August 3, 2021

While staying at Heart Ridge retreat and cultural center in the Blue Ridge mountains, helping to clean up and prepare for retreat groups and camps, I’ve been talking with Jesus, and recently, we were discussing the subject of ‘home.’ Not only have I been learning how to trust in the Lord more, and find joy in the everyday moments, but he has been revealing to me the nature of home and husband.

Before I set out on this trip, there was an attractive young man in my circle of friends that I was starting to get distracted by. I wanted to know if this was THE man. You know what I’m talking about. When you meet a godly man, who exemplifies the virtues you’re looking for, all you can think is “Is he the one?” And before we know it, our feminine hearts have jumped 5 years in the future, when we already have 10 children, living on a farmstead in the middle of nowhere, with goats and a vineyard, and a large homeschool co-op community.

Poor man. Does he have any idea what goes on in our womanly hearts? All he’s done is volunteer to lead prayer.

So anyhow, recognizing this tendency in myself, I started to bring this man to prayer. I started asking Jesus, “What do you want me to do about this guy? Is there anything you want me to do about him? What about him?”

And Jesus started responding back to me with questions. “Do you see Me when you look at him? What is it about him that is attractive to you? Where am I in this picture?”

I wasn’t in the mood for questions. I wanted answers. So when I realized Jesus wasn’t about to give them, I turned to his mother. “Mother,” I said, “what about this guy? Jesus won’t answer me.”

She answered me with a visual prayer. In this prayer, I was a five-year-old child, petulantly asking to go play with another child. But Mother Mary scooped me up, and asked, “Where are you going, little girl?”

“I want to go play with that boy, he looks nice.”

“I want you to stay and play with Jesus” she told me.

“But what about that guy? Isn’t he nice?”

“He’s nice,” said Mary, “but we’re leaving in five minutes, and I need you where I can see you. Now go play with Jesus.”

In this beautiful visual, Mary showed me several truths about my journey, which I’ve kept close to my heart all this time.

1. Number one. She wants to keep me close to her.

2. Number two, I am still a small child in so many ways, and Jesus wants to teach me how to play.

3. Number three, it was not the time for a man in my life. There was a journey to make first.

I’ve learned on this journey that when it is time for a man to come into my life, I will not be desperate about his entrance. I will not be trying to figure out, “WHAT about him? What about HIM?”

As I keep my eyes on Christ, He will step aside when we are BOTH ready, and the time has come in God’s plan.

I’ll finish with a visual prayer my spiritual mother told me once, which has brought me so much insight. Right now, as a single woman, imagine Christ beside you as a shadow. Everywhere you go, he companies you, and one day, a man will enter into your life. On your wedding day, this will step into that shadow of Christ, and become Christ for you. His hands will be Christ’s hands, his feet Christ’s feet, his heart Christ’s heart, and he will seek to do the Lords will, for your good, and the good of your children. Christ does not abandon you, either now as a single woman, or in marriage. When a man is in love with Christ first, and you next, he is Christ in your married life, as much as you are the church to Christ.

And so I am abiding in the Lord’s timing, trusting that as I do his well in each moment, each day, I am walking the journey that is bringing me closer and closer to the man who will win my heart, and step into the shadow of the Lord.

July 27, 2021

Me: Ok Lord, what do you want me to write about?

The Lord: Me

He loves it when I write to Him, write about Him, and just when I write. Lately, I’ve been filling my life with other tasks, and He keeps redirecting me... Write, Elizabeth. Write of me, of life, of love...

Me: As you wish.

Is Love a Choice?

“I never really believed in magical love,” my friend said, “until I fell into it.”

Have you ever fallen in love? In conversation recently, my friends and I came to the realization that to fall in love is not a choice. In fact, if it were a choice, it would cease to be love.

I intend to defend this position, since as a Catholic, we are often told: “love is a choice.” I do actually believe that. So if falling in love is not a choice, but love is, what does that mean?

Now, I want to make a distinction before I go any further. There is a difference - impossible to describe though I will try - between falling in love and infatuation.

If you have been in love, then you know what I mean without my trying to describe it to you. And if, so far, you’ve only experienced infatuation, then no description can truly communicate the concept of love.

Some Clarifications:

Neither love nor infatuation is a good or a bad thing, in and of itself. Both partake of goodness, and both are a necessary and beautiful aspect of the human experience. Both can also be perverted. But love is higher - in the order of being and goodness - than infatuation.

• Infatuation engages the senses and emotions, driving out every other reality.

• Love engages the entire person: mind, body, and soul, and leaves command of the emotions.

• Infatuation makes the person selfish, even if she doesn’t mean to be, for she is so full of the other person and the good feelings she’s experiencing, that she has a hard time seeing other people.

