This Present Paradise: a Spiritual Journey with St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, by Claire Dwyer; Sophia Institute Press. (https://spiritualdirection.com/author/claire-dwyer
I came across this book during Lent from a recommendation by ICS Publications. So I checked out the author and several reviews and then ordered the book. While I am only half-way through it, I have found her writing style to be both conversational and reflective, geared appropriately towards the laity. The author weaves the writings of St. Elizabeth through each chapter as she reflects on incidents and encounters in her busy life as wife, mother, and author. At the end of each short chapter there are questions for reflection, giving it a strong lectio format.
Last night I read the short Chapter 16 titled “I Will Restore the Years.” It was a reflection on a scriptural text from Joel 2:25: I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten. Perhaps like me, there have been years where God was not the focus of your days or even weeks due to one’s life being caught up in the secular world: college, work, and the social scene. Times that we now regret and thus lament before the Lord our lukewarmness and unfaithfulness. How does God restore those lost moments/years? “By redeeming every not-yet moment, washing it in His blood, and hanging it out on the line of…life for us to see; by inspiring us as we read of a loving, longing girl (St. Elizabeth) growing into a surrendered woman who was finding a pure kind of faith.”
The chapter ended with the “Prayer to Redeem Lost Time” by St. Teresa of Avila. It was for me a comfort; I slept well.
Great idea! Thanks for this and all the content here on this site. I can try to help, but am the least experienced. I hope people who read a lot do this because it gives people like me (who don't read a lot) some highlights we would never get otherwise.