Corrine, week 1, In Memoriam

I read the first third of this book in 2008 on my own and don’t remember what distracted me from continuing. What struck me both times…  (xiv) She never argued with Felix nor spoke to him about her spiritual life…but influenced him by her example. (Our (away from Faith) children are out of town so I space my one sided (usually) discussion to two of them months apart....in email...so the threat isn't right in their face and they can read it and not think they have to respond immediately... Who knows what is correct!) It is amazing how Elisabeth quietly really lived her Christian life and how that eventually opened the eyes of Felix’s soul little by little.  It wasn’t by leaps and bounds like we’d like our loved ones to respond.  

Our example and our persistent  prayer is our job, “He alone will do what must be done, and will bring life to the souls for which we act and pray.”  This reminded me of what I had read in Scripture ….1 Corinthians 3:6   I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  We can beg God and He does the ‘growing’ for our loved ones outside the Church.  But we have more than the begging to do.  So that we have an exemplary example to give like Elisabeth did…(xx) “when one has the will and calls upon divine grace” we can live an intense spiritual life and practice virtues while living in the world activity.  We have to remember to call on the Holy Spirit and follow Elisabeth’s practice of daily meditating on a passage from Scripture.  She looked to (xxvii) the Eucharist, prayer, self-sacrifice, for the support she needed.  Our interior must be worked on before our exterior example functions properly.  (xxxv) “Every soul that uplifts itself uplifts the world.”   We have to get ourselves into that narrow pathway, headed for that narrow gate, before we can help our loved ones.  We have work to do….on ourselves...on me.

In contrast…….(St. Monica was persistent in prayer, openly shed lots of tears, followed Augustine as he moved from city to city, she also spoke to Augustine about the way he was living, and shared a vision she had about him, and a bishop told her, “simply pray for him to the Lord. He will find out for himself through his reading how wrong these beliefs are…”  St. Monica was very persistent in many ways…but it was also in God’s time that Augustine responded.)

 

May we be persistent in prayer and good example....and know when to speak or not to speak.