Inspiration

Elisabeth Leseur (1866-1914) was a devout Catholic who offered her life for the conversion of her husband, a determined atheist.  After her death, he found her secret diary, experienced while reading them a profound conversion, and went on to become a Dominican priest.  Reading her writings is likely to have a similar effect on other readers, for as she examines her own life and spirituality, she causes the reader to do the same about his/her own life.

Here is a selection from her journal:

I know well what this word apostle means and all the obligations it creates.  First, the necessity of an interior life that becomes stronger all the time, of drawing more than ever charity and gentle serenity from the Eucharist and from prayer, as well as making wholly spiritual intentions. Then, to cultivate my own mind systematically, to increase my knowledge of all those subjects that I am ready to learn; to do nothing precipitously or superficially; to achieve, as much as possible, competence in the subjects I study.  To transform and make this intellectual effort holy through a spiritual motive, doing it humbly without any self-centeredness, but exclusively to help others.

To bring to all conversation and discussion a tranquil spirit, a firmness, and a friendliness that will eliminate bitterness or irritation from the opponent's mind; never to give in where principles are concerned, but to have extraordinary tolerance for people.  Above all, to try, after discovering the opening, to present the divine, unchanging Truth to each one in such a way as to make it understood and loved.

Leseur was ill much of her life, with a disease of the liver, which curtailed much of the activity she would have like to do for others.  Yet, through her writings and her efforts to cultivate the peace and patience she needed with her husband's opposition to spiritual truth, she has become an apostle in every sense of the word.  I dare say I am not the only one to find inspiration in her writing.