#st-edith-stein — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 10 July: St. Edith Stein

Now that, after years, I am out to pay my correspondence debts, I would also like to thank you sincerely for your kind note of January 23. Since I have had no further word from you, I take it that you have received the same answer we had here from the Superior General of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart: that entering Switzerland is impossible [for Edith’s sister, Rosa].

At the end of January we had to go to Maastricht about our affairs and to Amsterdam at the end of March. We were assured that there could be no thought of emigrating before the end of the war. And we cannot possibly prepare today for what is going to happen then.

So we continue to lead our lives calmly and leave the future to him who alone knows anything about it. In the questionnaire we had to fill out, we gave the U.S.A. as our destination. In the meantime, I have also received a letter from a Spanish Carmel urging me to come there, but that would also be impossible now. I sent the information for our siblings and our Provincial in the U.S.A. to an acquaintance in Canton Bern (because at that time I did not yet have your address), but received no reply, so I do not know whether the letter reached him or whether he forwarded it. Would you, perhaps, inquire about it sometime?

Saint Edith Stein

Letter 337 to Hilde Vérène Borsinger
Echt, 9 April 1942

Stein, E 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Koeppel, J (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Detail from the passport photo of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edith Stein. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (by permission).

Quote of the day, 9 July: St. Edith Stein

During Lent I was allowed a beautiful task: to prepare a Mass and Office for a Feast of Regina Pacis [the Queen of Peace]. Cologne wants to apply for a First Class Feast for the entire Church (July 9). I can send you a carbon copy of the Mass text. I have no more copies of the Office, unfortunately. Perhaps Cologne will be typing it again. Then you could get a carbon copy of it there. That would make me very happy.

Saint Edith Stein

Letter 312 to Mother Petra Brüning, O.S.U. (excerpt)
26 April 1940, Carmel of Echt

Stein, E 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Koeppel, J (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Statue of the Madonna “Regina Pacis” above the south entrance of the main building of the University of Bonn, the former Electoral Palace. Image credit: Sir James / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

Quote of the day, 30 June: St. Edith Stein

The way to perfection of individual nature is loving devotion and surrender to God who is love. This surrender also represents the highest fulfillment of all feminine aspirations concerning their vocation. Correctly speaking, it is the highest fulfillment of our human vocation; but this is felt more vividly and sought more directly by the woman because it is in accordance with her specific nature.

It could be said in this regard that the same basic attitude of the man who chooses surrender to God and the search for perfection as the way and meaning of life resembles that of the woman. Masculine nature is not necessarily revealed by this except that certain masculine types resemble that of women. Rather, this would seem more to indicate an expansion toward full humanity over the limits of the masculine species.

What follows necessarily out of bridal love for Christ is also similar for both: that one makes His business one’s own; above all, that means one is drawn into divine love. Compelled by His love and exercising spiritual maternity, one strives to win human beings for God, to carry Him into souls, to beget and secure His children.

This might happen occasionally through the teaching word, ministering of sacraments, immediate spiritual direction—the uniquely priestly way—or through prayer and offering. But along with these essentially feminine aspects of the spirit of religious, there are others which can be regarded as specifically masculine.

Surrender to God is simultaneously a loving abandonment and a compliant obedience. It means to walk in service to the Lord.

Saint Edith Stein

Spirituality of the Christian Woman
Lectures given to the Organization of Catholic Women
Zurich, January 1932

Stein, E 2017, Essays On Woman, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 2, translated from the German by Oben, F, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.

Featured image: Detail of Edith Stein’s photograph taken in Vienna, Austria, 1931. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (by permission).

Quote of the day, 23 June: St. Edith Stein

For some weeks, I have returned to philosophical work and have a big task ahead for which I lack much, very much, of what is necessary to accomplish it. Were I not able to trust in the blessing of holy obedience and in the knowledge that the Lord can accomplish something through a totally weak and incapable tool when he wishes to do so, I would have to give up the race.

So now I do what I can, and allow myself to recoup courage before the tabernacle when it has been crushed by the erudition of other people.

Saint Edith Stein

Letter 204 to Mother Petra Brüning, O.S.U.
23 June 1935

Note: ICS Publications notes that Saint Edith Stein’s “big task” was preparing her work Potency and Act for publication. It is the second of three works in which Edith said she endeavored to fulfill her “proper mission” in philosophy, her “life’s task”: relating the phenomenology of her teacher Edmund Husserl and the scholasticism of St. Thomas Aquinas. But more than “critically comparing” the two ways of thinking, she wished to “fuse” them into her own “philosophical system,” searching for that perennial philosophy lying “beyond ages and peoples, common to all who honestly seek truth.”

Stein, E 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Koeppel, J (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Father Lawrence Lew, O.P. captures this image of Eucharistic adoration at Saint Jean Baptiste parish in New York City. (Some rights reserved)

Quote of the day, 20 June: St. Edith Stein

When we were in Munich, we saw that difficulties will arise in some [subject] areas because of problems in communicating between the older and younger generations. Despite that, one ought to make an effort to maintain good relations. There is always something to be learned from the opinions of our elders if one only listens without prejudice and reflects on it; and there is even more to be learned from their experience.

To test the necessity of a parochial school, and not simply to defend it blindly, is, of course, entirely permissible. Otherwise, one will never be able to convince people who have a different viewpoint. Perhaps by autumn, you will be able to save up some questions that you can present to me in a study group, preferably in Speyer.

The problem of keeping company with the young teachers is not such a simple one. It is very natural for young people to enjoy the company of other young people. And it is also very natural to find particular enjoyment in being together with people of the opposite sex. I believe both of these experiences were true in your case, and simply admitting it to yourself was all you had to do—after all, there’s nothing whatever wrong with it—nor should you have felt it was permissible for you only because of the others.

If one is intent on having all of one’s life consist exclusively of sacrifices, the danger of pharisaism is around the corner. Of course, when one becomes aware that there is a personal risk in matters that are innocent in themselves, then one must be on guard against them.

Saint Edith Stein

Letter 94 to Rose Magold

Note: Rose Magold was a student of Edith Stein’s at the Dominican Sisters’ teachers college, St. Magdalena, Speyer.

Stein, E 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Koeppel, J (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Photo taken in 1931 in Vienna, two years before Edith entered Carmel and just before the Nazi rise to power. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (Used by permission).

Edith Stein and the Small Spark of Joy

During this week of retreat, Carmelite Quotes is sharing several reader favorites from the Substack archives. Today’s featured reflection:

🔗 Edith Stein and the Small Spark of Joy

Regular daily publications resume May 16.

Quote of the day, 6 May: St. Edith Stein

Divine virginity has a characteristic aversion to sin as the contrary of divine holiness. However, this aversion to sin gives rise to an indomitable love for sinners.

Christ has come to tear sinners away from sin and to restore the divine image in defiled souls. He comes as the child of sin—his genealogy and the entire history of the Old Covenant show this—and he seeks the company of sinners so as to take all the sins of the world upon himself and carry them away to the infamous wood of the cross, which thereby precisely becomes the sign of his victory.

This is precisely why virginal souls do not repulse sinners. The strength of their supernatural purity knows no fear of being sullied. The love of Christ impels them to descend into the darkest night. And no earthly maternal joy resembles the bliss of a soul permitted to enkindle the light of grace in the night of sins.

The way to this is the cross. Beneath the cross, the Virgin of virgins becomes the Mother of Grace.

Saint Edith Stein

Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September 1941

Stein, E 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, Stein, W (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Crucifixion with Saints and a Donor (detail), Joos van Cleve and a collaborator, oil on wood, ca. 1520. Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (public domain).

Quote of the day, 21 April: St. Edith Stein

J.M.+J.T.

Cologne-Lindenthal, 25 April 1935

Pax Christi!

Very Reverend and dear Mother Petra,

The Bridegroom sends you the little wreath of myrtle with which your love decorated him, him as well as the bridal candle, the candles on the table, the napkin, cutlery, etc. [from Edith’s temporary profession, 21 April 1935].

The Bride wore a wreath of white roses. I was very happy to hear where the adornments came from. Heartfelt thanks for them.

We have not yet finished discussing what else I am to receive from you. I thought of an emblem and lining for a vestment since the silk of the bridal dress has not yet been used and has been waiting for the necessary accessories since the Clothing Day. But perhaps our dear Mother [Mother Josepha, the prioress] will think of something more urgent.

When you visit us again—after all, we’ve been anticipating it with joy all winter—we will recount everything that happened from the first hours of the morning until night on this beautiful Easter Sunday. One cannot write about it in such detail.

The Veiling ceremony will come only three years from now, after perpetual profession. For us, the preparation consists primarily of a ten-day retreat made in total silence and solitude. During that time we are allowed to live like hermits. I will tell you about the daily schedule when I see you.

For my meditation, I had our Holy Father John’s Dark Night and the Gospel of John.

Usually, on the day before Profession, before dinner, one makes a public admission of one’s faults. I was allowed to do that at noon on the Wednesday of Holy Week so that it would not interrupt the silence of the Holy Triduum.

I found it especially good [to comply with that custom] before the first of the Tenebrae offices—once they begin one wants to leave off all occupation with oneself.

On Saturday evening I was called [to come for a few minutes to see the community] during recreation time; I received from each Sister the promise of a spiritual bouquet and a commendation of intentions.

Richly laden I then returned to the choir. Of course, out of the great riches of grace on this Easter day, I let all those have a share who have given me something of their heart to take along into Carmel.

Once more, sincere thanks for all your goodness and love. 

In caritate Christi, your Sister

Teresia Benedicta a Cruce, OCD

Saint Edith Stein

Letter 198 to Mother Petra Brüning, OSU

Notes:

• It was customary to place a small statue of the Infant Jesus on the head table in the refectory, where the newly-professed is seated next to the prioress. Myrtle is used to create a small wreath for the statue of the Infant, the “Bridegroom”, who faces his “Bride”, wearing a garland of white roses. Edith sent the myrtle wreath that had been used on the statue to Mother Petra, who had provided it and all the flowers and decorations for the celebration.
• Edith refers to the Chapter of Faults, where even to this day in many Discalced Carmelite monasteries, nuns will gather in the Chapter Room of the monastery to listen to the prioress give a brief spiritual reflection on an aspect of community life and how it applies to the Carmelite Rule and their Constitutions. The nuns then take a spiritual and moral inventory, reviewing their life together; each one admits her public faults and begs forgiveness of her sisters. On occasions like religious profession, a nun will individually and publicly admit her faults and ask for forgiveness outside of the community Chapter of Faults. Since her profession rite took place on Easter Sunday, Edith made her public admission on Holy Wednesday; she gives the reasons why.
• During the retreat days prior to her profession on Easter Sunday, Edith would have assisted at the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours in the nuns’ choir. However, she would have veiled her face with her great veil (grand Voile) when in the presence of the community so as to maintain the spirit of solitude where the Discalced Carmelites “are allowed to live like hermits,” as Edith describes above. In the photo below, the veil that you see extending over her shoulders is the great veil, while the small veil (petit Voile) tucks inside her scapular. In her hermit days while on retreat, we see that Edith preferred to spend extra hours of solitary prayer in the choir near Christ in the tabernacle while the rest of the community was occupied at recreation.

[Sources: Leuven, Stinissen & Gelber; Carmel of Haifa]

Stein, E 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Koeppel, J (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: “The Bride wore a wreath of white roses.” Image credit: Todd Petit / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

Quote of the day, 15 April: St. Edith Stein

The walls of our monasteries enclose a narrow space. To erect the structure of holiness in it, one must dig deep and build high, must descend into the depths of the dark night of one’s own nothingness in order to be raised up high into the sunlight of divine love and compassion.

No human eye can see what God does in the soul during hours of inner prayer. It is grace upon grace. And all of life’s other hours are our thanks for them. Carmelites can repay God’s love by their everyday lives in no other way than by carrying out their daily duties faithfully in every respect— all the little sacrifices that a regimen structured day after day in all its details demands of an active spirit; all the self-control that living in close proximity with different kinds of people continually requires and that is achieved with a loving smile; letting no opportunity go by for serving others in love.

Saint Edith Stein

On the History and Spirit of Carmel (31 March 1935)

Note: On 15 April 1934, St. Edith Stein was clothed in the Carmelite habit and gave herself lovingly to God in the Carmel of Cologne-Lindenthal. Her novice mistress, Sr. Teresa Renata Posselt, OCD, described that day: “it was a feast such as the Cologne Carmel has never seen.”

Stein, E 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, Stein, W (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Edith Stein on her clothing day, 15 April 1934. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

Quote of the day, 22 February: St. Edith Stein

The most pure virgin is the only one safeguarded from every stain of sin. Except for her, no one embodies feminine nature in its original purity. Every other woman has something in herself inherited from Eve, and she must search for the way from Eve to Mary.

