Let St. Elizabeth of the Trinity launch you toward heaven

“Drawing souls into this inner silence that allows God to imprint himself on them” was the mission that the young Carmelite nun, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, set for herself.

In his French book Je m’élancerai comme une petite fusée (I Will Launch Myself Like a Little Rocket), Dominican theologian Father Jean-Thomas de Beauregard introduces us to this passionate soul. He reveals a saint who was filled with the mystery of the Trinity, making it accessible and desirable for all. We asked him to give us some insights from his work.

Aleteia: It can be hard to find a place between the two great modern Carmelite saints, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Yet, the third Carmelite nun raised to the altars in the 20th century is cut from the same cloth. What drew you to her?

Father Jean-Thomas de Beauregard: We rarely choose our favorite saints. It's more a mix of chance and divine providence. Or perhaps it's the saints themselves who choose us.

My encounter with Elizabeth of the Trinity happened during my Dominican novitiate over a decade ago. The novitiate is a time to learn about religious life, deepen your relationship with God, and discern your vocation. Naturally, you have plenty of free time to read.

I tried reading St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, but struggled to get into them. While I've since grown to love them both, Thérèse's vocabulary and personality, or the perception I had of them, were an obstacle for me then. Meanwhile, Edith Stein's phenomenological approach was impenetrable for me.

But the novitiate library had books by a fellow Dominican, Father M.M. Philipon, including his works on Elizabeth of the Trinity. That connection was immediate. I gradually read all her writings, along with quite a few things published about her. Like any encounter, or love at first sight, you can't entirely explain it.

Looking back, it was Elizabeth's personality that won me over. She had an incredible strength of character and a fierce willpower. There's also a clarity, a luminous quality, and a profound depth in the way Elizabeth reads and understands Sacred Scripture. She takes it seriously. She truly believes what the Holy Spirit says about our relationship with God through St. John and St. Paul, because she recognizes herself in it. That's what interests her, and it isn't the least bit psychologizing. The paradox of this objectivity, which is nevertheless fiercely personal, makes Elizabeth extremely endearing.

You describe her as a spiritual daughter of the Little Flower, but you also point out that she was a disciple of St. Thomas Aquinas. What did she bring to the Church's understanding of the Trinity?

Father de Beauregard: When you look at the timeline, Elizabeth of the Trinity is more of a younger sister to Thérèse than a daughter. It's actually amazing to see how widely Thérèse's writings were distributed. Elizabeth, a young girl who was familiar with the Carmel but not yet a nun, was able to read them just two years after Thérèse's death.

Calling Elizabeth a disciple of St. Thomas Aquinas is a bolder claim. She didn't read him directly. But she assimilated the doctrine of the indwelling of the Trinity and filial adoption with stunning ease: the entire Trinity dwells within our souls, and that grace transforms us into God's adopted children—configured to Christ, sons in the Son.

Now, who explained these mysteries with the greatest depth and clarity? Thomas Aquinas, the Common Doctor whom the Church recommends to all the faithful. When you read Elizabeth, you find Thomas. And when you study Thomas, you think of Elizabeth. She uses the simple words of Sacred Scripture and her personal experience to say what Thomas formulates as a theologian with conceptual rigor.

The back-and-forth between the two, which I constantly use in my book, is incredibly nourishing. It helps bridge the unfortunate gap that has long existed between spirituality and theology, which were once intimately linked. Just recently, I proposed to my Trinitarian theology students that as their final exam they comment on Elizabeth’s great prayer using the concepts we studied together from Saint Thomas Aquinas.

This is a great test for evaluating a new spiritual author or a new theologian. If a spiritual author contradicts or ignores the theology consistently promoted by the Church, or if a new theologian fails to shed light on the experiences of the Church's great spiritual doctors, it's best to walk away.

The Dominican tradition heavily emphasizes this point. While our methods of expression obviously differ, the content of our theology, preaching, and prayer must be identical and reflect the Church's faith. If there's a divorce or even a gap between these three dimensions, we become schizophrenic or unfaithful.

Consequently, Elizabeth brings nothing new to Trinitarian theology, but that's not really what we ask of her! Her writings and her entire life are a faithful, luminous expression of the Church's Trinitarian faith. In this way, she genuinely increases the knowledge that every member of the faithful can have of this great mystery of our faith, because she makes it concrete and accessible.

The guiding thread of your book is Elizabeth's famous prayer, “O My God, Trinity Whom I Adore.” According to Elizabeth, how can contemplating the Trinity help and nourish a Christian's spiritual life?

Father de Beauregard: I wanted my book to include all her writings, along with Elizabeth’s life story. But I didn't want it to be a theological thesis or a biography, but rather a guide to the spiritual life, taught in Elizabeth's “school.”

The prayer “O My God, Trinity Whom I Adore” is her most famous text and has nourished three or four generations of Christians. I've heard so many moving testimonies about it! It serves as a great common thread to organize everything. The Catechism of the Catholic Church even quotes this prayer [in paragraph 260, Ed.]  to illustrate the indwelling of the Trinity.

As for contemplating the Trinity, I certainly hope it can nourish a Christian's spiritual life here on earth, because that will be our main activity in heaven! And the best way to prepare for it is to start practicing right now.

In my spiritual direction work, I've noticed that many Christians are deeply attached to Christ, to the Holy Spirit, or to God considered in his unity. However, they rarely feel that same attachment to the entire Trinity, in the unity and distinction of the persons.

Why does the Trinity seem so inaccessible?

Father de Beauregard: It’s true that it's a difficult mystery. It's literally incomprehensible! Not in the sense that we can't understand anything about it, but in the sense that we will never finish plumbing its depths.

The mystery of the Trinity helps us better understand Christ, the Church, the sacraments, the Word of God, prayer, and the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. It even grounds the moral virtues, because everything comes from the Trinity and leads back to the Trinity. It's the core of the reactor!

In reality, we already live it. We have lived it since our baptism and in every moment of our Christian life. We experience it in the Sign of the Cross, which calls it to mind, and in the doxology of the Psalms or the prayers of the Mass, which are always Trinitarian.

When faced with the objective difficulty of the mystery of the Trinity, there are two pitfalls: dumbing it down or pontificating, either oversimplification or ultra-specialization. My book tries to navigate between these two extremes. I want to give everyone the keys to grasp the mystery of the Trinity and live by it, with St. Elizabeth of the Trinity as a guide and a friend.