Family in Feast and Feria

Yesterday's meditation from Elisabeth Leseur in the Magnificat was exactly what I needed.

Rich in What Matters to God

We can show our Savior the depth of our love; we atone for past faults and offer the purest reparation...; we can also offer reparation for others, make our interior suffering serve others and acquire more inner strength. From a spiritual perspective, we achieve maturity, and as Saint Francis de Sales says so well, God weans us from the milk of infants to give us the wine of the strong. From experiencing every suffering and darkness of spirit, we discover a great joy in finally doing something for God, to show that we truly love him -- God, and not his consolations, which he lavished upon us not so long ago. The unfinished alleluia ends in a fiat that, in spite of all, is still joyful.

My God, I belong and always wish to belong to you, in suffering or in pain, in spiritual dryness or in joy, in illness or in health, in life or in death. I want only one thing: that your will be done in me and by me. More and more I seek, and desire to seek, only one end: to promote your greater glory through the accomplishment of your desires for me.

I offer myself to you in wholehearted interior sacrifice and ask you to dispose of me for your service as the most common, most useless instrument, in favor of those you love. Make me either passive or active, practicing in turn and as the hour requires the contemplation I love best and other good works according to your will.

Let me always be strict with myself, more gentle, loving, and helpful to others, to make you loved through me, always hiding my efforts, prayers, and mortifications. Make me very humble and draw my heart to yours, my beloved Savior and God.

I haven't been so quiet or loving in my daily crosses! This was a great reminder for me to pick up The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur and finish the book at this time. The quote above was taken from Elisabeth Leseur: Selected Writings. I'd be interested in comparing the two books -- what other writings besides her diary is in print?