There is a bit of defiance in each woman which does not want to humble itself under any sovereignty. In each, there is something of that desire which reaches for forbidden fruit. And she is hindered by both these tendencies in what we clearly recognize as woman’s work.

The girl must learn from youth, through a basic upbringing or conditions of life, to adapt, to deny herself, and to make sacrifices; otherwise, she will enter into marriage with longings for undisturbed good fortune and the execution of all her wishes.

At first, she will not learn correctly how to curb herself should she find her spouse disposed to her wishes; she will test how far her control goes, and when she reaches its limits, conflicts will arise. This leads to a rupture or to mutual exhaustion if her sensibility and inner make-up are not reversed.

Such a woman will not find right relationship with her children either, that is, if she does not decline from the outset to take upon herself the burdens of motherhood. Indeed, it will be a question of whether to occupy herself with them or not, depending on her mood. She is apt to pamper them or to treat them severely at the wrong time and to make selfish demands of them. In short, instead of paving their way and encouraging them, she is likely to arouse their resistance and inhibit their development.

Saint Edith Stein

Spirituality of the Christian Woman (excerpt)
Lectures to the Organization of Catholic Women, Zurich (1932)

Stein, E 2017, Essays On Woman, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 2, translated from the German by Oben, F, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.

Featured image: Eve is reaching out, past the head of the crafty serpent, to her husband Adam in this oil on canvas diptych by the Florentine painter Giuliano di Piero di Simone Bugiardini (1475–1554). Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Public domain).

Quote of the day, 20 February: St. Edith Stein

He is the King of kings, the Lord of life and death. He speaks His “Follow me”, and if a man is not for Him, he is against Him. He speaks also to us and asks us to choose between light and darkness.

We know not, and we should not ask before the time, where our earthly way will lead us. We know only this, that to those that love the Lord all things will work together to the good, and further,  that the ways by which the Savior leads us point beyond this earth.

Saint Edith Stein

The Mystery of Christmas: Following the Incarnate Son of God

Stein, E 1931, The mystery of Christmas: incarnation and humanity, translated from the German by Rucker, J, Darlington Carmel, Darlington UK.

Featured image: The Calling of Saint Matthew, Caravaggio (Italian 1571–1610), oil on canvas, ca. 1599–1600, Contarelli Chapel, Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

Quote of the day, 26 January: St. Edith Stein

Yesterday, when I looked at a picture of the Infant of Prague, it suddenly occurred to me that he is wearing imperial coronation dress and surely it was not accidental that his efficacy should come to the fore precisely in Prague.

After all, Prague has been the court of the old German or Roman Emperors, respectively, and the city makes such a majestic impression that no other city known to me can compare with it, not even Paris and Vienna. The Little Jesus came exactly when the political imperial grandeur came to an end in Prague.

Is he not the secret Emperor who will someday put an end to all misery? After all, he holds the reins even though people believe they are the rulers.

Saint Edith Stein

Letter 333 to Mother Johanna van Weersth, OCD

Stein, E 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Koeppel, J (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The miraculous image of the Infant Jesus venerated in the Discalced Carmelite Church of Our Lady Victorious, Prague. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (by permission).

#grandeur #InfantJesus #InfantOfPrague #StEdithStein #StTeresaBenedictaOfTheCross

Quote of the day, 23 January: St. Edith Stein

For those blessed souls who have entered into the unity of life in God, everything is one: rest and activity, looking and acting, silence and speaking, listening and communicating, surrender in loving acceptance, and an outpouring of love in grateful songs of praise.

As long as we are still on the way—and the farther away from the goal the more intensely—we are still subject to temporal laws and are instructed to actualize in ourselves, one after another and all the members complementing each other mutually, the divine life in all its fullness.

• We need hours for listening silently and allowing the Word of God to act on us until it moves us to bear fruit in an offering of praise and an offering of action.
• We need to have traditional forms and to participate in public and prescribed worship services so our interior life will remain vital and on the right track, and so it will find appropriate expression.

There must be special places on earth for the solemn praise of God, places where this praise is formed into the greatest perfection of which humankind is capable. From such places, it can ascend to heaven for the whole Church and have an influence on the Church’s members; it can awaken the interior life in them and make them zealous for external unanimity.

But it must be enlivened from within by this means: that here, too, room must be made for silent recollection. Otherwise, it will degenerate into a rigid and lifeless lip service.

And protection from such dangers is provided by those homes for the interior life where souls stand before the face of God in solitude and silence in order to be quickening love in the heart of the Church.

Saint Edith Stein

The Prayer of the Church (Vom Gebet der Kirche, 1936)

Stein, E 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, Stein, W (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Edith Stein on her clothing day, 15 April 1934. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (by permission),

#prayer #silence #StEdithStein #tradition #WordOfGod

Quote of the Day, 17 January: St. Edith Stein

For a long while now I have hardly been able to do any work.

From the beginning of September until the middle of December, I took care of our good, eldest lay sister, Sr. Clara (cancer of the liver, as far as the doctors can tell). Then I got the office of turn-sister [portress], which means being a contact between the cloister and the outside world.

You can imagine that for this one needs a serviceable walking apparatus. I hope to be allowed to make my perpetual profession on April 21. Soon thereafter follows the Veiling Ceremony. That is, again, a big public celebration that the beloved baptismal sponsor [Hedwig Conrad-Martius] should not miss. Hopefully, the League of Academics will again cover the cost of travel.

We celebrated the 300th Jubilee Year of the Cologne Carmel for four days at the end of September/beginning of October. Our dear Mother wrote a beautiful commemorative booklet for the occasion. I believe you will receive it as a gift when you next visit us.

Do you know that Husserl’s health is very poor? This summer he suffered a severe recurrence of pleurisy and is not recovering well from it. Would you write to him sometime perhaps? They now live in Freiburg-Herdern, at Schöneck 6.

Saint Edith Stein

Letter 257 to Hedwig Conrad-Martius
17 January 1938

Note: In December 1937, Saint Edith Stein was appointed under obedience to the demanding office of Turn Sister (portress) at the Cologne Carmel—a role previously held by the sub-prioress. Responsible for daily provisions, communications at the grille, and the reception of guests, the office required tact, prudence, and discretion, virtues she exercised with notable charity and steadiness, in fidelity to the Constitutions of Saint Teresa of Avila.

Stein, E 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Koeppel, J (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Detailed image of Saint Edith Stein’s 1938 passport photo prepared for her travel to the Carmel of Echt in the Netherlands. Image credit: Discalced Carmelite (By permission).

#EdmundHusserl #jubileeYear #monasticLife #perpetualProfession #StEdithStein

Quote of the day, 25 December: St. Edith Stein

We know not, and we should not ask before the time, where our earthly way will lead us. We know only this, that to those that love the Lord all things will work together to the good, and, further, that the ways by which the Saviour leads us point beyond this earth.

It is truly a marvellous exchange: the Creator of mankind, taking a body, gives us His Godhead. The Redeemer has come into the world to do this wonderful work. God became man, so that men might become children of God. One of us had broken the bond that made us God’s children; one of us had to tie it again and pay the ransom. This could not be done by one who came from the old, wild and diseased trunk; a new branch, healthy and noble, had to be grafted into it.

He became one of us, more than this, He became one with us. For this is the marvellous thing about the human race, that we are all one. If it were otherwise, if we were all autonomous individuals, living beside each other quite free and independent, the fall of the one could not have resulted in the fall of all. In that case, on the other hand, the ransom might have been paid for and imputed to us, but His justice could not have passed on to the sinners; no justification would have been possible.

But He came to be one mysterious Body with us: He our Head, we His members. If we place our hands into the hands of the divine Child, if we say our Yes to His Follow Me, then we are His, and the way is free for His divine Life to flow into us.

This is the beginning of eternal life in us. It is not yet the beatific vision in the light of glory; it is still the darkness of faith; but it is no longer of this world, it means living in the kingdom of God. This kingdom began on earth when the blessed Virgin spoke her “Be it unto me”, and she was its first handmaid.

And all those who have confessed the Child by word and deed before and after His birth, St. Joseph, St. Elizabeth with her son, and all those surrounding the crib, have entered the kingdom of God. The reign of the divine King showed itself to be different from what people had expected it to be when they read the Psalms and the Prophets. The Romans remained masters in the land; high priests and scribes continued to oppress the poor.

Those who belonged to the Lord bore their kingdom of heaven invisibly within them. Their earthly burden was not taken away from them; on the contrary, many another was added to it; but within them there was a winged power that made the yoke sweet and the burden light.

The same happens today with every child of God. The divine life that is kindled in the soul is the light that has come into the darkness, the miracle of the Holy Night. If we have it in us, we understand what is meant when men speak about it. For the others, everything that can be said of it is an incomprehensible stammering. The whole Gospel of St. John is such a stammering about the eternal light that is love and life.

God in us and we in Him, this is our share in God’s kingdom, which is founded on the Incarnation.

Saint Edith Stein

The Mystery of Christmas (1931 lecture), “Union With God”

Stein, E 1931, The mystery of Christmas: incarnation and humanity, translated from the German by Rucker, J, Darlington Carmel, Darlington UK.

Featured image: The Nativity With Saints, Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1483–1561), oil on wood panel painting ca. 1514. Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Public domain).

#Christmas #divineChild #incarnation #kingdomOfHeaven #StEdithStein

Quote of the day, 20 December: St. Edith Stein

If we live with the Church, the Advent bells and hymns will stir a holy longing in our heart; and if we have been introduced to the inexhaustible source of the Liturgy, Isaias, the great prophet of the Incarnation, will rouse us day by day with his powerful warnings and promises: “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and ye clouds, rain the just. The Lord is here, let us adore Him. Come, Lord, and do not delay. Rejoice, Jerusalem, with great joy, for thy Saviour comes to thee.”

From the seventeenth to the twenty-fourth of December the great O antiphons of the Magnificat (O Wisdom, O Adonai, O root of Jesse, O key of David, O sunrise, O king of the nations) cry ever more longingly their “Come to deliver us.” And it sounds with increasing promise: “Behold, everything is fulfilled” on the last Sunday of Advent, and finally: “Today you shall know that the Lord will come and tomorrow you will see His glory.”

Saint Edith Stein

The Mystery of Christmas

Stein, E 1931, The mystery of Christmas: incarnation and humanity, translated from the German by Rucker, J, Darlington Carmel, Darlington UK.

Featured image: Following in the footsteps of Saint Teresa of Avila in the 2015 Centenary year of her birth, photographer José-María Moreno García captured this image of the main door to the Carmel of Villanueva de la Jara. Image credit: José-María Moreno García / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

#Advent #joy #love #OAntiphons #StEdithStein

Quote of the day, 15 December: St. Edith Stein

Edith Stein was at home in the conventual family from the beginning. She used to laugh and joke like a child with the other Sisters until the tears ran down her cheeks. She used to declare that she had never laughed so much in all her life as during recreation in Carmel.

Everyone was at their ease with her. Soon after she herself had entered the Cologne Carmel she was given the wonderful experience of bringing in one of her young friends through her own example. This is what she wrote about it.

When we now stand facing each other in choir or walk together in procession I am struck more than ever by the wonderful ways of God. Naturally, in our seclusion we have a beautiful and silent Advent. How much one longs to send some of it to very many of those in the world… I believe that it would do them untold good to learn more of the peace of Carmel.

Teresia Renata Posselt, O.C.D.

Chapter 14: In the School of Humility

Posselt, T 2005, Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite, translated from the German by Batzdorff S, Koeppel J, and Sullivan J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

 Featured image: Photographer Tim Mossholder captures this image of pillar candles in an Advent wreath. Image credit: Tim Mossholder / Unsplash (Stock photo)

#advent #carmelites #silence #stEdithStein #teresiaRenataPosselt

Quote of the day, 13 December: St. John of the Cross

Now, in 1591, death did intervene. While his body was succumbing to erysipelas, his heart and reputation were still being battered.

The prior of the community of Ubeda, where he had gone for treatmen,t had a grudge against him and made his dying quite difficult. Medicines were regarded as a financial drain, putrid bandages were not to be washed, visits were curtailed . . .

John’s nurse, Bernardo, captures it with a modern phrase: “It was just incredible what was taking place!”

Finally, Bernardo himself was forbidden to nurse John. Whatever about the sick man’s patience, Bernardo had had enough: he wrote in complaint, higher authorities intervened, and matters improved in time for John to die in a community at peace.

Through all this—the sidelining, the libel, the dying—John seems to have been drawing on a different source of energy. A letter written from Ubeda puts it this way:

Love greatly those who speak against you and do not love you, because in this way love will come to birth in a heart that has none. That is what God does with us: he loves us, that we might love him, through the love he has for us.