• Love brings the person out of herself and able to see people, beauty, and good things in abundance, for she sees suddenly the futility of little things, and begins to engage with reality on a deeper level.

• An infatuated person sees their beloved in everything. Anything, even the littlest thing, reminds them of their beloved.

• A person in love looks for aspects of their beloved in things of quality. They seek to go deeper into beauty, goodness, and truth. Knowing that their beloved is a thing of precious quality, they seek for themes of precious quality in all around them.

• Infatuation either leads to love, or dies away into oblivion.

• Love endures, even if it changes. It either changes it’s tone into a lasting affection, fades away into a pleasant memory, or else it lasts until ‘death do us part.’

• Infatuation does not change the person, other than to bring sometimes transitory happiness and stress.

• Love, on the other hand (while not automatically making him a better person), calls the lover to a higher virtuous standard. He suddenly recognizes and adores virtue, and has the powerful motivation to be a better person for the sake of his beloved. Love transforms.

The Choice

So why is it that although love is a choice, falling in love is not?

To be ‘in love’ is not a choice, but choice is still involved. When I and my friends have fallen in love, we noticed the common theme of Resistance. Every one of us resisted the idea of accepting that we were ‘in love.’ To fall in love is unnerving for the very fact that we do not choose to fall into it. Would you choose to fall into a pit? No. To fall is an unsettling feeling. It makes your stomach drop, your heart pound, your life change direction (literally - we go from traveling horizontally to vertically). For this reason, the expression ‘falling in love’ is very appropriate, for it is an unwilling fall.

To be in love is the choice. It is to accept Joseph Campbell’s Call to Adventure, and to embrace that life is about to take an unexpected and potentially disastrous turn. To be in love is to accept that there is a higher reality in life than oneself. It is to recognize beauty and goodness, and to seek after deeper understandings of these realities. To be in love is to ascend in mind and soul.

In God’s inneffible wisdom, He has allowed us to experience this call through the presence and companionship of another person in romantic love. He could have left us with Him alone, for He is, after all, Love itself. But in the Garden, he decreed that it was not good for man to be alone, and so he created a helper fit for him, and in Adam’s moment of awakening to see Eve, he was struck into declaring his love and his joy. It was Adam and Eve’s call to grow deeper into God through knowing and discovering the other.

“Do not arouse, nor awaken love, until it so desires.” This awakening is outside of our control. It seems as though the love itself is a living entity, coming to life and fluttering outside the doors of our hearts, begging for us to let him in.

Will we choose to let him in?

My friend, when he spoke of falling in love, of now believing in magical love, was speaking of this total self-effacing love. It makes one want to live forever with the person, if they can, or else die to prove their love. It is the celebrated love of Romeo and Juliet, of Victoria and Albert, of Christ and the Church. It happens in a moment - in one instant of existence - and it changes the trajectory of one’s entire life. One instant, we are our regular self, trying to figure out who we are and what we’re meant for in this life, and the next: everything else is eclipsed. Nothing small can enter our world any longer. Not, that is, unless we choose to deny our call and shut the door on beauty, truth, and goodness. For this arousal, this awakening of love, is in truth a call to the highest realities of life: to enter into the Love of God himself, who is alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.

This love may lead to marriage, or it may be a stepping stone on the journey. But I encourage you that when you fall into love and you open your door to let it in, you have done no harm. You have chosen beauty, truth, and goodness, and if you invite the Lord in, you will ascend to know Him in his Higher Places. You will ascend to see the Lord in his house of Glory, where He waits for you.

Do not despair of ‘magical’ love. Do not seek to arouse it. And most of all, when it comes, do not deny it entrance.

July 5, 2021

Notes for My First Talk

Who Am I and Why Am I Talking to You Today?

Build my business

Surrender

Inspire

I can inspire you, not by sharing all the bad things in my own life, but rather, but encouraging you to do what I have done. Rather than focusing and narrowing in on all the ways God hasn’t shown up for you the way you want him to, instead, praise Him for his blessings.

Write 10 gratitudes in the morning.

Notice 3 things at night that He showed up for you during the day:

1. I wonder what wonders God has in store for my life?

2. I wonder how God worked that out?

3. Look for God, Open yourself to gratitude, and to Trust in God

   Trusting in God

Place to place, person to person

• It’s not about the numbers, its about the quality of the interaction

Men and Women Profit differently

Men: Push forward to create. “By the sweat of their brow” they earn their daily bread, and the daily bread of their family

Women: Surrender themselves to the providing of others, in particular God, from whom they receive everything.

