There’s a New Club in Town, One I Didn’t Want to Join

Inspired by the example of Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur, Rachel Watkins discovers a new way to join her chronic illness to accepting God’s will.  

Did you ever belong to a club growing up? My favorite clubs were the made-up clubs of my childhood. At one point, we had a Monkees’ club (a TV show from the mid-'60s). We did little more than talk about how much we loved the TV show and our favorite character/actors, and reenact favorite scenes. Silly, yes, but a wonderful memory.  

Our own children belong to clubs, perhaps Catholic ones such as Little Flowers Girls Clubs or Blue Knights Boy’s Clubs along with sports, service clubs, or robotics. A good club brings us together with others who share our worldview, likes, and mission in a godly way. 

A Club I Didn’t Want to Join  

Some of us even belong to clubs we wish we didn’t, such as enduring the death of a child or a spouse. I am an active member of the Saint Monica Club, praying for family members to return to the Church. During a recent prayer time I was inspired to create another club I don’t want to belong to.   

I am calling this one the Legion of Leseur, for Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur (1866 – 1914), a club, of sorts, for anyone enduring a chronic illness or disability.  

Who Was Elisabeth Leseur?  

A faithful Catholic wife, Elisabeth died at 47. She endured the ridicule of her atheist husband, Dr. Felix Leseur (1861–1950), and his friends. Another cross she carried was a lingering battle with hepatitis contracted in her childhood along with an inability to have children. The illness caused battles with pain and fatigue, leaving her struggling with even everyday tasks.  

We know her story from the same husband who belittled her. Upon reading her papers after her death, along with an encounter with Mother Mary, he converted, eventually becoming a Dominican. He even gave a Lenten retreat in 1924 to Venerable Fulton Sheen!  

What inspired this newest club of my own invention? These words from Elisabeth herself:

Increasingly, I see that God seems to expect from me a ministry of prayer and suffering. (Elisabeth Leseur: Selected Writings)  

A Daily Challenge

I don’t know if she ever prayed to be healed of her struggles, but asking to be healed of my MS has been a daily prayer since my diagnosis. I remain, however, like Elisabeth, fighting against daily pain, fatigue, and the struggles of everyday tasks. It is in imitating her in her outlook toward them that I am challenged.  

Am I able to say as she did, “What a blessed vocation, and how much I will try to respond better than in the past, loving the cross of Jesus”?  

An excerpt from this entry, found in the book, Elisabeth Leseur: Selected Writings, was published in November’s Magnificat. As I continued reading, I began to see a rule of sorts of how those of us with a chronic illness or disability might see our crosses in a new light.  

“Always placing my burden of pain, deprivations, and weaknesses in God’s heart.”   

How about this? “I want to only be kind and gentle with my neighbor.”   

And “To live in interior union with our God, and to make of all the monotony, triviality and simple duties of my life so many prayers for others.” 

Creating a Rule and Routine for Our Days  

As Catholics we can create a rule for how our days will go. Saint Benedict wrote his rule of precepts for his monks back in 530 A.D. and from this came ora et labora: pray and work, outlining how every day should look within the monasteries.  

How does the day look for us in modern times? The work of a mother is different than that of a father. There is work at home and out of the home. Just as each order of religious has a unique rule than another, and different still from a diocesan priest, each of us is called to discover and fulfill our own rule or vocation within God’s will.   

Perhaps you already have a routine, finding time and place for your own prayers and work, but perhaps you haven’t given it much thought letting days flow one other way another. Over the life of my disability what I can do has changed dramatically, but God’s will remained.  

However, I will begin to rethink what my day looks like as a new member of the Legion of Leseur. May she inspire me see my limitations as she did hers:

Only you (God) knows how costly these efforts are … I want to be cheerful and smiling the next time toward suffering … I am united to the cross and I wish only for the fulfillment in me, for me, through me, for God’s will. (Elisabeth Leseur: Selected Writings) 

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Copyright 2025 Rachel Watkins
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