Letter 33 to a Carmelite nun
Late 1591

That is the God to whom John bears witness: a God loving first, with a love which creates good in us; a God pressing in to release new capacities in us.

Iain Matthew, O.C.D.

Chapter 12, Healing Darkness (excerpt)

Note: Saint Edith Stein gives an account of the dying hours of Saint John of the Cross on 13 December 1591. He predicted, “at midnight I shall stand before God to recite Matins.” When at last he heard the bells in the tower strike twelve midnight, he said, with the crucifix in his hand “In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum” [Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit]. Edith concludes her account: “A parting glance at all those present, a final kiss for the Crucified One—then he stood before the throne of God to pray Matins with the heavenly choirs.”

Matthew, I 1995, The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd, London.

Stein, E 2002, The Science of the Cross, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 6, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.

Featured image: Featured image: Escultura de San Juan de la Cruz en Segovia is a photograph by Javier Cuadrado. It appears in this post as part of a composite image created in Adobe Express. Source: Adobe Stock, Asset ID# 70762898.

#deathAndDying #history #love #stEdithStein #stJohnOfTheCross

Quote of the day, 18 November: St. Teresa of Avila

This time of greatest expenditure of energy when Teresa, along with being prioress of the Monastery of the Incarnation, retained the spiritual direction of her eight reformed monasteries, was also a time of the greatest attestation of grace. At that time she had a vision that she herself described as a “spiritual marriage.”

On November 18, 1572, the Lord appeared to her during Holy Communion.

“He offered me his right hand and spoke, ‘See this nail. It is the sign of our union. From this day on you are my bride. Up to now you had not earned it. But now you will not only see me as your Creator, your King, your God, but from now on you will care for my honor as my true bride. My honor is yours; your glory is mine’” [Spiritual Testimonies, 31].

From that moment on, she found herself united blissfully with the Lord, a union that remained with her for the entire last decade of her life, her own life mortified, “full of the inexpressible joy of having found her true rest, and of the sense that Jesus Christ was living in her” [cf. Interior Castle, VII, ch. 3].

She characterized as the first result of this union “such a complete forgetfulness of self that it truly seems as if this soul had lost its own being. It no longer recognizes itself. It no longer thinks about heaven for itself, about life, about honor. The only thing she cares about any longer is the honor of God” [Castle VII, 3:2].

The second result is an inner desire for suffering, a desire, however, that no longer disturbs her soul as earlier. She desires with such fervor that God’s will be fulfilled in her that everything that pleases the divine Master seems good to her. If he wants her to suffer, she is happy; if he does not, his will be done.

Saint Edith Stein

Love for Love, 14

Stein, E 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, Stein, W (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

#love #spiritualMarriage #StEdithStein #StTeresaOfAvila #visionOfTheNail

Quote of the day, 18 October: St. Edith Stein

I would not dodge the questions on sex—on the contrary, one ought to be glad when a spontaneous opportunity arises to speak honestly and clearly on the subject, since it simply will no longer do to send the girls out into the world without having taught them about sex.

But one must choose [the topics] carefully, avoiding sultry eroticism. However, teaching the elementary facts of life and their meaning, honestly as well as realistically, is far from dangerous.

Of course, should you have totally ignorant children among your students, even this may precipitate a crisis; you have to know your class and treat them accordingly.

Saint Edith Stein

Letter 122 to Mother Callista Brenzing, O.Cist. (excerpt)
18 October 1932

Note: Mother Callista was a member of the Cistercian convent at Seligenthal, whose sisters functioned as educators.

Stein, E 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Koeppel, J (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: This is a detail from a photo of Edith Stein that was taken during her year at the German Institute of Scientific Pedagogy at Münster, 1932–33. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

#education #honesty #questions #sex #StEdithStein

Quote of the day, 11 October: St. John Paul II

For the love of God and man, once again I raise an anguished cry: May such criminal deeds never be repeated against any ethnic group, against any race, in any corner of this world!

It is a cry to everyone: to all people of goodwill; to all who believe in the Just and Eternal God; to all who know they are joined to Christ, the Word of God made man. We must all stand together: human dignity is at stake. There is only one human family.

The new saint also insisted on this: “Our love of neighbour is the measure of our love of God. For Christians — and not only for them — no one is a ‘stranger’. The love of Christ knows no borders”.

Saint John Paul II

Homily for the Canonization of Edith Stein
11 October 1998

Note: St. John Paul II quotes from Edith Stein’s lecture, The Mystery of Christmas, given to Catholic Academics on 13 January 1931 in Ludwigshafen, Germany. In the section called “Union in God,” Professor Stein says: “For the Christian there is no stranger. Whoever is near us and needing us most is our ‘neighbour’; it does not matter whether he is related to us or not, whether we like him or not, whether he is morally worthy of our help or not. The love of Christ knows no limits. It never ends, it does not shrink from ugliness and filth. He came for sinners, not for the just. And if the love of Christ is in us, we shall do as He did and seek the lost sheep.”

Featured image: Repairs in anticipation of the Jubilee Year were underway at St. Peter’s Basilica on the day of St. Edith Stein’s canonization. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (By permission)

#humanDignity #Jewish #loveOfGod #StEdithStein #StJohnPaulII

Quote of the day, 6 October: St. Edith Stein

While the spiritual gardens of Mother Teresa were spreading their lovely fragrance over all of Spain, the Monastery of the Incarnation, her former home, was in a sad state. Income had not increased in proportion to the number of nuns, and since they were used to living comfortably and not (as in the reformed Carmel) to finding their greatest joy in holy poverty, discontent and slackening of spirit spread.

In the year 1570, Fr. Fernández of the Order of St. Dominic came to this house. He was the apostolic visitator entrusted by Pope Pius V with examining the disciplinary state of monasteries in Castile. Since he had already become thoroughly acquainted with some monasteries of the reform, the contrast must have shocked him.

He thought of a radical remedy. By the authority of his position, he named Mother Teresa as prioress of the Monastery of the Incarnation and ordered her to return to Avila at once to assume her position. In the midst of her work for the reform, she now had to undertake a task that for all intents and purposes appeared impossible.

Oh, daughter, daughter! These Sisters in the Incarnation are My Sisters, and you delay? Well, take courage; behold I want it, and it isn’t as difficult as it seems to you. And whereas you think some harm will come to your houses, both they and the Incarnation will benefit. Do not resist, for My power is great.
Our Lord to St. Teresa, 10 July 1571
Spiritual Testimonies, 16

Exhorted by the Lord himself, she declared her readiness. However, with the agreement of Fr. Fernández, she gave a written statement that she personally would continue to follow the primitive Rule. One can imagine the vehement indignation of the nuns who were to have a prioress sent to them — one not elected by them — a sister of theirs who had left them eight years earlier and whom they considered an adventuress, a mischief-maker.

The storm broke as the provincial led her into the house. The provincial, Fr. Angel de Salazar, could not make himself heard in the noisy gathering. The “Te Deum” that he intoned was drowned out by the sounds of indignation. Teresa’s goodness and humility finally brought about enough quiet for the sisters to go to their cells and to tolerate her presence in the house.

They were saving the decisive declarations for the first chapter meeting. But how amazed they were when they entered the chapter room at the sound of the bell to see in the prioress’ seat the statue of our dear Lady, the Queen of Carmel, with the keys to the monastery in her hands and the new prioress at her feet. Their hearts were conquered even before Teresa began to speak and in her indisputable loving manner presented to them how she conceived and intended to conduct her office.

In a short time, under her wise and temperate direction, above all by the influence of her character and conduct, the spirit of the house was renewed. Her greatest support in this was Fr. John of the Cross, whom she called to Avila as confessor for the monastery.

Saint Edith Stein

Love for Love: The Life and Works of St. Teresa of Jesus
14. Prioress at the Monastery of the Incarnation

Note: Saint Teresa took up her office as Prioress at the Monastery of the Incarnation on 6 October 1571

Stein, E. 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, translated from the German by Stein, W, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: This detail of a photographic artwork created by Elías Rodríguez Picón comes to us thanks to the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Alba de Tormes. The artist’s sister is the model for this scene, which is intended to show the beginning moment of the Transverberation. You can see and read more about his photographic technique in this article from La Hornacina (in Spanish). Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (By permission).

#Constitutions #MonasteryOfTheIncarnation #prioress #StEdithStein #StTeresaOfAvila

Quote of the day, 29 September: St. Edith Stein

 Since September 29 we’ve had a new Mother who would like me to write something again.

Saint Edith Stein
Echt, 5 November 1940

Just now I am gathering material for a new work since our Reverend Mother wishes me to do some scholarly work again, as far as this will be possible in our living situation and under the present circumstances. I am very grateful to be allowed once more to do something before my brain rusts completely.

Echt, 17 November 1940

I am going about my new task like a little child making its first attempts at walking.

Echt, 16 May 1941

Please, will Your Reverence also pray a little to the Holy Spirit and to our Holy Father John for what I am now planning to write. It is to be something for our Holy Father’s 400th birthday (24 June 1942)…

Echt, 8 October 1941

Because of the work I am doing I live almost constantly immersed in thoughts about our Holy Father John. That is a great grace. May I ask Your Reverence once more for prayers that I can produce something appropriate for his Jubilee?

Echt, 18 November 1941

Dear Mother,

… I am satisfied with everything. A scientia crucis [science of the cross] can be gained only when one comes to feel the Cross radically. I have been convinced of that from the first moment and have said, from my heart: Ave, Crux, spes unica!

Echt, December 1941

Dear Sister Maria,

… while working on this task it often happened when I was greatly exhausted that I had the feeling I could not penetrate to what I wished to say and to grasp. I already thought that it would always remain so. But now I feel I have renewed vigor for creative effort. Holy Father John gave me renewed impetus for some remarks concerning symbols. When I finish this manuscript I would like to send a German copy to Father Heribert [Discalced Carmelite provincial in Germany] to have it duplicated for the monasteries.

The only reason I write so little is that I need all the time for Father John.

Echt, 9 April 1942

My dear ones,

A [Red Cross] nurse from [Amsterdam] intends to speak today with the Consul. Here, every petition [on behalf] of fully Jewish Catholics has been forbidden since yesterday. Outside [the camp] an attempt can still be made, but with extremely little prospect. According to plans, a transport will leave on Friday. Could you possibly write to Mère Claire in Venlo, Kaldenkerkeweg 185 [the Ursuline Convent] to ask for [my] manuscript if they have not already sent it. We count on your prayers. There are so many persons here who need some consolation and they expect it from the Sisters.

In Corde Jesu, your grateful

B.

Westerbork transit camp, 5 August 1942

Mother Antonia Ambrosia Engelmann, O.C.D. was elected prioress of the Carmel of Echt on 29 September 1940.  It is to her that we owe a debt of gratitude for Saint Edith Stein’s ultimate volume, The Science of the Cross. Gelber and Leuven (1993) note that although it was her final work, the manuscript was published as Vol. I in Edith Steins Werke. When Edith and Rosa were arrested in August of 1942, the completed portions of her manuscript had already been sent to a typist. Unaware of the fate that awaited her, Edith asks to retrieve that manuscript as if to continue working on it while in prison.

Stein, E. 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Discalced Carmelite, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Vintage Remington Portable typewriter with German text. Original Flickr source no longer available.

#monasticLife #obedience #StEdithStein #StJohnOfTheCross #TheScienceOfTheCross

Quote of the day, 9 August: St. Edith Stein

Because hidden souls do not live in isolation, but are a part of the living nexus and have a position in a great divine order, we speak of an invisible church. Their impact and affinity can remain hidden from themselves and others for their entire earthly lives.

But it is also possible for some of this to become visible in the external world. This is how it was with the persons and events intertwined in the mystery of the Incarnation.

Today we live again in a time that urgently needs to be renewed at the hidden springs of God-fearing souls. Many people, too, place their last hope in these hidden springs of salvation.

This is a serious warning cry: Surrender without reservation to the Lord who has called us. This is required of us so that the face of the earth may be renewed. In faithful trust, we must abandon our souls to the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit.

We may live in confident certainty that what the Spirit of God secretly effects in us bears its fruits in the kingdom of God. We will see them in eternity.

Saint Edith Stein

The Hidden Life and Epiphany

Stein, E. 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, translated from the German by Stein, W, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Vintage stereograph card depicting a boy and girl kneeling in prayer beside a brass bed with a red and white quilt, captioned “Now I Lay Me. At the End of Day.” Image credit: End of the day – Now I lay me, ca. 1850-1920, stereograph from the Stereograph Collection, Boston Public Library Arts Department. No known copyright restrictions.

