Earlier this year, a fellow writer recommended I read The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband From Atheist to Priest in the context of praying for those who have left the faith. I’ve been reading it in bits and pieces for several months, and I’m so glad that I did. I had heard of Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur (October 16, 1866- May 3, 1914), but hadn’t known much about her before reading this. I’m thankful for a new heavenly friend.
A Woman of Faith
Elisabeth Arrighi was born into an upper-middle-class family in Paris and received a quality education. She married Feliz Leseur in 1889. Elisabeth always suffered from medical concerns, but the young couple had an active social life for many years until her health became too poor. Felix had medical training, but worked as a journalist and then a director of an insurance company. Their marriage was a happy one, but the difference in their faith lives created tension.
Feliz had been raised Catholic but rejected the faith as a young adult. He agreed to respect her faith when they married, but in time, he began to tease her about it, forced her to read anti-Catholic literature, and made her observance difficult. She abandoned her practice of the faith for a short time, but then returned to it with a firm sense of purpose. She kept a journal recording her interior prayer life. She never harangued her husband about his lack of faith – she simply offered a good example, prayed, and offered sacrifices for his conversion.
She suffered from liver trouble and ultimately died of breast cancer. Felix saw the way her faith comforted her in her sickness and ceased his criticism of it. After her death, he found her journal. He returned to the faith in 1915 and entered the Dominican order in 1919. He was ordained a priest in 1923.
Excerpts from Her Diary
I highlighted many passages as I was making my way through the book (too many to share in an article), but here are a few that stood out.
“Help me, my God, and, without my knowing it, use me for a little good. According to a comparison I like, let me be the rough vessel giving forth light and warmth.”
“I can do nothing for her but pray. Nothing but that! But that is everything!”
“Not to argue; to work instead through contact and example; to dissipate prejudice, to reveal God and make Him felt without speaking of Him; to strengthen one’s intelligence, to enlarge one’s soul more and more; to love without tiring, in spite of disappointment and indifference. Above all, to draw to oneself the humble and the little ones so as to lead them to Him who loves them so much.”
“It is best for God alone to dispose of what we offer Him; if we knew the result of our efforts, if the mysterious influence worked by our sacrifice and prayer were revealed to us, pride, always near, would have its way.”
“I believe it is my duty in awaiting the divine hour to preach Jesus Christ only through my prayers, my sufferings, and my example.”
“In prayer we do not see the result of our efforts, however certain they may be; we are truly instruments in the hands of the divine Artist. We can remain humble even while knowing the great joy of working for God’s glory and the good of souls.”
“Perhaps He will wait until He has taken me to Heaven and pressed me against His Heart before giving faith to those I love; and perhaps He will then grant me the unspeakable joy of seeing in His light what my sufferings, privations, and spiritual isolation”
“Let us influence those about us, not by vain preaching, but by the irresistible force of upright convictions and the example of our lives.”
“We should make each day a resumé of our whole life by filling it with prayer, work, and charity.”
“I must work for souls without trying to ascertain the results of my labor, leaving to God the work of conversion or sanctification, which He alone can accomplish, and looking upon myself as a humble instrument in His hands, an instrument used for purposes of which I myself am ignorant.”
“Penance and prayer are the most important works, the most efficacious means of salvation for the soul itself and for others, the most useful instruments in the task of reparation to which chosen souls are called.”
“To the end of time, our daily words and actions will bear fruit, either good or bad; nothing that we have once given of ourselves will perish, but our words and works, handed on from one to another, will continue to do good or harm to remote generations.”
This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Purchases made after clicking a link help support this site. Thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment