Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

I loved this little snippet from the First Day of the retreat I'm reading (called "Heaven in Faith") from Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity:

It is there in the very depths that the divine impact takes place, where the abyss of our nothingness encounters the Abyss of mercy, the immensity of the all of God. There we will find the strength to die to ourselves and, losing all vestige of self, we will be changed into love...

I first heard about Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity when I was in college and singing during the summer with the St. Ann Choir. We were privileged to sing for the 50th Jubilee of a Carmelite nun at the monastery in Santa Clara. The choir got to meet with her afterwards through the cloister screen (I think that's what you call it) and it was something I will never forget. The other sisters had fashioned for her a wreath of roses which she wore over her veil. She looked completely ageless and filled with love. She had taken the name "Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity". They had in common a love of music, which was why someone invited our choir to sing for her special mass.

This meeting was also memorable to me because it helped me see the beauty and rightness of a cloistered life while at the same time helping me to recognize that that wasn't my vocation. I pray that my children will have the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of this life whether or not they are called in this direction.