#eternity #HolySpirit #KingdomOfGod #StEdithStein #surrender #trust

St. Edith Stein Novena 2025, Day 9: Unbounded desert

SCRIPTURE READING
Hosea 2:14–17

I am going to lure her
and lead her out into the wilderness
and speak to her heart.
I am going to give her back her vineyards,
and make the Valley of Achor a gateway of hope.
There she will respond to me as she did when she was young,
as she did when she came out of the land of Egypt.

When that day comes – it is Yahweh who speaks –
she will call me “My husband,”
no longer will she call me “My Baal.”
I will take the names of the Baals off her lips,
their names shall never be uttered again.

MEDITATION
The Science of the Cross, Chapter 12

An immense, unbounded desert

Dark contemplation is the secret ladder: secret as is mystical theology that is communicated and infused into the soul through love.

The mystical wisdom is therefore also called secret because it has the characteristic of hiding the soul within itself. . . . Occasionally, it so engulfs the soul in its secret abyss that she has the keen awareness of being brought into a place far removed from every creature. She accordingly feels that she has been led into a remarkably deep and vast wilderness unattainable by any human being, into an immense, unbounded desert. And this, for her, is the more delightful, pleasant, and lovely, the deeper, vaster, and more solitary it is. She is conscious of being so much more hidden, the more she is raised above every created being. This abyss of wisdom elevates and enriches the soul to a high degree: it engulfs her in the veins of the science of love and lets her know in this way how base are creatures in comparison with the lofty, divine knowledge and feelings, and gives her an insight into how lowly, inadequate, and entirely incapable all images and words are with which one speaks of divine things in this life.

NOVENA PRAYER

Saint Edith Stein,
faith in the holy angels gives me confidence—
confidence to believe, in the midst of all suffering,
in the divine life-force we all share,
which flows through all creation
as the sap flows from the vine into its branches.

We do not stand alone
in this fierce struggle between life and death.
“When my enemies press in on me…” (Ps 56:2),
“…then God fights for me.” (Josh 23:10)

In this valley of tears,
I lift my eyes in trust to you,
you holy angels and saints:
your task is to pass on that Love
whose “beginning and end is the triune God.”
(Edith Stein, Complete Works)

We are held and drawn into this radiant stream
of light and love, of life and truth.
The more we are united with you
through surrender to the divine will,
the more your love becomes our love,
your light our light.

If we believe in this communion,
we already walk in the light.

Intercede for us,
that we may take part in the restoration of all creation.

Here mention your intentions

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be

℣. Saint Edith Stein,
℟. Pray for us.

Stein, E 2002, The Science of the Cross, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 6, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.

All scripture references are from The Jerusalem Bible Reader’s Edition, copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday & Company, Inc. as accessed from The Internet Archive website.

Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Joseph.

Let us unite in prayer

#desert #love #mysticalTheology #novena #prayer #StEdithStein

9 August: St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Stein

August 9
SAINT TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS STEIN
Virgin and Martyr

Memorial
In houses in Europe: Patroness of Europe, Feast

Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family at Breslau on October 12, 1891. Through her passionate study of philosophy, she searched after truth and found it in reading the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Jesus. In 1922 she was baptized a Catholic and in 1933 she entered the Carmel of Cologne, where she took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was gassed and cremated at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942, during the Nazi persecution, and died a martyr for the Christian faith after having offered her holocaust for the people of Israel. A woman of singular intelligence and learning, she left behind a body of writing notable for its doctrinal richness and profound spirituality. She was beatified by Saint John Paul II at Cologne on May 1, 1987 and canonized in Rome on October 11, 1998. On October 1, 1999 Saint John Paul II proclaimed Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross a Co-Patroness of Europe.

From the common of martyrs or of virgins

THE SECOND READING

(Edith Stein Werke (Freiburg, 1987), 11:124-126)

From the spiritual writings of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Ave Crux, spes unica!

We greet you, Holy Cross, our only hope! The church puts these words on our lips during the time of the passion, which is dedicated to the contemplation of the bitter sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world is in flames. The struggle between Christ and antichrist rages openly, and so if you decide for Christ you can even be asked to sacrifice your life.

Contemplate the Lord who hangs before you on the wood, because he was obedient even to the death of the cross. He came into the world not to do his own will but that of the Father. And if you wish to be the spouse of the Crucified, you must renounce completely your own will and have no other aspiration than to do the will of God.

Before you, the Redeemer hangs on the cross stripped and naked, because he chose poverty. Those who would follow him must renounce every earthly possession.

Stand before the Lord who hangs from the cross with his heart torn open. He poured out the blood of his heart in order to win your heart. In order to follow him in holy chastity, your heart must be free from every earthly aspiration. Jesus Crucified must be the object of your every longing, of your every desire, of your every thought.

The world is in flames: the fire can spread even to our house, but above all the flames the cross stands on high, and it cannot be burnt. The cross is the way which leads from earth to heaven. Those who embrace it with faith, love, and hope are taken up, right into the heart of the Trinity.

The world is in flames: do you wish to put them out? Contemplate the cross: from his open heart, the blood of the Redeemer pours, blood which can put out even the flames of hell. Through the faithful observance of the vows, you make your heart open; and then the floods of that divine love will be able to flow into it, making it overflow and bear fruit to the furthest reaches of the earth.

Through the power of the cross, you can be present wherever there is pain, carried there by your compassionate charity, by that very charity which you draw from the divine heart. That charity enables you to spread everywhere the most precious blood in order to ease pain, save and redeem.

The eyes of the Crucified gaze upon you. They question you and appeal to you. Do you wish seriously to renew your alliance with him? What will your response be? Lord, where shall I go? You alone have the words of life. Ave Crux, spes unica!

RESPONSORY

℟ We preach Christ Crucified, a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the pagans, * but for those who are called, whether they be Jews or Greeks, we preach Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
℣ The desire of my heart and my prayer rises to God for their salvation; * but for those who are called, whether they be Jews or Greeks, we preach Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

PRAYER

Lord, God of our fathers,
you brought Saint Teresa Benedicta
to the fullness of the science of the cross
at the hour of her martyrdom.
Fill us with that same knowledge;
and, through her intercession,
allow us always to seek after you, the supreme truth,
and to remain faithful until death
to the covenant of love ratified in the blood of your Son
for the salvation of all men and women.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.

#Carmelite #CoPatronessOfEurope #LiturgyOfTheHours #martyr #Memorial #StEdithStein #StTeresaBenedictaOfTheCross #virgin

St. Edith Stein Novena 2025, Day 8: Purgative dryness

SCRIPTURE READING
Wisdom 19:14–17

God Guides and Protects His People

Every nation will be punished if it does not welcome foreigners, but these people, who had earlier welcomed the foreigners with happy celebrations and treated them as equals, later made them suffer cruelly. These people were also struck with blindness, like the men of Sodom who came to the door of that righteous man Lot. They found themselves in total darkness, as each one groped around to find his own door.

MEDITATION
The Science of the Cross, Chapter 1

Purgative dryness

A case of purgative dryness of the dark night can be discerned by three signs:

1) that the soul finds no delight in creatures;

2) that “the soul turns to God solicitously and with painful care, and thinks it is not serving God but turning back because it is aware of this distaste for the things of God.”

3) one recognizes purgative dryness in that “the soul is powerless in spite of all its efforts to meditate and make use of the imagination, the interior sense, . . . God no longer communicates himself through the senses as he did before, by means of the discursive analysis and synthesis of ideas, but has now begun to communicate himself through pure spirit by an act of simple contemplation for which neither the exterior nor the interior senses of the sensory human being have any capacity.”

This dark and, for the senses, dry contemplation is “something secret and hidden and even for the one who possesses it, mysterious.” Ordinarily, it imparts to the soul an inclination and a demand to remain alone and at rest. She is unable to dwell on any particular thought, nor does she have any desire to do so. If those in whom this occurs knew how to remain quiet, “they would soon experience in that unconcern and idleness a precious interior nourishment. This refection is namely so delicate that the soul cannot usually feel it if it desires it excessively or tries to experience it specifically. . . . It is like air that escapes when one tries to grasp it in one’s hand . . . God deals with the soul in this state in such a manner and leads it along such a special way that, if it desires to work with its own faculties and strength, it would rather hinder than help the work of God.” The peace God produces in the spirit through the dryness of the sensory being is “spiritual and most precious” and its “fruit is quiet, delicate, solitary, satisfying, and peaceful, and far removed from all the earlier gratifications which were more palpable and sensory.” So one understands that only the dying of the sensory being is felt and nothing is experienced of the beginning of the new life that is concealed beneath it.

It is no exaggeration when we call the suffering of the souls in this state a crucifixion. In their inability to make use of their own faculties they are as though nailed fast. And to the dryness is added the torment of fear that they are on the wrong path.

PRAYER

Saint Edith Stein,
faith in the holy angels gives me confidence—
confidence to believe, in the midst of all suffering,
in the divine life-force we all share,
which flows through all creation
as the sap flows from the vine into its branches.

We do not stand alone
in this fierce struggle between life and death.
“When my enemies press in on me…” (Ps 56:2),
“…then God fights for me.” (Josh 23:10)

In this valley of tears,
I lift my eyes in trust to you,
you holy angels and saints:
your task is to pass on that Love
whose “beginning and end is the triune God.”
(Edith Stein, Complete Works)

We are held and drawn into this radiant stream
of light and love, of life and truth.
The more we are united with you
through surrender to the divine will,
the more your love becomes our love,
your light our light.

If we believe in this communion,
we already walk in the light.

Intercede for us,
that we may take part in the restoration of all creation.

Here mention your intentions

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be

℣. Saint Edith Stein,
℟. Pray for us.

Stein, E 2002, The Science of the Cross, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 6, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.

All scripture references are from The Jerusalem Bible Reader’s Edition, copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday & Company, Inc. as accessed from The Internet Archive website.

Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Joseph.

Let us unite in prayer

#drynessInPrayer #novena #prayer #purgation #StEdithStein

St. Edith Stein Novena 2025: Introduction

That is why I am going to lure her and lead her out into the wilderness and speak to her heart.

Hosea 2:16

“It always seemed to me that our Lord was keeping something for me in Carmel that I could find only there.”

These words come from Saint Edith Stein’s own account, “How I came to Carmel,” preserved for us by her novice mistress and prioress, Mother Teresia Renata Posselt, in her biography, Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite.

What could this brilliant philosopher and renowned lecturer have been seeking? What mystery did she perceive in Carmel that even her extensive knowledge of Carmelite spirituality through reading could not satisfy? Mother Teresia Renata offers us insight:

In these words this outstanding philosopher and famous lecturer, already revered as a saint by many people, acknowledged that something was lacking before she could be completely happy and fulfilled. We ask ourselves: What could this be? And what is this Carmel from which she expected this final fulfillment that the Lord had saved up for her as the best?

Carmel presents a mystery that cannot be taken in at a glance. Even those intimately acquainted, like Edith, with Carmelite spirituality through reading the works of its great exponents can scarcely avoid shrinking when for the first time they begin to breathe the dry air of Carmel. They soon have a sense that they have been set in a trackless desert, a waterless land that only slowly surrenders its secrets.

This is the mystery we will explore together in this novena—that “trackless desert” of Carmel revealed through Saint Edith Stein’s own writings and experience. Like the holy prophet Elijah, who waited upon God’s word in the Wadi Cherith, we will follow Edith as the Lord lures her into the spiritual desert where He speaks most intimately to the heart.

Let us attune our spiritual ears to the words of sacred Scripture and to the wisdom of Saint Edith’s writings as she draws us deeper into that “waterless land that only slowly surrenders its secrets.” May God bless us all as we journey together through these nine days.

Pray each day with St. Edith Stein
Join us every day as our novena unfolds

Day One
Into the desert (The Science of the Cross)

Day Two 
The darkest path (The Science of the Cross)

Day Three 
Dryness and emptiness (The Science of the Cross)

Day Four 
The desert of Carmel (A Chosen Vessel of Divine Wisdom)

Day Five 
We are not ruined (I Am Always in Your Midst)

Day Six 
Dryness, distaste, trial (The Science of the Cross)

Day Seven 
Oppression and dryness (The Science of the Cross)

Day Eight 
Purgative dryness (The Science of the Cross)

Day Nine
Unbounded desert (The Science of the Cross)

NOVENA PRAYER

Saint Edith Stein,
faith in the holy angels gives me confidence—
confidence to believe, in the midst of all suffering,
in the divine life-force we all share,
which flows through all creation
as the sap flows from the vine into its branches.