Quote: From “For Women Only” about St. Paul’s evaluation of men loving and women surrendering.

Women do not naturally surrender: it is a trait we develop, and when we engage in surrender, we are far more fulfilled than any success we gain on our own

If you find yourself pushing, you are banging your head against a brick wall. God is your lover, and he wants to give you everything you need.

Men do not naturally work: it is a trait you develop, and when you work, you gain far more satisfaction through that activity than if someone just gave you something.

Now, quick caveat: these are the deep needs of men and women, but we are all human. Men still desire and delight in gifts, and women still desire and delight in work. But those activities should be supplementary to our deep, made-for activities.

February 9, 2021

Personal Information for GIVEN Interview and Followup

First Name: Elizabeth

Last Name: Russell

City, State: College/University: Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts Degree: Liberal Arts, with a Concentration in Philosophy

The GIVEN Institute Alumnae Interview

Job Title: Writer and Entrepreneur

Organization: The Flight House

State of Life: Single

Headshot or similar type of photo (please attach a high-resolution photo)

Please share a little about yourself - feel free to include a fun fact!

My name is Elizabeth Russell. I am a published author, woman’s life coach, and entrepreneur. I am in-waiting for my future husband, devoting myself in the meantime to living for Christ, under His beautiful spousal protection. I live with my brother in the suburbs of Chicago, IL, where I coach women who are pursuing creative careers, play CatholicSports, host a Woman’s Bible Study, build a community and course to support Catholic creators, and intentionally build beautiful and enriching friendships. Quarantine can’t keep us down!

I am the oldest child of ten: 2 sisters and 6 brothers, one of whom is our angel in Heaven. My parents have been happily married for 29 years. My mom stayed home and homeschooled all of us, classically and with a lot of literature, and my dad taught us what it meant to run your own business, provide for a family, and still find time to lead Rosary every night, and watch Star Wars together.

Fun Fact: I published my first book of poetry this past year, in December, called A Song of 2020. It’s a celebratory song to God of thanksgiving for the growth and joy I found in 2020.

Describe your professional work. How were you led to this? What are you passionate about?

I have undertaken several endeavors, all of which flow naturally in and out of each other. I consider myself, first and foremost, an artist. And in the word’s of JPII, “as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.” I am fundamentally an artist over my own life, and I bring this into every sphere. My particular gift of artistry is words, in which I rejoice! I have two fantasy novels, Halfbreeds and Trinian, and many more in the works, plus my aforementioned poetry book, A Song of 2020. All are available on Amazon.

I am also a creative career coach for women. I help artistic and out-of-the-box women through the process of discerning their dreams, applying their skills, and embracing their God-given talents. I challenge each woman to see beyond the economy and structures of this world to live in God’s economy, and to ask where, specifically, He is asking her to live in the world, but not of it.

I am a podcaster. Along with my friend Ina Castillo, who lives in Denver, I co-host the podcast Womanhood Redeemed. Ina and I discuss topics around what it means to be a woman, to suffer, to live joy, to deal with imposter syndrome, etc. Our tagline is “living the practical aspects of authentic femininity in our everyday lives.”

I am an entrepreneur. Along with my brother, I am taking my love of nurturing artists into building a course to direct those who have a desire to follow their dreams, but don’t know where to begin. This course inspires, and teaches the tools for creating consistently, promoting, and profiting, all from the ‘pursuit of beauty’ perspective, which is uniquely Catholic.

Finally, I am the Conference Coordinator for the organization Freedom After the Trauma Conference. This conference is the fulfillment of a dream for Courtney Leong, my dear friend and a spiritual mother to me, who strongly desires to transform the world’s narrative around trauma. So many people in our world believe the the traumatized are broken beyond repair, but we not only refuse to believe that, we have seen evidence that it is not true! In Christ, healing is not only possible, it’s transformative. We are building a conference that will teach the world how to show up for the broken, bring them healing and understanding, and help them venture forth into the light. Right now, we are in the stage of talking to investors so we can further our reach, and you can check out our work at Freedomafterthetrauma.com, where you can find our current content around transforming the world’s narrative.

What are the personal strengths that you’ve been given and how do you utilize them?

My strengths, as I have been told by others, are warmth of presence, a good ear to listen to the heart of others, dedication to my passion, and my words, especially in writing.

What women inspire you, and why?

Courtney Leong is at the top of this list, for sure! She has come out of such darkness, and has, in turn, led me out of mine. This probably belongs in the mentor section, since she is my personal strategist, but she also greatly inspires me! January Donovan is another mentor who inspires me. I have spent the last year going through her Art of Being a Woman Masterclass, and to say that it changed my life feels like an understatement. I learned truths about living I never even imagined before, and the tools to make those truths a reality in my own life.

