Lenten Meditation - April 11, 2006

How many have in their hearts the evangelical flame that purifies and enlightens all that comes near it? Let us go back to the holy source, to the Gospel, the word of God. Let us draw from it lessons of moral strength, heroic patience, tenderness for all creatures and for souls. Let us Christians be sure never to ‘break the bruised reed’ nor to ‘quench the smoking flax.’1 That reed is perhaps the mournful suffering soul of a brother; and the humble flax extinguished by our icy breath may be some noble spirit that we could have restored and uplifted. Let us beware: nothing is so delicate and so sacred as the human soul; nothing is so quickly bruised. Let each one of our words and deeds contain a principle of life that, penetrating other spirits, will communicate light and strength and will reveal God to them.

- Elisabeth Leseur (1866-1914)- from The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Journal (1899 – 1906)

1 Isaiah 42:3