We do not stand alone
in this fierce struggle between life and death.
“When my enemies press in on me…” (Ps 56:2),
“…then God fights for me.” (Josh 23:10)

In this valley of tears,
I lift my eyes in trust to you,
you holy angels and saints:
your task is to pass on that Love
whose “beginning and end is the triune God.”
(Edith Stein, Complete Works)

We are held and drawn into this radiant stream
of light and love, of life and truth.
The more we are united with you
through surrender to the divine will,
the more your love becomes our love,
your light our light.

If we believe in this communion,
we already walk in the light.

Intercede for us,
that we may take part in the restoration of all creation.

Here mention your intentions

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be

℣. Saint Edith Stein,
℟. Pray for us.

Posselt, T 2005, Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite, translated from the German by Batzdorff S, Koeppel J, and Sullivan J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

All scripture references are from The Jerusalem Bible Reader’s Edition, copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday & Company, Inc. as accessed from The Internet Archive website.

Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, St. Edith Stein and St. Joseph.

LET US UNITE IN PRAYER

#Carmel #novena #prayer #spiritualDesert #StEdithStein

To stand before the face of the living God—that is our vocation. The holy prophet set us an example. He stood before God’s face because this was the eternal treasure for whose sake he gave up all earthly goods.

He had no house; he lived wherever the Lord directed him from moment to moment: in loneliness beside the brook of Carith, in the little house of the poor widow of Zarephath of Sidon, or in the caves of Mount Carmel.

His clothing was an animal hide like that of that other great penitent and prophet, the Baptist. The hide of a dead animal reminds us that the human body is also subject to death.

Elijah is not concerned about his daily bread. He lives trusting in the solicitude of the heavenly Father and is marvelously sustained. A raven brings him his daily food while he is in solitude. The miraculously increased provisions of the pious widow nourish him in Zarephath.

Prior to the long trek to the holy mountain where the Lord was to appear to him, an angel with heavenly bread strengthens him. So he is for us an example of the gospel poverty that we have vowed, an authentic prototype of the Savior.

Saint Edith Stein

On the History and Spirit of Carmel

Stein, E. 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, translated from the German by Stein, W, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Prophet Elijah and the Widow of Sarepta is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist and erstwhile Capuchin friar from Genoa, Bernardo Strozzi (1581–1644). Strozzi completed this work near the end of his life in Venice, circa 1640/1644. The painting has been in the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna since at least 1733. Image credit: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/09/edith-elijahwidow/

#Elijah #food #penitence #poverty #prayer #StEdithStein #treasure #trust #WidowOfZarephath

To stand before the face of the living God—that is our vocation. The holy prophet set us an example. He stood before God’s face because this was the eternal treasure for whose sake he gave up all earthly goods.

He had no house; he lived wherever the Lord directed him from moment to moment: in loneliness beside the brook of Carith, in the little house of the poor widow of Zarephath of Sidon, or in the caves of Mount Carmel.

His clothing was an animal hide like that of that other great penitent and prophet, the Baptist. The hide of a dead animal reminds us that the human body is also subject to death.

Elijah is not concerned about his daily bread. He lives trusting in the solicitude of the heavenly Father and is marvelously sustained. A raven brings him his daily food while he is in solitude. The miraculously increased provisions of the pious widow nourish him in Zarephath.

Prior to the long trek to the holy mountain where the Lord was to appear to him, an angel with heavenly bread strengthens him. So he is for us an example of the gospel poverty that we have vowed, an authentic prototype of the Savior.

Saint Edith Stein

On the History and Spirit of Carmel

Stein, E. 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, translated from the German by Stein, W, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Prophet Elijah and the Widow of Sarepta is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist and erstwhile Capuchin friar from Genoa, Bernardo Strozzi (1581–1644). Strozzi completed this work near the end of his life in Venice, circa 1640/1644. The painting has been in the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna since at least 1733. Image credit: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/11/09/edith-elijahwidow/

#Elijah #food #penitence #poverty #prayer #StEdithStein #treasure #trust #WidowOfZarephath

Dear brothers and sisters! Because she was Jewish, Edith Stein was taken with her sister Rosa and many other Catholic Jews from the Netherlands to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she died with them in the gas chambers. Today we remember them all with deep respect. A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: “Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed”.

From now on, as we celebrate the memory of this new saint from year to year, we must also remember the Shoah, that cruel plan to exterminate a people — a plan to which millions of our Jewish brothers and sisters fell victim. May the Lord let his face shine upon them and grant them peace (cf. Nm 6:25f.).

For the love of God and man, once again I raise an anguished cry: May such criminal deeds never be repeated against any ethnic group, against any race, in any corner of this world! It is a cry to everyone: to all people of goodwill; to all who believe in the Just and Eternal God; to all who know they are joined to Christ, the Word of God made man. We must all stand together: human dignity is at stake. There is only one human family. The new saint also insisted on this: “Our love of neighbour is the measure of our love of God. For Christians — and not only for them — no one is a ‘stranger’. The love of Christ knows no borders”.

Saint John Paul II

Homily for the Canonization of Edith Stein
11 October 1998

Featured image: Repairs in anticipation of the Jubilee Year were underway at St. Peter’s Basilica on the day of St. Edith Stein’s canonization. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/10/jp2-11oct98hom/

#Auschwitz #equality #humanDignity #humanRights #humanity #inspiration #Jewish #loveOfGod #RosaStein #Shoah #StEdithStein #StJohnPaulII

Dear brothers and sisters! Because she was Jewish, Edith Stein was taken with her sister Rosa and many other Catholic Jews from the Netherlands to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she died with them in the gas chambers. Today we remember them all with deep respect. A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: “Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed”.

From now on, as we celebrate the memory of this new saint from year to year, we must also remember the Shoah, that cruel plan to exterminate a people — a plan to which millions of our Jewish brothers and sisters fell victim. May the Lord let his face shine upon them and grant them peace (cf. Nm 6:25f.).

For the love of God and man, once again I raise an anguished cry: May such criminal deeds never be repeated against any ethnic group, against any race, in any corner of this world! It is a cry to everyone: to all people of goodwill; to all who believe in the Just and Eternal God; to all who know they are joined to Christ, the Word of God made man. We must all stand together: human dignity is at stake. There is only one human family. The new saint also insisted on this: “Our love of neighbour is the measure of our love of God. For Christians — and not only for them — no one is a ‘stranger’. The love of Christ knows no borders”.

Saint John Paul II

Homily for the Canonization of Edith Stein
11 October 1998

Featured image: Repairs in anticipation of the Jubilee Year were underway at St. Peter’s Basilica on the day of St. Edith Stein’s canonization. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/10/jp2-11oct98hom/

#Auschwitz #equality #humanDignity #humanRights #humanity #inspiration #Jewish #loveOfGod #RosaStein #Shoah #StEdithStein #StJohnPaulII

A small group of nuns and visitors present for worship on the feast of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel on July 16, 1560, were discussing the obstacles to a life of prayer presented by the large number of nuns living in the monastery [of the Incarnation] and the visitors.

María de Ocampo, a young relative of the saint and a celebrated beauty, suggested that someone should establish a monastery in which the life of the ancient hermits could be revived. In all seriousness, she offered her dowry for this. The next day Teresa told her trusted friend Doña Guiomar de Ulloa (a young widow who like her led a life of prayer under the strict direction of Fr. Baltasar Alvarez) of this conversation. Doña Guiomar enthusiastically took up the idea.

But what was decisive was that the Lord himself was calling for the project.

“He assured me that he would be very well-served in a monastery I might found, that this house would become a star shedding the brightest light. God added that, even thought they had lost some of their earlier enthusiasm, the orders were nevertheless of great service to him. What would the world be if there were no more monasteries?”
[Cf. The Book of Her Life, ch. 32, no. 11]

According to the will of the Lord, the new house was to be consecrated to St. Joseph.

Saint Edith Stein

Love for Love: The life and works of St. Teresa of Jesus
12. St. Joseph’s of Avila, the First Monastery of the Reform

“I wanted to rest a little since I had hardly slept the whole night… and all the days had been truly tiring” (St. Teresa, recalling 24 August 1562).

Tweet

Stein, E. 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, translated from the German by Stein, W, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Professor José Luis Pajares Gómez shares this historic postcard showing the main entrance of St. Teresa’s first reformed monastery from his private collection. It was published in Avila around 1925 by Edición A. Medrano. Image credit: José Luis Pajares Gómez, avilas.es / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/23/edith-24aug1562/

#DiscalcedCarmelite #foundation #history #inspiration #reform #StEdithStein #StJosephSMonastery #StTeresaOfAvila #willOfGod

It seems that the last word from Edith reached a St. Lioba Sister in Freiburg who received a small penciled note from an unknown quarter; it said no more than, “Greetings from my trip to Poland. Sister Teresia Benedicta.”

Sister Teresia Renata Posselt, O.C.D.

Chapter 22, The Last News

Note: Translator and editor Suzanne Batzdorff, who is also Edith Stein’s niece, notes the following details concerning the greetings to Freiburg:

The Sister referred to here was most likely Sister Placida Laubhardt, O.S.B. (1904–1998), a close friend of Edith Stein and a member of the St. Lioba Benedictine community in Günterstal, near Freiburg. Classified as ‘non-Aryan’ by the Nazi regime due to her father’s Jewish heritage, she was later interned in Ravensbrück. Before her own deportation, Sr. Placida destroyed all the letters she had received from Edith Stein, so we must assume this note was among them. Joachim Feldes reports that during a conversation with Sr. Placida on 21 January 1998, she confirmed receiving the note, recognized Edith’s handwriting, and admitted to burning it a few days before her arrest to protect her community. According to Sr. Placida, the actual wording of the note was: “Grüße von Schwester Teresia Benedicta a Cruce. Unterwegs ad orientem” or “Greetings from Sr. Teresia Benedicta a Cruce. En route to the East.” This formulation is different from the one given by Sister Teresia Renata.

Posselt, T 2005, Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite, translated from the German by Batzdorff S, Koeppel J, and Sullivan J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The famous entrance gate to Auschwitz Camp bears the logo, “Work sets you free.” Image credit: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/09/edith-adorientem/

#Benedictine #Freiburg #greetings #lastWords #message #StEdithStein #StTeresaBenedictaOfTheCross #SusanneBatzdorff #TeresiaRenataPosselt

The cross is again raised before us. It is the sign of contradiction. The Crucified looks down on us: “are you also going to abandon me?”

In the last few months, one has often heard the complaint that the many prayers for peace are still without effect.

What right have we to be heard? Our desire for peace is undoubtedly genuine and sincere. But does it come from a completely purified heart? Have we truly prayed “in the name of Jesus,” i.e., not just with the name of Jesus on our lips, but with the spirit and in the mind of Jesus, for the glory of the Father alone, without any self-seeking?

The day on which God has unrestricted power over our hearts we shall also have unrestricted power over his.

Saint Edith Stein

The Marriage of the Lamb: For 14 September 1940 (excerpt)

St. Edith Stein, known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, embodies the “Sign of Contradiction” through her life, faith journey, and intellectual pursuits. Born into a devout Jewish family, her conversion to Catholicism created a profound tension between her heritage and newfound faith, symbolizing the personal and spiritual contradictions that marked her life. Her journey from a brilliant philosopher trained in phenomenology to a Discalced Carmelite nun highlights the harmony that can exist between rigorous intellectual pursuit and deep spiritual life.

Edith’s identity as a Catholic nun did not protect her from Nazi persecution; instead, her Jewish ancestry led to her arrest and eventual martyrdom. This tragic reality emphasizes the complex interplay between faith, ethnicity, and identity. Edith’s acceptance of suffering as a path to spiritual union with Christ is reflected in her religious name, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She saw the Cross as a symbol of both suffering and redemption, embodying the contradictions inherent in the human experience.

At her canonization on October 11, 1998, St. John Paul II described Edith Stein as “a martyr for love, who gave her life for her friends, [and] let no one surpass her in love.” Her legacy continues to challenge and inspire us to embrace the paradoxes and contradictions that arise in the pursuit of truth and spiritual growth, reminding us of the profound connection between love, suffering, and redemption.

https://youtu.be/Gu_rMiEUAFM?si=8EjZxTSbvySjF4wi

Stein, E. 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, translated from the German by Stein, W, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Rosa Stein arrived at the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Echt in July 1939 to join her sister Edith in what was believed to be the safety of Holland. Already a Roman Catholic convert, Rosa had joined the Third Order of the Teresian Carmel (now known as the OCDS). She served as an extern sister and helped in the monastery garden, where the highlighted photo was taken. In the background, we see a photograph of the Stein family from 1894. Image credits: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/08/ep19edith/

#ChristCrucified #ExaltationOfTheHolyCross #intercession #JesusChrist #monasticLife #Podcast #prayers #StEdithStein #StTeresaBenedictaOfTheCross #vows

August 9
SAINT TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS STEIN
Virgin and Martyr

Memorial
In houses in Europe: Patroness of Europe, Feast

Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family at Breslau on October 12, 1891. Through her passionate study of philosophy, she searched after truth and found it in reading the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Jesus. In 1922 she was baptized a Catholic and in 1933 she entered the Carmel of Cologne, where she took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was gassed and cremated at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942, during the Nazi persecution, and died a martyr for the Christian faith after having offered her holocaust for the people of Israel. A woman of singular intelligence and learning, she left behind a body of writing notable for its doctrinal richness and profound spirituality. She was beatified by Saint John Paul II at Cologne on May 1, 1987 and canonized in Rome on October 11, 1998. On October 1, 1999 Saint John Paul II proclaimed Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross a Co-Patroness of Europe.

