Story of Elizabeth Leseur

By Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Just at the turn of the century, there was a woman married in Paris, just a good, ordinary Catholic girl, to an atheist doctor, Dr. Felix Leseur. He attempted to break down the faith of his wife and she reacted and began studying her faith. In 1905, she was taken ill and tossed on a bed of constant pain until August 1914. When she was dying, she said to her husband, "Felix, when I am dead, you will become a Catholic and a Dominican priest."

"Elizabeth, you know my sentiments. I've sworn hatred of God, I shall live in the hatred and I shall die in it."

She repeated her words and passed away. She died in her husband's arms at the early age of 47.

Rummaging through her papers, Felix found her will. She wrote:

"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, the atheist, dismissed her will as the fancies of a pious woman. He decided to write a book against Lourdes. He went down to Lourdes to write against Our Lady.

However, as he looked up into the face of the statue of Mary, he received the great gift of faith. So total, so complete was it, that he never had to go through the process of juxtaposition and say, "how will I answer this or that difficulty?"

He saw it all. At once.

The then reigning pontiff was Benedict XV. Then came World War I. Hearing of the conversion of Dr. Leseur, Pope Benedict XV sent for him. Dr. Leseur went in the company of Fr. Jon Vinnea, orator of Notre Dame. Dr. Leseur recounted his conversion and said that he wanted to become a Dominican priest. Holy Father said, "I forbid you. You must remain in the world and repair the harm which you have done."

The Holy Father then talked to Fr. Vinnea and then again to Dr. Leseur and said:

"I revoke my decision. Whatever Fr. Vinnea tells you to do, you may do."

In the year 1924, during Lent, I, Fulton J. Sheen, made my retreat in the Dominican monastery in Belgium. Four times each day, and 45 minutes in length, I made my retreat under the spiritual guidance of Father Felix Leseur of the Order of Preachers, Catholic Dominican priest, who told me this story. [12]

Nota Bene: The cause of Elisabeth Leseur's canonization is proceeding in Rome. Fr. Leseur died a priest in 1950. [13]

The condition of following Christ (III)...finding Life

----continuing

God is inviting us to experience His Life, a life with a perfect communion of Love. And He told us "the only way" to have it. It is by "giving out Love". And we give Love with little sacrifices.

This is what St. Therese taught us about Loving.

How shall I show my love is proved by deeds? Well - the little child will strew flowers...she will embalm the Divine Throne with their fragrance, will sing with silvery voice the canticle of love.

Yes, my Beloved, it is thus that my life's brief day shall be spent before Thee. No other means have I of proving my love than to strew flowers; that is, to let no little sacrifice escape me, not a look, not a word, to avail of the very least actions and do them for Love. I wish to suffer for Love's sake and for Love's sake even to rejoice; thus shall I strew flowers. Not one shall I find without shedding its petals for Thee...and then I will sing, I will always sing, even if I must gather my roses in the very midst of thorns - and the longer and sharper the thorns the sweeter shall be my song.

Story of A Soul, Chapter XI

How beautiful it is to Love. It is by Loving that we find ourselves.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
(Mat 16:25)

If we lose our self by giving sacrifices, by loving, then we will find our "life".

In the scripture, the word "life" or "soul" that is used means the entire human person. It refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is the greates value in him, that by which he is most especially in God's image. (CCC 363)

By following Him, we enter into a beautiful relationship with God. And with this, we find our life, our true self, our inmost self that is created in the image of God.

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
(Joh 10:10)

What will we find in this inmost self?

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
(Gen 1:27)

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
(Gen 1:31)

We will find that we are "very good". Have we lost this image? Have seen ourselves differently? not beautiful? not good? Follow Him, and we will find that we are "very good", ... very good and beautiful.

Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! ...
(Son 4:1)

Closing: Story of Elizabeth Lesseur

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam
-For the greater glory of God-

your brother in His love,
oka

The condition of following Christ (II)...the cross

---continuing

Do we want to follow Jesus then? Do we want to experience God's Love? And if we do, Jesus told us how

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
(Mat 16:24)

This is how!

The New Jerusalem Bible add a subtitle for this passage as "the condition of following Christ". But we shouldn't read it in a negative sense. We should understand it as "Jesus is telling us a secret". And what is this secret? That "the only way" to find true happiness in God is by denying ourself, taking up our cross, and following Him. And by following Him, we enter into a relationship with God. And in this relationship, God shares His own Life. And God shares His own Life so that we may experience what Life to the fullest is all about. It's about giving Love and being Loved.

When I read this passage I realized that my thought was saying "Oh My, I have to cary my cross". I used to think cross as the symbol of burden, heavy burden I mean. I used to think that the cross symbolizes our problems and difficulties and trials, and so many other bad things. And I realized one thing then, I was wrong.

