Читать книгу Walk With Me, Jesus: A Widow's Journey - Ronda Chervin Ph.D. - Страница 19

"Is that the secret of fruitful widowhood?

To bend like a willow with adversity

until we can stand strong again in the Lord?"

Said of St. Elizabeth of Hungary

One of the most famous young widow-saints was Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231). As an infant, Elizabeth was betrothed to Louis of Thuringia. At four years of age she was taken in procession to Thuringia to be prepared for her future life as a queen.

But the little girl was not at all the "princess type." Serious and prayerful, she was ridiculed by adults in the court. Happily, the one person who totally understood her was her future spouse, for he was the same way. Together the young people dreamed of the great deeds they could do for Christ when they grew up. They married when he was twenty-one and she was fourteen. They loved each other deeply, and spent many hours in prayer together.

When Louis died in a Crusade, Elizabeth wailed for days. "Dead! Henceforth all earthly joys and honors are dead to me!" she exclaimed. The death of Louis enabled his relatives to banish the hated pious princess, who disgusted them with her fanatical religious acts and whose generosity would impoverish them.

And so, immediately following her widowhood, Elizabeth knew poverty, homelessness, and persecution. All these trials she endured because of the simultaneous ecstatic mystical experiences she was enjoying. It was with gaiety that Elizabeth donned beggar's rags as she continued to serve the poor, with herself and her three children now also members of the class of the poorest.

The first night our widow-saint left the castle, she spent in a pigsty. Two faithful companions came with her. Delighted to finally be able to live like Saint Francis, Elizabeth rejoiced in her new freedom. Her biographer describes her as being like a willow growing by the riverside. When a flood comes, the willow bends. Undamaged, it straightens out after the flood. Is that the secret of fruitful widowhood? To bend like a willow with adversity until we can stand strong again in the Lord?

Finally the ex-princess was given a financial settlement from Louis' family. She established a hospital in Marburg, where she lived in small quarters. She was free now to nurse and care for the ill without worrying about her relatives' fears. In the sick she always saw the Lord.

The source of Saint Elizabeth's strength was her contemplative prayer and frequent reception of the Eucharist. Often she was seen with a shining face after receiving Communion. She described seeing the heavens open, and Jesus consoling her for all the sufferings of her life, making her entirely his.

At the age of twenty-four Saint Elizabeth died peacefully, surrounded by those who loved her, including a beggar child she had nursed from scurvy. At her death the singing of multitudes of birds could be heard, just as at the death of Saint Francis.

FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Elizabeth's biographer described her as "a willow growing by a riverside, which bends with the flood, then straightens again." What metaphor would you use to describe yourself?

Were there dreams you shared with your husband that you did not get to accomplish in his lifetime? Are there any of these dreams that died with him, which you would like to resurrect if you can?

PRAYER OF THE DAY

St. Elizabeth:

You were of royal blood, born to take a role you could not choose for yourself. In good times and bad, you responded as best you could with courageous determination. Pray for me, that I might have a measure of this as well.