From the common of martyrs or of virgins

THE SECOND READING

(Edith Stein Werke (Freiburg, 1987), 11:124-126)

From the spiritual writings of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Ave Crux, spes unica!

We greet you, Holy Cross, our only hope! The church puts these words on our lips during the time of the passion, which is dedicated to the contemplation of the bitter sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world is in flames. The struggle between Christ and antichrist rages openly, and so if you decide for Christ you can even be asked to sacrifice your life.

Contemplate the Lord who hangs before you on the wood, because he was obedient even to the death of the cross. He came into the world not to do his own will but that of the Father. And if you wish to be the spouse of the Crucified, you must renounce completely your own will and have no other aspiration than to do the will of God.

Before you, the Redeemer hangs on the cross stripped and naked, because he chose poverty. Those who would follow him must renounce every earthly possession.

Stand before the Lord who hangs from the cross with his heart torn open. He poured out the blood of his heart in order to win your heart. In order to follow him in holy chastity, your heart must be free from every earthly aspiration. Jesus Crucified must be the object of your every longing, of your every desire, of your every thought.

The world is in flames: the fire can spread even to our house, but above all the flames the cross stands on high, and it cannot be burnt. The cross is the way which leads from earth to heaven. Those who embrace it with faith, love, and hope are taken up, right into the heart of the Trinity.

The world is in flames: do you wish to put them out? Contemplate the cross: from his open heart, the blood of the Redeemer pours, blood which can put out even the flames of hell. Through the faithful observance of the vows, you make your heart open; and then the floods of that divine love will be able to flow into it, making it overflow and bear fruit to the furthest reaches of the earth.

Through the power of the cross, you can be present wherever there is pain, carried there by your compassionate charity, by that very charity which you draw from the divine heart. That charity enables you to spread everywhere the most precious blood in order to ease pain, save and redeem.

The eyes of the Crucified gaze upon you. They question you and appeal to you. Do you wish seriously to renew your alliance with him? What will your response be? Lord, where shall I go? You alone have the words of life. Ave Crux, spes unica!

RESPONSORY

R./ We preach Christ Crucified, a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the pagans, * but for those who are called, whether they be Jews or Greeks, we preach Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
V./ The desire of my heart and my prayer rises to God for their salvation; * but for those who are called, whether they be Jews or Greeks, we preach Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

PRAYER

Lord, God of our fathers,
you brought Saint Teresa Benedicta
to the fullness of the science of the cross
at the hour of her martyrdom.
Fill us with that same knowledge;
and, through her intercession,
allow us always to seek after you, the supreme truth,
and to remain faithful until death
to the covenant of love ratified in the blood of your Son
for the salvation of all men and women.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/07/edithlit24/

#Carmelite #CoPatronessOfEurope #LiturgyOfTheHours #martyr #Memorial #StEdithStein #StTeresaBenedictaOfTheCross #virgin

J.M.

Pax Christi!

Sincere thanks for your kind note. R.I.P. for your dear brother. You will be grateful that he has found release.

Since you are informed about us, I need only tell you the latest: Switzerland wishes to open its doors to my sister Rosa and myself, since the only cloistered monastery of our Order in that country—Le Pâquier in the Canton Fribourg—will receive me, and a Convent of the Third Order Carmelites an hour away [from the Carmel], my sister. The two houses have certified, to the aliens’ office of the police, that they will provide for us for our lifetimes.

The big question remains: will we be given permission here [by the Nazi occupation forces] to leave [the country]. In any case, it will probably take a long time. I would not be sad if it did not come.

After all, it is no slight matter to leave a beloved monastic family the second time. But I will accept whatever God arranges.

Will you please tell them in Speyer and Kordel about this and ask for prayers? To you and all who continue to think of me, cordial greetings.

In Corde Jesu, your

Teresa Benedicta a Cruce

Saint Edith Stein

Letter 339 to Auguste Pérignon
From Echt, 29 July 1942

Note: Auguste Pérignon was a colleague of Edith’s at St. Magdalena’s Dominican College in Speyer, Germany.

Stein, E. 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Discalced Carmelite, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Photographer A. Pushkin captures this photo of a tourist on Switzerland’s Hornli Ridge, a hiking trail from the Schwarzsee cable car station to Hornli Hut. This panoramic view above the clouds on the surrounding mountains was taken on a snowy autumn day during a vacation in Zermatt. Image credit: A. Pushkin / Adobe Stock (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/05/edith-ltr339/

#acceptance #CarmelDuPâquier #DiscalcedCarmelites #immigration #LePâquier #Nazi #nuns #refugees #RosaStein #StEdithStein #StMagdalenaSSchool #Switzerland #willOfGod

Since September 29 we’ve had a new Mother who would like me to write something again.

Echt, 5 November 1940

Just now I am gathering material for a new work since our Reverend Mother wishes me to do some scholarly work again, as far as this will be possible in our living situation and under the present circumstances. I am very grateful to be allowed once more to do something before my brain rusts completely.

Echt, 17 November 1940

I am going about my new task like a little child making its first attempts at walking.

Echt, 16 May 1941

Please, will Your Reverence also pray a little to the Holy Spirit and to our Holy Father John for what I am now planning to write. It is to be something for our Holy Father’s 400th birthday (24 June 1942)…

Echt, 8 October 1941

Because of the work I am doing I live almost constantly immersed in thoughts about our Holy Father John. That is a great grace. May I ask Your Reverence once more for prayers that I can produce something appropriate for his Jubilee?

Echt, 18 November 1941

Dear Mother,

… I am satisfied with everything. A scientia crucis [science of the cross] can be gained only when one comes to feel the Cross radically. I have been convinced of that from the first moment and have said, from my heart: Ave, Crux, spes unica!

Echt, December 1941

Dear Sister Maria,

… while working on this task it often happened when I was greatly exhausted that I had the feeling I could not penetrate to what I wished to say and to grasp. I already thought that it would always remain so. But now I feel I have renewed vigor for creative effort. Holy Father John gave me renewed impetus for some remarks concerning symbols. When I finish this manuscript I would like to send a German copy to Father Heribert [Discalced Carmelite provincial in Germany] to have it duplicated for the monasteries.

The only reason I write so little is that I need all the time for Father John.

Echt, 9 April 1942

My dear ones,

A [Red Cross] nurse from [Amsterdam] intends to speak today with the Consul. Here, every petition [on behalf] of fully Jewish Catholics has been forbidden since yesterday. Outside [the camp] an attempt can still be made, but with extremely little prospect. According to plans, a transport will leave on Friday. Could you possibly write to Mère Claire in Venlo, Kaldenkerkeweg 185 [the Ursuline Convent] to ask for [my] manuscript if they have not already sent it. We count on your prayers. There are so many persons here who need some consolation and they expect it from the Sisters.

In Corde Jesu, your grateful

B.

Westerbork transit camp, Wednesday 5 August 1942

Mother Antonia Ambrosia Engelmann, O.C.D. was elected prioress of the Carmel of Echt on 29 September 1940.  It is to her that we owe a debt of gratitude for Saint Edith Stein’s ultimate volume, The Science of the Cross. Gelber and Leuven (1993) note that although it was her final work, the manuscript was published as Vol. I in Edith Steins Werke. When Edith and Rosa were arrested in August of 1942, the completed portions of her manuscript had already been sent to a typist. Unaware of the fate that awaited her, Edith asks to retrieve that manuscript as if to continue working on it while in prison.

Stein, E. 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Discalced Carmelite, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Stein, E 2002, The Science of the Cross, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 6, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.

Featured image: The Continental Silenta typewriter was made in the 1930s in Germany. It was produced throughout the war until 1942 and was the most advanced and complicated machine of that time. The Boatworks blog, which devotes many posts to classic typewriters, indicates that the Continental Silenta now has a cult status as a super-silent typewriter. Image credit: Skitterphoto / Pexels (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/04/edith-5aug42science/

#author #AveCruxSpesUnica #CarmelOfEcht #manuscript #MotherAntoniaAmbrosiaEngelmann #StEdithStein #StJohnOfTheCross #StTeresaBenedictaOfTheCross #TheScienceOfTheCross #Westerbork

It’s early in the morning and the abbey church is still empty. Edith Stein is sitting on one of the front pews. She kneels down in adoration of the mystery of the Incarnate Truth in silence.

It is a time of day she loves, when she lives in the expectation of a love which has fulfilled her passionate search for truth. She is alone with Him and that is sufficient for her. She has everything. Her thirst for truth has been quenched beyond her wildest dreams.

The to-ing and fro-ing and illusions of the university, [and] immersion in the fascinating world of philosophy as a path to find the ultimate meaning of the real and of life are all distant memories as if they belonged to a different life: “My anxiety for the truth was my unique prayer”, she would later say referring to those years.

This virtue or way of living our existence is at the root of mature prayer.

Nothing less is asked of the person praying than to allow himself to be called, [awakened], to be taken by surprise by God’s truth in the way He wants to reveal it, in an infinity of imaginable faces, without anything defining them nor fitting any framework. Only an honest attitude of letting go of what we expect and know will allow us to faithfully perceive today the music therein contained coming towards me.

One night, once [Edith] had read the Book of the Life of St. Teresa, at one sitting and chosen almost at random, her life would take off straightaway in one direction: towards the mysterious, unfathomable God, whom she had discovered in Teresa of Jesus and had recognised in relation to other living Christians, as a God who is all love, all nearness, a blazing fire.

It is the culmination of different experiences which bring her to this moment.

This discovery was not just an achievement of her yearning. Something startling and amazing had happened to her: she had begun to understand that Christianity is an immense Gift, a great boon.

Some would say the gift of conversion, but we think it would be better to call it the gift of a Love capable of lighting up the most frustrated corners of the intellect [and], above all, capable of giving warmth, light to the roots of the whole being.

Such is the seed which falls into a well-prepared soil, hungry for truth, weary of half-truths, jaded by empty words. The soil of her whole being, reaching out and clamouring to the unknown, received the seed of the only Love which is Life.

The gift of Love had reached her, greater than any imaginable discovery. The seed would be made fruitful, complete step by step: baptism, Communion…

Silent prayer and liturgy gradually became two realms to quell her suffering wounds. She was set on a path, launched by her hunger for truth.

Father Miguel Márquez Calle, o.c.d.

Naked before the truth (excerpts)
English translation graciously provided by the author

Márquez Calle, M 1999, El Riesgo de La Confianza: Cómo Descubrir a Dios Sin Huir de Mí Mismo, Desclée de Brouwer, Bilbao, Spain.

Featured image: Photographer Eric Aldrich captures this image of a woman praying alone in the silence of the Discalced Carmelite basilica at Holy Hill, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Image credit: Eric Aldrich / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/02/marquez-edithtruth/

#gift #love #MiguelMárquezCalle #prayer #silence #StEdithStein #StTeresaOfAvila #truth

The Pastoral Letter from the Dutch bishops
26 July 1942

Saint Edith Stein’s biographer and former novice mistress, Sister Teresia Renata Posselt, O.C.D. of the Carmel of Cologne witnessed from a distance the events in the Netherlands leading to the arrest of Edith Stein. She tells us that even in Germany, Hitler’s regime was targeting Discalced Carmelite nuns:

The first victims were the Sisters in Luxembourg who were driven out of their monastery in February 1941 so that it could be made into a clubhouse and dance-hall for the B.d.M. [League of German Girls]. Scarcely had these homeless nuns found refuge with their Sisters in Pützchen before this Carmel also, together with the Carmel of Aachen, was dissolved in a space of two hours by the arbitrary power of the Gestapo. Düren followed in August of the same year.

Sr. Teresia Renata indicates that during that same time frame, relations between the regime and the Dutch bishops had deteriorated:

In Holland, the regulations issued against the Jews grew steadily more fierce. In August 1941, a conflict had already arisen between the Dutch Episcopate and the German authorities.

Among the measures in Holland that caused the Dutch bishops to bristle: a 1941 decree from the regime, which stated that only Jewish teachers could teach Jewish children. The decree meant that Catholic children of Jewish parentage no longer could attend Catholic schools. Cardinal de Jong of Utrecht protested, declaring that Catholic schools would never exclude children because of their heritage.

