Enriched by Christ’s Presence
- SERVANT OF GOD ELISABETH LESEUR
One resolution I have made and put into practice, notwithstanding physical and moral weakness, is to be "joyful. . .
One resolution I have made and put into practice, notwithstanding physical and moral weakness, is to be "joyful in the Christian sense of the word, as joyful as I can be toward life, toward others, and even toward myself. God, help me, and your Kingdom come! I am going to fill my life with work and love and the fulfillment of my obligations.
I love interior solitude with God alone; it strengthens me, and gives me light and energy again. But some times isolation, which is different from solitude, wears me down. I long for spiritual companionship, to bare my soul to those who are dear to me, to speak of God and immortality and the interior life and charity. But the human soul is so subtle and delicate that it must feel the same notes resonating in another of those divine instruments before it can make its own sound. The perfect union of two souls — what beautiful music that would make! With [my husband, the one whom] I love best in the world, let me one day make this music, O my God!
I have planned my days so that as much as possible they may represent, as it were, the whole of my life in miniature. Prayer, my precious morning meditation, work seriously performed, some work or care for the poor, and my family and household responsibilities....
I wish I could organize a holy crusade against hate and promote justice and love among men and women. At any rate, in this garden God has given me to cultivate, I want to plead by my attitude, my words, and my actions before everyone I meet the great cause of charity. Will I not thus be defending the cause of God? My God, help us; send a ray of light and love into our midst.
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Acknowledgement
Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur. "Enriched by Christ’s Presence." from Elisabeth Leseur: Selected Writings (New York/Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, Inc., 2005).
Reprinted with permission from Paulist Press.
The Author
Elisabeth Leseur († 1914) was a French laywoman whose atheist husband, upon reading her spiritual journal after her death, experienced a profound conversion and later became a Dominican priest. She is the author of Elisabeth Leseur: Selected Writings and The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest.
