Framing Prayer 14 Carmelites and The Cross

Continuing with the same meditation of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, one reads:

"....there is also a danger that any natural affection may degenerate into passion with all of its devastating consequences. God has provided two remedies for this : marriage and virginity. Virginity is the more radical and precisely therefore the easier...Marriage is already a great mystery as the symbol of the bond between Christ and the Church and at the same time as its instrument. But virginity is still the deeper mystery. It is not only the symbol and instrument of bridal union with Christ and of the union's supernatural fruitfulness, but also participates in the union. It originates in the depths of the divine life and leads back to it again. The eternal Father in unconditional love has given his entire being to his Son. ..."

These thoughts are why one priest I know encourages young men to either choose celibacy as a brother, or get married, as there are graces in the decision of a lifestyle if one does not feel called to be a priest.

One's prayer flows out of one's vocation. God the Son came into the world into order to bring us all up to His Father. The saint writes, "This is the divine fertility of his (Jesus) eternal virginity: that he can give souls supernatural life."

"Divine virginity has a characteristic aversion to sin as the contrary of divine holiness."

And, yet, sinners find love from the true celibate, as they share in Christ's love. "Christ has come to tear sinners away from sin and to restore the divine image in defiled souls. He comes as a child of sin--his genealogy and the entire history  of the Old Covenant show this--and he seeks the company of sinners as 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."

St. Teresa Benedicta writes that the virginal soul has no fear of sin. Mary at the foot of the Cross, the most perfect of humans and most pure, "becomes the Mother of Grace."

For the laity, choice of vocation determines prayer, but the Carmelite embracing of the Cross may be a very useful focus in these times for many lay people.

This end the view taken from the works of Edith Stein. Tomorrow I move back to Elizabeth of the Trinity, looked at briefly early this year.

Framing Prayer 13 Carmelites and The Cross 2

How wonderful to have synchronicity in one's spiritual life. This type of thing happens to me frequently.

Deciding to use St. Teresa Benedicta is this series was a no brainer, as she lived in horrid times of persecution of the Jews and the Church. We are at the cusp of such a time now.

Her movement back into Thomism has been another reason why I have been attracted to her, as I studied Phenomenology for so many years, becoming more and more unhappy with the system, and moving into a more disciplined study of Aquinas.

But, it is St. Teresa Benedicta's love of the cross, and her great understanding of keeping the Faith under trials which makes her a person to emulate regarding prayer.

Prayer just does not pop out of nothing. We need frameworks of prayer. For many of the laity, the rosary and daily Mass, with the readings, (an excellent source for meditations, as I have shared on this blog), form the frame of prayer. But, the richness of the orders give us so much more.

Let me share one more part of a meditation of St. Teresa Benedicta's which she wrote for sharing on September 14, 1941, less than a year before her death. I remember that my dad, who is still alive, was in Europe in the trenches fighting the same foes which would kill this lovely saint.

In this meditation, St. Teresa Benedicta reminds her readers and her listeners of the three nails in the Cross representing the three vows taken by the nuns-poverty, chastity, and obedience, three ways Christ Himself chose to live in His life on earth.

She notes that Christ did not need to embrace poverty, celibacy and obedience, as He was completely detached from all worldly things, but she writes, "Whoever follows him must know that we have no lasting dwelling here. The more deeply we feel this, the more zealous we are in striving for the future, and we rejoice in the thought of our citizenship of heaven."

Teresa was aware and shared in this meditation that the nuns may have had to vacate their monastery because of the coming persecution against orders as revenge for the bishops' statement against the treatment of the Jews. She reminded her sisters in the Lord that God did not promise them when they made vows that they could stay behind the walls. And, her insight moves to something WE must ponder, as I have mentioned this many times on this blog--life without the sacraments.

"For us they are the prescribed means to grace, and we cannot receive them eagerly enough. But God is not bound to them. At the moment when some external force were to cut us off from receiving the sacraments, he would compensate us, superabundantly, in some other way, and he will do so all the more certainly and generously the more faithfully we have adhered to the sacraments previously."