When the Nazi regime next decreed that signs stating “Forbidden to Jews” should be posted on all public buildings, once again the Dutch bishops refused to comply. But all of these measures paled in comparison to what followed, as Sr. Teresia Renata explains:

Yet the exclusion of Jews from public life was nothing when compared to the mass deportations of men, women, and children, indeed of whole Jewish families, that began in 1942. As was generally feared, many of them went to meet certain death in the Polish concentration camps, where they were either gassed or driven to do inhuman work in the salt, lead, or tin mines.

Thus it followed that a telegram was sent to the highest Nazi official in the Netherlands (Reichskommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart) on 11 July 1942 by a united, ecumenical representation of Dutch churches expressing their anger at the deportations.

The Nazi regime replied that any converted Jews who became Christians before 1941 would be spared deportation. However, the Dutch churches, including the Catholics, were not appeased; they were still opposed to the mass deportations of the Jews.

Sr. Teresia Renata describes what happened next:

[T]herefore they resolved to issue a joint protest in writing that was to be read publicly in all the churches on Sunday 26 July 1942. The proclamation should contain the text of the telegram sent to Seyss-Inquart on 11 July 1942. But even before the day on which it was to be read, Seyss-Inquart and Schmidt [his associate, the General-Kommissar] found out about the content of this joint letter of the church communities.

On 24 July the Nazi officials made concerted efforts to persuade church leaders to omit the text of the 11 July protest telegram from their public proclamation to be read from the pulpit. Some were ready to relent, but Cardinal de Jong of Utrecht stood his ground. That a worldly power should intervene to influence the pastoral duties of the bishops was unthinkable.

Furthermore, the Dutch bishops’ pastoral letter had already been written on 20 July and distributed. It was impossible to retract the statement on purely practical grounds.

Thus on Sunday 26 July 1942, the pastoral letter of the Dutch episcopal conference was read in every church at every Mass. Sr. Teresia Renata tells us that the letter began as follows:

We are experiencing a time of great distress, as well from a spiritual as from a material standpoint. But there are two problems greater than any others, that of the Jews and that of those who are deported to forced labor abroad.

We must all become deeply aware of these dangers, and it is the purpose of this joint pastoral letter to make you conscious of them.

Such distress must also be brought to the notice of those who exercise power over these people. Therefore the Most Reverend [Catholic] Episcopate of the Netherlands, in conjunction with almost all the other church communities in the Netherlands, has turned to the authorities of the occupying forces; for the Jews among others, in a telegram with the following content dispatched on Saturday 11 July of this year:

“The undersigned church communities of the Netherlands, deeply shaken by the measures taken against the Jews in the Netherlands that have excluded them from participation in the normal life of the people, have learned with horror of the latest regulations by which men, women, children, and whole families are to be deported to the territory of the German Reich…”

The Nazi response was swift. On the following Sunday, 2 August 1942, Jewish converts in religious Orders were rounded up all over the Netherlands. St. Edith Stein and her sister Rosa were among them.

On the same day, General-Kommissar Schmidt publicly announced that the deportations were a direct reprisal against the pastoral letter that was read in the churches on 26 July. Sr. Teresia Renata tells us that Schmidt pressed the issue further:

Since the Catholic hierarchy… refuses to trouble about negotiations [to edit their letter], then we, for our part, are compelled to regard the Catholic Jews as our worst enemies and consequently see to their deportation to the East with all possible speed.

So it was that a Verbite priest remarked later: “all these religious, both men and women, truly died in testimonium fidei [in witness to the faith as martyrs], because their arrest was an act of reprisal for the bishops’ pastoral letter.”

Sister Teresia Renata Posselt, O.C.D.

Chapter 20, Plans of escape (excerpts)

Note: On the same day that the Catholic bishops’ pastoral letter was read in all the Dutch parishes, St. Titus Brandsma died a martyr in Dachau, on 26 July 1942. Edith and Rosa Stein were among scores of “Catholic Jews” who were arrested on 2 August 1942.

Posselt, T 2005, Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite, translated from the German by Batzdorff S, Koeppel J, and Sullivan J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Dutch episcopal conference met in the Bishop’s Palace in Utrecht on 14 December 1943. From left to right: Bishop J.P. Huybers (Haarlem), Bishop P. Hopmans (Breda), Cardinal Archbishop Dr. J. de Jong (Utrecht), Bishop G. Lemmens (Roermond, in which diocese the Carmel of Echt was located), Bishop W.P.A.M. Mutsaerts (Den Bosch). Image credit: NIOD Photo Archives (used by permission) 

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/01/posselt-nedbish/

#bishops #Holocaust #Jews #NationalSocialists #Nazi #Netherlands #pastoralLetter #repression #StEdithStein #TeresiaRenataPosselt

Along came Fräulein Stein. She took over the German classes in the teachers’ college and in the girls’ school, and guided her pupils calmly and safely through to their final examinations. Her educational work was very fruitful; she quickly won the hearts of her pupils.

Teresia Renata Posselt, O.C.D.
“Fraülein Doktor”

The letters from Saint Edith Stein to Dr. Roman Ingarden in 1924 offer a rich tapestry of spiritual and intellectual engagement, reflecting their deep relationship. Dr. Roman Ingarden, a distinguished Polish philosopher and phenomenologist, shared a great bond of friendship and intellectual camaraderie with Edith. Their correspondence reveals mutual respect and a shared passion for the pursuit of truth, blending rigorous philosophical inquiry with spiritual depth.

In her letters, Saint Edith discusses her life at St. Magdalena’s Dominican convent school in Speyer, expressing the joy and fulfillment she finds in her teaching vocation. Her reflections highlight the importance of a spiritually nurturing community, contrasting it with her previous secular academic environments. Edith’s words convey deep gratitude for the religious foundation permeating her daily life.

St. Edith Stein’s correspondence with Roman Ingarden also reflects her evangelical zeal and pastoral sensitivity. She challenges his misconceptions about Catholic dogma with charity and intellectual rigor, inviting him to reconsider his views. Through her thoughtful engagement, Edith exemplifies the Christian call to bear witness to the truth in love, encouraging her friend to explore the rich intellectual and spiritual heritage of the Church.

Her letters serve as a beacon, illuminating the path of sincere and open dialogue, guided by the light of Christ’s truth.

• Day One: Providence
  “I received an offer” (Letter 84)
• Day Two: Service 
  “I am now employed” (Letter 84)
• Day Three: Community 
  “An ideal situation” (Letter 84)
• Day Four: Enrichment 
  “The main thing for me” (Letter 84)
• Day Five: Integrity 
  “A very serious undertaking” (Letter 85)
• Day Six: Challenge 
  “Until a few years ago” (Letter 85)
• Day Seven: Study 
  “Intellectual matter of conscience” (Letter 85)
• Day Eight: Respect 
  “Idiots or clever defrauders” (Letter 85)
• Day Nine: Empathy
  “The guilt lies with me” (Letter 87)

NOVENA PRAYER

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross,
called from the people of the Old Covenant,
help us to live together in peace and
to foster reconciliation between peoples and religions;
graced with the freedom of the spirit,
be close to all who seek the meaning of their lives,
the truth, and deliverance from all bondage.

(here mention your intentions)

Perfected in the wisdom of the Cross,
accompany us and all people
in every distress of body and soul.

Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory be…

Saint Edith Stein, pray for us.

Novena prayer from the Carmel of Mary of Peace in Cologne, Germany
Image of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) © 2023 Ruben Ferreira. Used by kind permission. Visit rubenferreiraart.com to explore more inspirational art by Ruben Ferreira.

Posselt, T 2005, Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite, translated from the German by Batzdorff S, Koeppel J, and Sullivan J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Stein, E. 2014, Edith Stein: Letters to Roman Ingarden, translated from the German by Hunt, H, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

All scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.

Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.

Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/26/edithnov24-0/

#contemplation #intercession #letters #novena #Podcast #prayer #RomanIngarden #spiritualDirection #StEdithStein #truth #zeal

Along came Fräulein Stein. She took over the German classes in the teachers’ college and in the girls’ school, and guided her pupils calmly and safely through to their final examinations. Her educational work was very fruitful; she quickly won the hearts of her pupils.

Teresia Renata Posselt, O.C.D.
“Fraülein Doktor”

The letters from Saint Edith Stein to Dr. Roman Ingarden in 1924 offer a rich tapestry of spiritual and intellectual engagement, reflecting their deep relationship. Dr. Roman Ingarden, a distinguished Polish philosopher and phenomenologist, shared a great bond of friendship and intellectual camaraderie with Edith. Their correspondence reveals mutual respect and a shared passion for the pursuit of truth, blending rigorous philosophical inquiry with spiritual depth.

In her letters, Saint Edith discusses her life at St. Magdalena’s Dominican convent school in Speyer, expressing the joy and fulfillment she finds in her teaching vocation. Her reflections highlight the importance of a spiritually nurturing community, contrasting it with her previous secular academic environments. Edith’s words convey deep gratitude for the religious foundation permeating her daily life.

St. Edith Stein’s correspondence with Roman Ingarden also reflects her evangelical zeal and pastoral sensitivity. She challenges his misconceptions about Catholic dogma with charity and intellectual rigor, inviting him to reconsider his views. Through her thoughtful engagement, Edith exemplifies the Christian call to bear witness to the truth in love, encouraging her friend to explore the rich intellectual and spiritual heritage of the Church.

Her letters serve as a beacon, illuminating the path of sincere and open dialogue, guided by the light of Christ’s truth.

• Day One: Providence
  “I received an offer” (Letter 84)
• Day Two: Service 
  “I am now employed” (Letter 84)
• Day Three: Community 
  “An ideal situation” (Letter 84)
• Day Four: Enrichment 
  “The main thing for me” (Letter 84)
• Day Five: Integrity 
  “A very serious undertaking” (Letter 85)
• Day Six: Challenge 
  “Until a few years ago” (Letter 85)
• Day Seven: Study 
  “Intellectual matter of conscience” (Letter 85)
• Day Eight: Respect 
  “Idiots or clever defrauders” (Letter 85)
• Day Nine: Empathy
  “The guilt lies with me” (Letter 87)

NOVENA PRAYER

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross,
called from the people of the Old Covenant,
help us to live together in peace and
to foster reconciliation between peoples and religions;
graced with the freedom of the spirit,
be close to all who seek the meaning of their lives,
the truth, and deliverance from all bondage.

(here mention your intentions)

Perfected in the wisdom of the Cross,
accompany us and all people
in every distress of body and soul.

Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory be…

Saint Edith Stein, pray for us.

Novena prayer from the Carmel of Mary of Peace in Cologne, Germany
Image of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) © 2023 Ruben Ferreira. Used by kind permission. Visit rubenferreiraart.com to explore more inspirational art by Ruben Ferreira.

Posselt, T 2005, Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite, translated from the German by Batzdorff S, Koeppel J, and Sullivan J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Stein, E. 2014, Edith Stein: Letters to Roman Ingarden, translated from the German by Hunt, H, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

All scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.

Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.

Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/26/edithnov24-0/

#contemplation #intercession #letters #novena #Podcast #prayer #RomanIngarden #spiritualDirection #StEdithStein #truth #zeal

Along came Fräulein Stein. She took over the German classes in the teachers’ college and in the girls’ school, and guided her pupils calmly and safely through to their final examinations. Her educational work was very fruitful; she quickly won the hearts of her pupils.

Teresia Renata Posselt, O.C.D.
“Fraülein Doktor”

The letters from Saint Edith Stein to Dr. Roman Ingarden in 1924 offer a rich tapestry of spiritual and intellectual engagement, reflecting their deep relationship. Dr. Roman Ingarden, a distinguished Polish philosopher and phenomenologist, shared a great bond of friendship and intellectual camaraderie with Edith. Their correspondence reveals mutual respect and a shared passion for the pursuit of truth, blending rigorous philosophical inquiry with spiritual depth.

In her letters, Saint Edith discusses her life at St. Magdalena’s Dominican convent school in Speyer, expressing the joy and fulfillment she finds in her teaching vocation. Her reflections highlight the importance of a spiritually nurturing community, contrasting it with her previous secular academic environments. Edith’s words convey deep gratitude for the religious foundation permeating her daily life.

St. Edith Stein’s correspondence with Roman Ingarden also reflects her evangelical zeal and pastoral sensitivity. She challenges his misconceptions about Catholic dogma with charity and intellectual rigor, inviting him to reconsider his views. Through her thoughtful engagement, Edith exemplifies the Christian call to bear witness to the truth in love, encouraging her friend to explore the rich intellectual and spiritual heritage of the Church.