Both these women, who are so radically working to transform culture right now, make me think of the female saints of old: St. Catherine of Siena, Hildegard of Bingen, Mother Teresa, Elizabeth: the cousin of Mary, and Mary herself. These shining examples of womanhood inspire me to be a saint, and to continually give Christ my own Fiat.

Finally, all the women I coach are huge inspirations to me. The openness of their hearts, their willingness to dedicate their lives and dreams to Christ, and their ease of coachability inspire me so much! It’s beautiful to watch them bloom in our sessions, and outside them!

Are there friends and mentors that you depend upon? How do they support you?

January and Courtney, as I mentioned above, for sure! Also, Amanda Ditchik, who has patiently walked with me as my health coach on a journey of physical healing this year; and Emily Blasdell, another alum from GIVEN, who has been my business planner since February of 2020. My business had not yet begun at the time. I had a vague idea that I wanted to coach women, but didn’t know yet where that would take me. That was when we met. In spite of never meeting in person (which is actually true of all the people I’ve mentioned so far, except January, who I met once while visiting Ave Maria, FL), she has been a bulwark as I continually plan and replan my life mission.

My long-time friends, Carolyn and Sophia, although we mostly only connect over the phone, have me as a jewel in their heavenly crowns. Both provide such needed and unique support, and I value their friendships beyond words, for it is grounded in Christ, and the desire to be saints.

Finally, I have recently been forming beautiful friendships with Catholic women in my area. This gift of in-person friendship is new to me since college, and fills me with joy for the present and hope for the future. Doing things in community, going on errands for one another, watching movies in the evening, and playing loads of card games, has been a blessing beyond my wildest dreams!

What is the best advice/encouragement you’ve received about vocational discernment?

“Don’t be afraid of what you want.” I was told this by both my strategist and spiritual director in the same day, so I took it strongly to heart! Our desires are guideposts to our dreams. Let’s say you want children, but are afraid you’re called to be a religious sister: don’t be afraid of that dream. Step into it. Imagine yourself as a mother, and then ask Christ what He is seeing. It’s a dialogue of the imagination; an immersive conversation, wherein Christ will lead you gently to His plan for you, and reveal how He is satisfying all of your desires.

Prayer is essential for everyone, but especially for women who are active in the life and mission of the Church. Do you have any favorite devotions or prayers?

St. Joseph has been my go-to this year. My brother and I named our home and business after him: The Flight House, after the Flight Into Egypt. I often pray to him, asking him to give me the tools for building my business, surrendering my life, and transitioning in this time of building a new life. My favorite book is The Soul of the Apostolate, by Dom Baptiste Chautard, and my favorite form of prayer is envisioning my soul as a garden, and conversing with Christ in that inner world, usually while washing dishes at the end of the night.

Do you have a favorite inspirational quote?

It changes everyday, but right now, it’s the one I quoted above by JPII, or really anything from his Letter to Artists: “as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.”

What were your key takeaways from the 2016 GIVEN Forum?

Inspiration. I had no idea so many amazing women could exist in the world at one time, let alone be changing the world like they were. They opened my eyes to what it means to be both compassionate and inflexible.

I also connected far more deeply with the belief that Christ was calling me to a vocation that was unique. I had yet to learn how to hear His voice, but I felt His call strongly while in adoration that weekend.

What was your GIVEN action plan? Describe its mission, audience, and impact.

My GIVEN action plan came out of a desire to build intentional female community, and teach all women that they are beautiful, unique, unrepeatable: that they are the Beloved of Christ. I laid out a plan for forming women in discipleship, living out inner beauty, and entrusting everything to God.

I began that mission, after 2016, by hosting young women’s tea meet-ups at my apartment. However, my health deteriorated and I moved back with my parents. For 3 years, I worked part-time from home, and seldom saw others. It wasn’t until February of 2020 that I regained my purpose and joy, and reconnected with my GIVEN action plan, though that was unconscious. Without realizing it, I began to live my action plan.

I was coaching women on self-worth, and taking the Art of the Being a Woman Masterclass, wherein I was learning how to value myself and others, and heal from wounds that had been distancing me from Christ. All this to say that, when I uncovered my original action plan from 2016, while moving boxes as I once again moved out of my parent’s home, I laughed and cried. I had not realized how completely Christ had satisfied my desire to connect with women and teach them His love.

The impact has been enormous, and I am so grateful to GIVEN for helping me shape those desires in my heart all that time ago. It confirms for me that this is not a passing desire in my heart. I am on fire for women’s transformation! It is my mission to help women heal and use their talents to the glory of God the father!