"We know and rely on the love God has for us."
"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."He comes to us; Let us sing ‘Noel’
Her first Christmas in Carmel, Elisabeth wrote to Father Angles in 1901: « This feast speaks so much to my soul; it seems that Jesus invites it to die to everything, to be reborn to a new life, a life of love ». Elisabeth who is profoundly nourished by the liturgy, instantly grasps the depth of the mystery: God comes to us to give us His Life.In 1903, she wrote a poem as she did every year, to celebrate this beautiful feast. In it, she meditates for the most part on the coming of the Word among us, taking our human condition upon Himself, and dwelling within us.
In each stanza, Elisabeth contemplates a particular aspect of the mystery and then deduces the attitude we should have in response so as to give God love in return for Love. Elisabeth uses the words “Amo Christum” or “I love Christ” as a refrain in the poem. These words are from the hymn of the same name which every newly professed bride of Christ sings at her solemn profession, and which Elisabeth had engraved on the crucifix which she received on her profession day, January 11, 1903.
Listening to the Love of the Word
St. John stated in his Gospel: “The word became flesh”; Elisabeth uses his words as the title and beginning of her poem.
« There is One who knows the entire Mystery
One who embraces it from all eternity,
and this One is the splendor of the Father,
It is His Incarnate Word.
In charity which presses Him
In Love’s Divine excesses
Here is the Son of his tenderness
Which God gives us this great day. »
In response, Elisabeth makes herself welcoming and attentive, wanting to learn everything from Him.
« May I spend my life,
O Word, listening to you
and may I be this “possessed one”
who knows nothing more than to Love:
“Amo Christum”. »
Radiating the Love of the Savior
With the very meaning of her name, “House of God”, Elisabeth is led to take the prayer of Christ as her own: Christ who came to earth as our Savior, bringing us the Mercy of the Father while offering up Himself as perfect sacrifice.
« “House of God”, I have within me the prayer
Of Jesus Christ, the divine adorer,
It takes me to souls and to the Father,
As that is its double movement; »
Elisabeth thirsts to share everything with her Master. Her apostolic ardour presses her to ask the Lord to be united with Him in accomplishing His mission.
« To be savior with my Master,
That is also my mission.
So I must disappear,
Lose myself in Him through union.
Jesus, Word of life,
United to You forever,
Your virgin and Your victim
Will radiate Your love:
“Amo Christum”. »
Adoring the God who is all Love
At the end of the poem, Elisabeth looks towards the Virgin Mary whom she chosen some time ago as her model.
« Mother of the Word, oh tell me your mystery.
After the moment of the Incarnation,
Tell me how you spent your life
Buried in adoration.
In a peace wholly ineffable,
A mysterious silence,
You entered the Unfathomable Being,
Bearing within “the gift of God”. »
For Elisabeth, every mystery of faith should cause us to withdraw within ourselves in recollection: welcoming it so as to be drawn into its depths, and allowing ourselves to be transformed by it. Later, she would ask in prayer, speaking of Christ: “May I be another humanity for Him in which He can renew His whole mystery”.
« Oh, keep me always
In the divine embrace.
May I bear the imprint
Of this God of all love:
“Amo Christum”. »
Let us enter with Elisabeth, into this joy of allowing God to accomplish within the deepest part of ourselves, the admirable exchange of taking our humanity, thereby giving us a share in His Divinity.