The Vessel of Elizabeth of the Trinity

[For 24 September 1906—on the occasion 

of M. Germaine’s 12th Anniversary of her Profession]

Immensus Pater, immensus Filius,

Immensus Spiritus Sanctus

-St. Athanasius

Behold the vessel of Laudem Gloriae,
O Mother, what a splendid journey was made! . . .
Through the peaceful night, all wrapped in silence,
Gently drifting upon the Ocean immense,
All at rest under the vault of Heaven,
“The great voice of God” she hears beckon.
Swept up suddenly by fathomless swells,
The frail little skiff lost under the waves.

It was the Trinity, opening to me His breast,
And I found my center in the Divine Abyss!
Not on shore’s edge will I remain,
Into the Infinite I plunge, my share there contained.
My soul rests in this immensity,
And lives with the Three as in eternity!
O Mother, listen well to the end of this story,
So to rejoice for your Praise of Glory.

Her homecoming to God, celebrates your feast
Her deep longing to stay “in that spacious place.”
All her sojourn always unchanged,
Behold her heart designs a sacred crusade:
Your feast will last until that solemn eve,
When Laudem Gloriae to Heaven flees,
To commence once again, surpassing life’s days,
In the Divine Secret of the Father’s Face.

-St. Elizabeth of the Trinity [Poem 115]
Translated by Julie Enzler (2018)