The heart of the Carmelite charism is prayer and contemplation. This involves us in listening to God who speaks to us in many ways and especially in the words of Scripture.
The heart of Carmelite spirituality lies in this silent interior encounter with God. A result of this loving encounter is an interior silence, which St. Elizabeth of the Trinity believes is essential to hear the quiet whisper of the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth experienced this interior silence herself as a refuge where a renewal “takes place at every moment in the bond of love.” (Heaven of Faith 4.1, 13). Elizabeth of the Trinity’s most celebrated teachings are those on contemplative prayer, but there is even more to discover in her writings, and perhaps her most sublime teachings have only begun to be appreciated and applied in the quietest hearts in the quietest monasteries throughout the world.
She is most definitely a saint for the lay faithful as much as for cloistered contemplatives. Many of her letters were written to her lay friends and one of her four major works was a ten-day retreat called "Heaven in Faith" that she wrote for her younger sister, a married laywoman.
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