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190.1
First Point
The
piety of Saint Elizabeth was so great that from the age of five she took
no pleasure except to be in church or in her room in order to pray there
to God. This led her to speak rarely, because she knew that it is easy to
converse often to God when one talks little to people, and that silence is
one of the best means to avoid sin and keep oneself in fervor.
So that her children might belong entirely to God, she had the
custom of taking them in her hands as soon as they were born to offer them
to the Lord with fervent prayer. Although married, she got up every night
for prayer, and early in the morning she went to church, where, kneeling
on the ground, she remained in prayer for quite a long time. By these
practices this saint was a model of piety and virtue in her family and in
her dominions. It was also in this way that this saint showed by her
good deeds, as Saint Paul requires of women, the piety of which she
had made profession.[i]
Following this saint's example, let us practice piety, for, says
Saint Paul, Piety is a great wealth, and it is useful for everything;
to it the good things of this life and those of the future life have
been promised.[ii]
Act then, in order to procure these benefits for yourself by using
this means, which is very sure, and without which you cannot succeed in
possessing the true goods which alone should be the object and the goal of
all your desires.
190.2
Second Point
This
saint was also very mortified. Every day she took the discipline even to
blood, and when her own strength failed she begged her attendants to give
her the discipline and not to spare her at it. When the king, her husband,
was away, she wore a hair shirt continually; when she went to church she
knelt with both her bare knees on the ground, because she wanted
mortification to accompany all her actions. It was also in a spirit of
mortification that she took great pleasure serving lepers, and the more
their flesh was decomposed, the more she cherished them. In a spirit of
penance she also wore very simple clothing made of very ordinary material.
There are many people who would like to have piety, and they often
pray to God even with affection and fervor, but they have to have all
their comforts. If they have something to suffer, right away they
complain, and everybody must commiserate with them and become involved to
search for some way to comfort them. How can such people desire so much to suffer nothing, seeing
a queen love so firmly to mortify herself?
Withdrawn as you are from the world, you should consider
mortification as an obligation for you. Let it serve as a seasoning for
all that you do for God, and make a habit of practicing it. Be assured
that to live without the spirit of penance and without mortification is
not to live as a true Christian, much less as a religious.
190.3
Third Point
What
makes the glory of Saint Elizabeth stand out the most is the great love
she had for humiliations. Having founded hospitals, she served the poor
sick inmates herself; she dressed their sores and rendered them all kinds
of service, even the most humiliating. This drew down on her the criticism
of a great number of persons who considered such actions unbecoming a
person of her rank. But the desire she had for being humbled led her to
give little concern to these complaints.
The occasion when she showed the most how deeply she had at heart
to be humiliated was after the death of her husband, the king, when she
was driven out of her palace at ten o'clock at night with her three
children and her maids. She found no place where she could spend the rest
of the night and went to a stable. At midnight she went to the monastery
of the Franciscans to have a Te Deum chanted to thank God for the
disgrace which had happened to her. Later, she took up residence in a poor
cottage that a priest offered to her in charity. There she worked at
spinning in order to have something to live and feed her children. Was
this not great patience for a queen?
Try to imitate her, and when occasions of humiliation happen to
you, receive them as sent by God and as one of the greatest honors and the
main advantages you can have in this world. In this way no matter what
happens to you, you will always be satisfied.
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Elizabeth
of Hungary (1207 - 1231), the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary, was
married at the age of 13 to the saintly Louis of Thuringia (East Germany),
for whom she bore a son and two daughters. As queen she combined great
solicitude for the poor and an austere life for herself. When her husband
was killed in Sicily on his way to the Crusades, her brother-in-law,
Henry, usurped the throne and expelled her. Eventually, she was restored
as queen and her son Herman succeeded to the crown. She, however,
continued her life of prayer and poverty, dying at the age of 24. The
feast is now celebrated on November 17.
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