Ruth: Week 1 reading ... refections

Well I am finally ready to post. So sorry for not keeping up.  With traveling, not being able to find my book, ordering a new one and now that my allergies make me fall asleep every time I try to read, I have been way behind.
.....About the first week's readings:  I am really excited.   Even thought I have a faith filled husband I can still relate to the need to be a living witness to our awesome Catholic faith.  Elisabeth's way of living out the faith is an example to everyone not that we are all called to live out our faith in the same way.
In the second paragraph it states that, "It is always wonderful and impressive to contemplate the action of God's grace ......and .... the means He employs to guide a man to the path designed for him from the beginning." Right away the phrase "contemplate the action of God's grace" jumped out at me. We know that all is Grace but how often we fail to recongnize it, acknowledge it, etc.   That phrase is a good prayer starter for me.

Elisabeth totally trusted her husband was in God's care and that all her suffering was useful....never wasted.  I am terrible at sticking to days of fasting, etc. so the statement on p. xvii called and challenged my soul. "Renunciation, detachment, voluntary poverty, dislike of the world, sacrifice and forgetfulness of self, acceptance of suffering and utmost chartiy toward God and neighbor are the theme of each one of these pages."  The Lord challenges me in these areas over and over again.  Maybe this book will help me be more focused on that inner calling in some of these areas.
Again on p. xx  I underlined.... "Elisabeth, therefore, living in the world, fulfilled every duty of her state, and her example shows how it is possible, when one has the will and calls upon divine grace, to live an intense spiritual life and to practice the highest evangelical virtues in the midst of outward activity."    I am sure that Elisabeth's daily spiritual reading and meditation on the writings found in the New Testament were foundational to her spiritual life, to living out the faith and to defending and witnessing the faith.
I don't want this posting to be as long as the chapter so I will just close saying that the handling of suffering in the midst of accepting the challenge of living out her apostolate is an inspiring beginning.