summer is in the air

Summer is the season for holidays and vacations. There is something about getting away and enjoying sights never before seen or being in places never before visited. Elizabeth of the Trinity was a woman who traveled and enjoyed vacations with families and friends. Her mystical soul saw in Nature a reflection of the beauty and majesty of the God she possessed within her. Her letters bear witness to this. This is one of the letters she wrote in September 1893: "I am delighted with my vacation! We spent two weeks at Gemeaux with Madame de Sourdon who did not want to let us go. We had a very enjoyable time there: we played endless games of croquet, took nice walks, and I often played the piano; Monsignor de Gemeaux loves music very much. We often went to the Chateau."

Every other year, Elizabeth went to Carlipa to visit her mother's cousins she called her aunts. This is a letter addressed to a friend about how she spent this time with them: "We spent our morning on the beach admiring the sea, which I love so, and watching the bathers. At four, we went to Carlipa where we were pampered and coddled by my cousins and we did honor the excellent southern cooking." (August 10, 1896). Elizabeth then wrote her aunts after she had entered Carmel to better express what this meant to her: "Didn't you feel my soul in this little church where, morning and evening, I so loved to come pray beside you? Do you also recall our walks on the Serre in the evening by the moonlight when we heard the lovely carillon? Oh, how beautiful it was, my dear aunt, that starlit valley, that immensity, that infinity; it all spoke to me of God. Never will I forget those vacations spent with you; they will always be in my fondest memories..." (beginning of October 1902).

As you look forward to your own vacations spent with families and friends, may you also build up wonderful memories of beauty, peace and love. I remember a poster I saw once in a religious store: "How can one look at a sunset and not think of God?" Yes, He is everywhere!