he has given us a living image of
Jesus the Good Shepherd.
He has shown us that holiness
is the necessary measure of ordinary
Christian life and is the way of
achieving eternal communion with you.
Grant us, by his intercession,
and according to your will,
the graces we implore,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Prayer composed by St. John Paul II
Lord, from You every family in heaven and on earth takes it name. Father, You are Love and Life.
Through Your Son, Jesus Christ, born of woman, and through the Holy Spirit, the fountain of divine charity, grant that every family on earth may become for each successive generation a true shrine of life and love.
Grant that Your grace may guide the thoughts and actions of husbands and wives for the good of their families and of all the families of the world.
Grant that the young may find in the family solid support for their human dignity and for their growth in truth and love.
Grant that love, strengthened by the grace of the sacrament of Marriage, may prove mightier than all the weaknesses and trials through which our families sometimes pass.
Through the intercession of the Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that the Church may fruitfully carry out her worldwide mission in the family and through the family.
We ask this of You, who are Life, Truth, and Love with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“The Good News which she received from her divine Founder obliges the Church to proclaim the message of salvation and human dignity and to condemn injustices and attacks on human dignity.”
Prayer for the Intercession of St. John Paul II
O Blessed Trinity, we thank you
for having graced the Church with
Saint John Paul II and for allowing
the tenderness of your fatherly care,
the glory of the Cross of Christ
and the splendor of the Spirit of love
to shine through him.
Trusting fully in your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary,
he has given us a living image of
Jesus the Good Shepherd.
He has shown us that holiness
is the necessary measure of ordinary
Christian life and is the way of
achieving eternal communion with you.
Grant us, by his intercession,
and according to your will,
the graces we implore,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Prayer composed by St. John Paul II
And behold: we who… are standing… beneath the cross of the ages, wish, through Your cross and passion, O Christ, to cry out today that mercy [which] has irreversibly entered in to the history of man, into our whole human history—and which in spite of the appearances of weakness is stronger than evil. It is the greatest power and force upon which man can sustain himself, threatened as he is from so many sides…
Holy is God.
Holy and strong.
Holy immortal One, have mercy on us.
Have mercy: eleison: misere.
May the power of Your love once more be shown to be greater than the evil that threatens it.
May it be shown to be greater than sin…
May the power of Your cross, O Christ, be shown to be greater than the author of sin, who is called “the prince of this world.”
For by your blood and Your passion You have redeemed the world!
164. In catechesis too, we have rediscovered the fundamental role of the first announcement or kerygma, which needs to be the centre of all evangelizing activity and all efforts at Church renewal. The kerygma is trinitarian. The fire of the Spirit is given in the form of tongues and leads us to believe in Jesus Christ who, by his death and resurrection, reveals and communicates to us the Father’s infinite mercy. On the lips of the catechist the first proclamation must ring out over and over: “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.” This first proclamation is called “first” not because it exists at the beginning and can then be forgotten or replaced by other more important things. It is first in a qualitative sense because it is the principal proclamation, the one which we must hear again and again in different ways, the one which we must announce one way or another throughout the process of catechesis, at every level and moment.[126] For this reason too, “the priest – like every other member of the Church – ought to grow in awareness that he himself is continually in need of being evangelized”.[127]
165. We must not think that in catechesis the kerygma gives way to a supposedly more “solid” formation. Nothing is more solid, profound, secure, meaningful and wisdom-filled than that initial proclamation. All Christian formation consists of entering more deeply into the kerygma, which is reflected in and constantly illumines, the work of catechesis, thereby enabling us to understand more fully the significance of every subject which the latter treats. It is the message capable of responding to the desire for the infinite which abides in every human heart. The centrality of the kerygma calls for stressing those elements which are most needed today: it has to express God’s saving love which precedes any moral and religious obligation on our part; it should not impose the truth but appeal to freedom; it should be marked by joy, encouragement, liveliness and a harmonious balance which will not reduce preaching to a few doctrines which are at times more philosophical than evangelical. All this demands on the part of the evangelizer certain attitudes which foster openness to the message: approachability, readiness for dialogue, patience, a warmth and welcome which is non-judgmental.