Her letters serve as a beacon, illuminating the path of sincere and open dialogue, guided by the light of Christ’s truth.

• Day One: Providence
  “I received an offer” (Letter 84)
• Day Two: Service 
  “I am now employed” (Letter 84)
• Day Three: Community 
  “An ideal situation” (Letter 84)
• Day Four: Enrichment 
  “The main thing for me” (Letter 84)
• Day Five: Integrity 
  “A very serious undertaking” (Letter 85)
• Day Six: Challenge 
  “Until a few years ago” (Letter 85)
• Day Seven: Study 
  “Intellectual matter of conscience” (Letter 85)
• Day Eight: Respect 
  “Idiots or clever defrauders” (Letter 85)
• Day Nine: Empathy
  “The guilt lies with me” (Letter 87)

NOVENA PRAYER

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross,
called from the people of the Old Covenant,
help us to live together in peace and
to foster reconciliation between peoples and religions;
graced with the freedom of the spirit,
be close to all who seek the meaning of their lives,
the truth, and deliverance from all bondage.

(here mention your intentions)

Perfected in the wisdom of the Cross,
accompany us and all people
in every distress of body and soul.

Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory be…

Saint Edith Stein, pray for us.

Novena prayer from the Carmel of Mary of Peace in Cologne, Germany
Image of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) © 2023 Ruben Ferreira. Used by kind permission. Visit rubenferreiraart.com to explore more inspirational art by Ruben Ferreira.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2BBGJJN9ohYIaHMI1BXx4m?si=5b24152779e84441

Posselt, T 2005, Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite, translated from the German by Batzdorff S, Koeppel J, and Sullivan J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Stein, E. 2014, Edith Stein: Letters to Roman Ingarden, translated from the German by Hunt, H, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

All scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.

Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.

Let us unite in prayer

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/26/edithnov24-0/

#contemplation #intercession #letters #novena #Podcast #prayer #RomanIngarden #spiritualDirection #StEdithStein #truth #zeal

On 5 July 1942, the nuns of the Carmel of Le Pâquier, Switzerland voted to receive Edith Stein (Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). Read her heartfelt thank you note expressing gratitude and hope. #history #stedithstein

http://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/04/edith-ltr338/

On 5 July 1942, the nuns of the Carmel of Le Pâquier, Switzerland voted to receive Edith Stein (Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). Read her heartfelt thank you note expressing gratitude and hope. #history #stedithstein

http://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/04/edith-ltr338/

The soul united with Christ lives out of his life—however, only in surrender to the Crucified when she has traveled the entire way of the cross with him. Nowhere is this expressed more clearly and more urgently than in the message of St. Paul who already had a well-developed science of the cross, a theology of the cross derived from inner experience.

“Christ sent me to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.… For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” [1 Cor 1:17–18]

“Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” [1 Cor 1:22–24]

The word from the cross is the gospel of Paul—the message he announced to Jews and pagans. It is a plain witness, without a trace of grandiloquence, without any effort to convince on the grounds of reason. It derives its entire force from that which it proclaims.

And that is the cross of Christ, that is, the death of Christ on the cross, and the crucified Christ himself.

Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom not only as one sent by God, as God’s Son who is himself God, but as the Crucified One. For the death on the cross is the salvific solution invented by God’s unfathomable wisdom.

In order to show that human power and human wisdom are incapable of achieving salvation, he gives salvific power to what appears to human estimation to be weak and foolish, to him who wishes to be nothing on his own, but allows the power of God alone to work in him, who has “emptied himself” and “become obedient to death on the cross” [cf. Phil 2:7–8]

The saving power: this is the power that awakens to life those in whom divine life had died through sin. This saving power had entered the Word from the cross and through this word passes over into all who receive it, who open themselves to it, without demanding miraculous signs or human wisdom’s reasons.

In them, it becomes the life-giving and life-forming power that we have named the science of the cross.

Saint Edith Stein

Introduction: The Message of Sacred Scripture

Stein, E 2002, The Science of the Cross, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 6, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.

Featured image: The crucifixion of Christ is the central window in the Corona Chapel or Beckett’s Crown in Canterbury Cathedral. The window dates from 1200; the center panel was fully recreated in 1853 and the typological scenes are the original stained glass from the medieval period. Image credit: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/03/28/edith-scicross/

#cross #crucifixion #death #Gospel #JesusChrist #power #salvation #science #StEdithStein #StPaul #theology #wisdom

The soul united with Christ lives out of his life—however, only in surrender to the Crucified when she has traveled the entire way of the cross with him. Nowhere is this expressed more clearly and more urgently than in the message of St. Paul who already had a well-developed science of the cross, a theology of the cross derived from inner experience.

“Christ sent me to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.… For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” [1 Cor 1:17–18]

“Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” [1 Cor 1:22–24]

The word from the cross is the gospel of Paul—the message he announced to Jews and pagans. It is a plain witness, without a trace of grandiloquence, without any effort to convince on the grounds of reason. It derives its entire force from that which it proclaims.

And that is the cross of Christ, that is, the death of Christ on the cross, and the crucified Christ himself.

Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom not only as one sent by God, as God’s Son who is himself God, but as the Crucified One. For the death on the cross is the salvific solution invented by God’s unfathomable wisdom.

In order to show that human power and human wisdom are incapable of achieving salvation, he gives salvific power to what appears to human estimation to be weak and foolish, to him who wishes to be nothing on his own, but allows the power of God alone to work in him, who has “emptied himself” and “become obedient to death on the cross” [cf. Phil 2:7–8]

The saving power: this is the power that awakens to life those in whom divine life had died through sin. This saving power had entered the Word from the cross and through this word passes over into all who receive it, who open themselves to it, without demanding miraculous signs or human wisdom’s reasons.

In them, it becomes the life-giving and life-forming power that we have named the science of the cross.

Saint Edith Stein

Introduction: The Message of Sacred Scripture

Stein, E 2002, The Science of the Cross, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 6, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.

Featured image: The crucifixion of Christ is the central window in the Corona Chapel or Beckett’s Crown in Canterbury Cathedral. The window dates from 1200; the center panel was fully recreated in 1853 and the typological scenes are the original stained glass from the medieval period. Image credit: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/03/28/edith-scicross/

#cross #crucifixion #death #Gospel #JesusChrist #power #salvation #science #StEdithStein #StPaul #theology #wisdom

The soul united with Christ lives out of his life—however, only in surrender to the Crucified when she has traveled the entire way of the cross with him. Nowhere is this expressed more clearly and more urgently than in the message of St. Paul who already had a well-developed science of the cross, a theology of the cross derived from inner experience.

“Christ sent me to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.… For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” [1 Cor 1:17–18]

“Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” [1 Cor 1:22–24]

The word from the cross is the gospel of Paul—the message he announced to Jews and pagans. It is a plain witness, without a trace of grandiloquence, without any effort to convince on the grounds of reason. It derives its entire force from that which it proclaims.

And that is the cross of Christ, that is, the death of Christ on the cross, and the crucified Christ himself.

Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom not only as one sent by God, as God’s Son who is himself God, but as the Crucified One. For the death on the cross is the salvific solution invented by God’s unfathomable wisdom.

In order to show that human power and human wisdom are incapable of achieving salvation, he gives salvific power to what appears to human estimation to be weak and foolish, to him who wishes to be nothing on his own, but allows the power of God alone to work in him, who has “emptied himself” and “become obedient to death on the cross” [cf. Phil 2:7–8]

The saving power: this is the power that awakens to life those in whom divine life had died through sin. This saving power had entered the Word from the cross and through this word passes over into all who receive it, who open themselves to it, without demanding miraculous signs or human wisdom’s reasons.

In them, it becomes the life-giving and life-forming power that we have named the science of the cross.

Saint Edith Stein

Introduction: The Message of Sacred Scripture

Stein, E 2002, The Science of the Cross, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 6, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.

Featured image: The crucifixion of Christ is the central window in the Corona Chapel or Beckett’s Crown in Canterbury Cathedral. The window dates from 1200; the center panel was fully recreated in 1853 and the typological scenes are the original stained glass from the medieval period. Image credit: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/03/28/edith-scicross/

#cross #crucifixion #death #Gospel #JesusChrist #power #salvation #science #StEdithStein #StPaul #theology #wisdom

On Sunday 31 March 1935 the Augsburg Post newspaper published an article by #EdithStein on the history & spirit of Carmel. She explained the essence of our Rule, to "meditate on the Law of the Lord" and "to watch in prayer."

Learn more:
http://carmelitequotes.blog/2023/03/30/edith-31mar1935/

#StEdithStein #prayer #Catholic #Carmelite #quote

On Sunday 31 March 1935 the Augsburg Post newspaper published an article by #EdithStein on the history & spirit of Carmel. She explained the essence of our Rule, to "meditate on the Law of the Lord" and "to watch in prayer."

Learn more:
http://carmelitequotes.blog/2023/03/30/edith-31mar1935/

#StEdithStein #prayer #Catholic #Carmelite #quote

"Should we strive for perfect love, you ask? Absolutely. For this we were created."
#StEdithStein

#perfection #love #God #Jesus #holiness #saints #Catholic #Carmelite #quote

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2019/03/29/quote-of-the-day-30-march/

"Should we strive for perfect love, you ask? Absolutely. For this we were created."
#StEdithStein

#perfection #love #God #Jesus #holiness #saints #Catholic #Carmelite #quote

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2019/03/29/quote-of-the-day-30-march/

#EdithStein received the sacrament of Confirmation #onthisday in 1922. Visit our blog to read quotes about her conversion from her novice mistress, a Carmelite scholar, and Edith herself.
🕊️ Happy Anniversary!
http://carmelitequotes.blog/2023/02/01/edith-confirm/

#stedithstein #stteresabenedicta #conversion #salvation #grace #stteresaofavila #catechism #baptism #confirmation #sacraments #catholic #carmelite #quotes

#EdithStein received the sacrament of Confirmation #onthisday in 1922. Visit our blog to read quotes about her conversion from her novice mistress, a Carmelite scholar, and Edith herself.
🕊️ Happy Anniversary!
http://carmelitequotes.blog/2023/02/01/edith-confirm/

#stedithstein #stteresabenedicta #conversion #salvation #grace #stteresaofavila #catechism #baptism #confirmation #sacraments #catholic #carmelite #quotes

"Faith is a gift that must be accepted. In #faith divine and #human #freedom meet. But it is a #gift that bids us ask for more.

"As dark and lacking the evidence of insight, faith awakens a #yearning for unveiled clarity; as mediated #encounter, it awakens a #longing for an immediate encounter with #God. Indeed the very content of faith awakens #desire by promising the beatific #vision."
#StEdithStein

#Catholic #Carmelite #quotes

"Faith is a gift that must be accepted. In #faith divine and #human #freedom meet. But it is a #gift that bids us ask for more.

"As dark and lacking the evidence of insight, faith awakens a #yearning for unveiled clarity; as mediated #encounter, it awakens a #longing for an immediate encounter with #God. Indeed the very content of faith awakens #desire by promising the beatific #vision."
#StEdithStein

#Catholic #Carmelite #quotes

"There is a vocation to suffer with Christ and thereby to cooperate with him in his work of salvation.

"When we are united with the Lord, we are members of the mystical body of Christ: Christ lives on in his members and continues to suffer in them. And the suffering borne in union with the Lord is his suffering, incorporated in the great work of salvation and fruitful therein."
#StEdithStein

#vocation #Jesus #calling #suffering #salvation #cooperation #union #Catholic #Carmelite #quotes

"There is a vocation to suffer with Christ and thereby to cooperate with him in his work of salvation.

"When we are united with the Lord, we are members of the mystical body of Christ: Christ lives on in his members and continues to suffer in them. And the suffering borne in union with the Lord is his suffering, incorporated in the great work of salvation and fruitful therein."
#StEdithStein

#vocation #Jesus #calling #suffering #salvation #cooperation #union #Catholic #Carmelite #quotes

On St Stephen's feast day, St Edith Stein pauses to write to a former student; she explains the vocation “to suffer with Christ and thereby to cooperate with him in his work of salvation.”

Read her letter:
http://carmelitequotes.blog/2022/12/25/edith-26dec32/

#StEdithStein #StStephen #deacon #martyr #manuscript #illumination #art #Italian #gradual #Catholic #Carmelite #quotes

On St Stephen's feast day, St Edith Stein pauses to write to a former student; she explains the vocation “to suffer with Christ and thereby to cooperate with him in his work of salvation.”

Read her letter:
http://carmelitequotes.blog/2022/12/25/edith-26dec32/

#StEdithStein #StStephen #deacon #martyr #manuscript #illumination #art #Italian #gradual #Catholic #Carmelite #quotes