Y'all just must spend some time with her. See this quote:
from He Is My Heaven
Jennifer MoorcroftMay Christ bring us into those depths, those abysses where one lives only by Him. Would you like to be united to your little sister in order to become wholly loving, wholly listening, wholly adoring?
To love, to love all the time, to live by love, that is, to be surrendered. (L125)
It really is only one step, but the really hard part is the preliminaries where God prepares you for the step. Our prayer is to Love God and to be Love for God here in the world. As St. Teresa of Avila can be paraphrased, "In the end it is not how much we know, it is how much we love that we shall be judged by." And by "how much," I take St. Teresa to mean both in quantitative (how often it is expressed) and qualitative (the actions by which it is expressed) mode. Some express their love in song and prayer and silence, others express it through strong refutation of error, counsel, and preaching, still others through hospitality. There is no end to the expression of love of God, and it is absolutely necessary for each of us to pursue through grace that end of loving in the particular way that God desires for us. For if we choose to love as we choose, then we do not really love at all.
Was Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity a Carmelite? I'm thinking about contacting the Carmelites, since I'm in the discernment process and the Carmelite Order has always appealed to me.
Dear Nathan,
Yes, she was. She was a near-contemporary of St. Thérèse and entered the Carmel of Dijon at the age of twenty-one. She died about five years later. Her spirituality shows the marks of St. Thérèse, but has distinctive features unique to the person she was.
Others (particularly Christine, if I recall correctly) can likely tell you more. Try the Laudem Gloriae site from the left column of my blog.
I will pray for you in your discernment. Carmel has certainly been a blessing for me.
shalom,
Steven