Ave Maria Mediations
Elisabeth and Felix Leseur
| Begging to Be Begotten from Above God, permit that after my death and burial with you, I may rise again to a new and completely spiritual life. I want this…time to become both more “interior” and more “exterior,” however paradoxical that may seem. I want to live in a more complete, intimate union with God. I want prayer to be the foundation of my spiritual life, my surest means of ministry, my best form of charity; my suffering, with my usual voluntary mortifications, will also be the means I will use for doing some good for others and drawing near to the heart of God.
But exteriorly I will become, through God’s grace, more gentle, more loving, engaged always and exclusively with others, their pleasure, their good, and above all, their spiritual well-being. This in all simplicity, forgetting myself, and making of my entire spiritual life a life hidden in Jesus Christ. And then I want more and more through prayer and my simple effort to establish in myself and manifest to others the joy, the holy, tender, unspeakable joy of Jesus. My immense weakness allows me to approach him only with great effort. He often makes me walk in darkness, on a dry path where the flowers of joy can scarcely grow. Yet my will to be his is stronger than ever, and he will accept, as a sacrifice of love, the gift of these struggles, these multiple sufferings. My spiritual isolation, the constant and painful injuries caused by those who are hostile or indifferent, especially when they are near and dear to me, the sadness of feeling not up to the great work to be accomplished, the sufferings of my heart, the difficulties of my life, the misery of physical weakness – this is the rocky soil, my God, in which you will cause joy to grow. And out of all of this you will make, for many, salvation and graces of every kind; for me, expiation and holiness; for you, glory. The Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur (+1914) was a French married laywoman whose cause for canonization is underway. +++ |
And on the holy priest, Fr. Felix Leseur from http://catholicprodigaldaughter.blogspot.com/2009/08/frfriday-father-felix-leseur-unlikely.html
Elisabeth was a devout Catholic. She married a Catholic man, Felix Leseur, whom she discovered shortly before they married that he was no longer a practicing Catholic. Felix became a doctor, and eventually, an anti-clerical, atheist. Although he assured Elisabeth that he would not interfere with her faith, he ended up belittling it, even going so far as to try to destroy it.
Elisabeth was undaunted. She dutifully read a book he gave her, his intention being to draw her away from her faith. He was shocked to learn that she only found a lack of substance in the book and became even more devoted to Christianity. Their home soon had two libraries – his was full of book about atheism and hers was filled with the lives of the saints and the Catholic Church.
In 1912, at the age of 46, Elisabeth was diagnosed with breast cancer. During a conversation with Dr. Leseur about death, she said, “I am absolutely certain that when you return to God, you will not stop on the way because you never do things by halves…. You will someday become a priest.” To this he responded: “Elizabeth, you know my sentiments. I’ve sworn hatred of God, I shall live in the hatred and I shall die in it.”
After she died in 1914, Dr. Leseur discovered a note written to him in her papers. It said: “In 1905, I asked almighty God to send me sufficient sufferings to purchase your soul. On the day that I die, the price will have been paid. Greater love than this no woman has than she who lay down her life for her husband.”
Dr. Leseur intended to visit Lourdes with the intention of writing a book to discredit it. But after he was there, he became deeply convicted by the sacrifices his wife had made on his behalf, and it led to contemplating what Jesus Christ had done for him. Not too long after, Dr. Leseur’s resistance to God crumbled. In 1919, he became a Dominican novice and in 1923, at the age of 62, he was ordained. He became an inspiration to Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who frequently referenced the redemptive story of the Leseur’s as an example of how marriage can sanctify a spouse.
Fr. Felix Leseur spent 27 years traveling and preaching about his wife’s spiritual writings. What an amazing testimony of sacrificial love and grace; and how astounding to know that such a man eventually became a spiritual director for an Archbishop. God bless Fr. Leseur!
