To Be A Praise of Glory

From a letter to Abbé Angles, curate of the Church of St. Hilaire, Dijon, and a  friend of Elizabeth and her family from the time she was about 9 years old:

"I am going to tell you a very personal secret: my dream is to be 'the praise of His glory.' I read that in Saint Paul and my Bridegroom made me understand that this was to be my vocation while in exile, waiting to go sing the eternal Sanctus in the City of the saints. But that requires great fidelity, for in order to be a praise of glory, one must be dead to all that is not He, so as to be moved only by His touch, and the worthless Elizabeth does such foolish things to her Master; but like a tender Father, He forgives her, His divine glance purifies her and, like Saint Paul, she tries 'to forget what lies behind and press on toward what is ahead.' How we feel the need to be sanctified, to forget ourselves in order to belong wholly to the interests of the Church...Poor France! I love to cover her with the blood of the Just One, 'of Him who is always living to intercede and to ask mercy.' What a sublime mission the Carmelite has; she is to be mediatrix with Jesus Christ, to be another humanity for Him in which He can perpetuate His life of reparation, sacrifice, praise, and adoration. Oh, ask Him that I may be equal to my vocation and not abuse the graces He lavishes on me; if you knew how fearful that makes me sometimes...Then I cast myself on Him whom Saint John calls 'the Faithful and True,' and I beg Him to be Himself my fidelity!..."