Jesus said, "take up your cross, and follow me". Where do you think Jesus is leading us to when He told us to take up our cross? It's to the place of sacrifice, the calvary.

Cross does not symbolize burden, or problems. Rather, it symbolizes a "sacrifice". And what does a sacrifice mean? Sacrifice means Love. Sacrifice is the realization of true Love. There is no true Love without sacrifice. If we are unable to sacrifice in loving, then it might be a selfish love. We love for the sake that we are loved. But true love is not that. True love gives Love. True Love is able to sacrifice himself.

Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
(Joh 15:13)

This is true Love. This is the Love of God, the unconditional Love of God.

And this is exactly what Jesus is asking from, "give love". It's not about carrying a burden or problems. Burden or problems is not The Cross if we do not carry them out of Love. They are our Cross, only if they become our sacrifice of Love.

So this is actually what Jesus is saying when He said, "take up your cross, and follow me". He is saying to us to "give Love by sacrifices". Why must we sacrifice? Because there is no Love without sacrifice. As the old saying once said, "It is Love only when it is given".

Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
(Joh 15:13)

"This is my body which is given for you"
(Luk 22:19)

Next >>
----to be continued

The condition of following Christ

Dearest brothers and sisters,
I would like to share my reflection on the following passage in the scripture.

The condition of following Christ

Mathew 16:24-28

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. 26What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life? Or what can anyone offer in exchange for his life? 27'For the Son of man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each one according to his behaviour. 28In truth I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming with his kingdom.'


This passage talks about what should we do if we want to be a follower of Christ. But I guess, the first question that we might ask is that why do we want to follow Christ? Do we really want to follow Christ? Because if we don't, then there is no need to talk about how to follow Christ.

Do we want to follow Jesus then? As I reflect on this, I realized that I had a wrong impression on this theme "following God". I often felt and saw that God looked like a commander, and what we have to do is to follow Him. We have no other choice. Our parents told us to follow Him. If we do not follow Him, then others will see us as "bad". And without realizing it, maybe we have started "not following" Him, even when we thought we are trying to follow Him.

Do we really want to follow God then? to follow Jesus? Why do I have to follow Him? Have you ever asked yourself that same question?

But before we answer that question, we need to correct the wrong impression that we have about "following God". If we still think that we "have to" follow God, and if we feel that what He does is to "command" us to do this and that in order to follow Him, and if we felt that God is like a tyrant who wants followers, then we need to correct our impression.

We need to ask ourselves, Why do I want to follow God?

As I think about this, I recalled the story when Jesus called His first disciple and He said, "Come, Follow Me". We all know the story, that they left everthing and started to follow Jesus.

"As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him."
(Mat 4:18-20)

I used to stop at the last sentence as if they have done what Jesus ask, that is to follow Him, and there is no more story about following Jesus. But I was wrong. I realized that I need to finish the whole Gospels to understand what it means of following jesus. I did realize that after that moment, Peter and the others, followed Jesus everywhere. They ate together, they went together, Jesus even brought them to his house, and so many other things.

What does all this thing means? When Jesus said, "Follow me", Jesus is inviting Peter and the rest to share His Own Life. From that moment, Peter shared the Life of Jesus. Peter ate from the same table, which means he is part of Jesus family. And this "sharing of life" with Jesus made Peter able to say, "Yes Lord, You know that I love you".

"He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep."
(Joh 21:17)

This is what it means to follow God. This is what it means to follow Jesus. It's about sharing Life with God, it's about sharing Life with Jesus. And when we share life with God, we share life with LOVE himself. And what else do we actually want in this life except LOVE? What are we looking in this life? Isn't to Love and to be Loved? We may called it Happiness. But let us recall, when is the happiest moment in our life? Is it when we get a lot of money? is it when we are success? No. It is when we are loved. It is when we are able to Love.

And when Jesus said "Come Follow me". Jesus is inviting us to share His own life, He is inviting us to be Loved by Him, by Love himself. And when we experience this Love, we will be able to say like what Peter said,

"Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you."

So God is not an army commander that is forcing us to follow Him, He is not a tyrant who are exhausted for follower. No! God is Love. And what He wants is simply for us to experience this Love. To have a share in the very life of God. And this is the very life of God, that is to Love as God has loved us.

"He, then, gives us the "pledge" or "first fruits" of our inheritance: the very life of the Holy Trinity, which is to love as "God [has] loved us." This love (the "charity" of 1 Cor 13) is the source of the new life in Christ, made possible because we have received "power" from the Holy Spirit."
CCC 735

So this is what it means to follow Him. To share His Life, to Love as He has Loved us.

Next >>
----to be continued