Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family in Beslau on October 12th, 1891. She studied philosophy and was a college professor. For a while she had turned away from believe in God and became agnostic. But she was always seeking the truth and understanding as to our human existence. Then she read the Autobiography of St. Theresa of Avila. She read this in one night and realized that she had discovered the truth and came to faith in Jesus Christ.
She was baptized a Catholic in 1922 and then, influenced by her reading of St. Theresa of Avila, entered the Carmelite Monastery of Cologne in 1933. It was there that she took the religious name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Through her influence, her biological sister, Rosa, also converted to the Catholic Faith and would be an extern for the needs of the Carmelite Community that Edith was a member of.
It was during this time that the Nazi's were spreading their hatred by rounding up the Jews and all they considered undesirable. It was during this time that the Nazis rounded up Edith and her sister Rose. Both were murdered in the gas chamber at Auschwitz.
In her spiritual writings, Edith would always focus on the sufferings of Jesus on the Cross. She once wrote, "Contemplate the Lord who hangs before you on the wood, because he was obedient even to the death of the cross." It was through the strength of her faith in Jesus that she was able to face her death at Auschwitz.
Let us pray today, through the intersession of Edith Stein, that the hatred and war that is going on between Israel and Hamas be resolved in a way that is pleasing to God. Let us pray that all hatred, which is the cause of all war, be removed from our world and that we may grow to love and respect all people, even with those people we may not find easy to get along with.
From Arlene B. Mulle
ReplyDeleteYou are better than I am. When I heard of all the horrible things that HAMAS did to innocent Jewish people on October 7, 2023, even to women & children & even beheading babies, my wish & prayer has been that GOD would perform one of His mighty deeds in destroying His enemies that He performed in the Old Testament, like having the ground swallow them up as in Korah's rebellion against Moses, or one of those battles where the angels intervened & confused the enemy, so much that they wound up fighting & killing each other without having Israel do any fighting. War tragically results in the death of innocent people along with the guilty too many times. Only GOD is able to destroy the evildoers while providing the innocent with full protection. My tendency is to consider the evil & hatred fanatical terrorists a lost cause.
But GOD can do the impossible, and he turned Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle, so if GOD wills, no one is a "lost cause" for Him!!
For GOD to remove hatred from the hearts of the many fanatical Muslim terrorists & from the Jews & ultimately to remove all hatred from human hearts would be a miracle equal in greatness & beyond human logic as Our LORD's Resurrection!
St. Edith Stein/Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, pray for us, pray for the Middle East, pray for our messed up war-torn world, pray for an end to the holocaust of abortion & the culture of death, & pray that your own people, the Jewish people, may come to know, love & serve Our LORD JESUS as LORD & SAVIOR & be welcomed into the Catholic Church.