As lay people, we should not hesitate to receive the sacraments as much as possible. Father Dan yesterday stressed this as well-synchronicity, indeed. Teresa reminds us that our lives are determined by God's will if we so desire his will. Then, she returns to the ideal of obedience, pointing out that Christ's life was reparation for the Original Sin of disobedience.

"The created will is not destined to be free to exalt itself. It is called to come into unison with the divine will. If it freely submits itself to this unison, then it is permitted in freedom to participate in the perfection of creation"

Go back and re-read the perfection posts....Here, St Teresa sounds like Garrigou-Lagrange and the other teachers of prayer quoted on this blog.

"If a free creature declines this unison, it lapses into bondage. The human will continues to retain the possibility of choice, but it is constrained by creatures that pull and pressure it in directions from straying from the directions straying from the development of the nature desired by God, and so away from the goal toward which it was directed by its original freedom. With the loss of original freedom, it also loses security in making decisions. It becomes unsteady and wavering, buffeted by doubt and scruples or obdurate in its error. There is no other remedy for this than the following of Christ, the Son of Man, who not only promptly obeyed his heavenly Father, but also subjected himself to people who imposed the Father's will on him. The obedience enjoined by God releases the enslaved will from the bonds of creatures  and leads it back to freedom. Thus, it is also the way to purity of heart."

I need to rush off, so I shall continue with this meditation of St. Teresa Benedicta's later in the day. Those of us who are about to experience persecution need her comforting words.

Framing Prayer 12 Carmelites and The Cross

St. Teresa Benedicta is, indeed, a saint for our time. In April of 1933, Hitler enforced a law that no Jews could hold a university position. On August 9th, 1942, St. Teresa Benedicta was killed in a gas chamber at Birkenau, Auschwitz. There can be no doubt that this saint knew the coming of her end. We see this in her studies on the sufferings and Cross of Christ.

For the lay person, meditation cannot be seen as an option, as I have noted on this blog since 2012, and as Father Dan emphasized yesterday.

St. Teresa Benedicta's thoughts on the Cross can help any lay person with the growing darkness of our nation, of our world.

Today, I wonder whether I shall ever see my dear son again, if circumstances will prevent me from sharing his life, and even sharing his or my death.

By concentrating on the Cross, at a time, when as the saint notes, "...the need and misery, and the abyss of human malice, again and again dampens jubilation over the victory of light. The world is still deluged by mire, and still only a small flock has escaped from it to the highest mountain peaks. The battle between Christ and the Antichrist is not yet over. The followers of Christ have their place in this battle, and their chief weapon is the cross."

"What does this mean? The burden of the cross that Christ assumed is that of corrupted human nature, with all its consequences in sin and suffering to which fallen humanity is subject. The meaning of the cross is to carry this burden out of the world. The restoration of freed humanity to the heart of the heavenly Father, taking on the status of a child, is the free gift of grace, of merciful love. But this may not occur at the expense of divine holiness and justice. The entire sum of human failures from the first Fall up to the Day of Judgment must be blotted out by a corresponding measure of expiation."

"The way of the cross is this expiation...The Saviour is not alone on the way of the cross...Everyone who, in the course of time, has borne an onerous destiny in remembrance of the suffering Saviour, or who has freely taken up works of expiation has by doing so cancelled some of the heavy load of human sin and has helped the Lord carry his burden."

What St. Teresa Benedicta is writing about is reparation...follow the tags for more of my blogs on this. We have forgotten what it means to be joined to the suffering of Christ. And, this is an honor. To be ask to join with Christ in his passion may be one of the greatest graces of our times.

The following words are astounding. "Or rather, Christ the head effects expiation in these members of his Mystical Body who put themselves body and soul at his disposal for carrying out his work of salvation."

Christ reaching out to us on the Cross is not only a comfort, but a sign of our duty to suffer with and in him.

The saint continues, "The lovers of the cross whom he has awakened and will always continue to awaken anew in the changeable history of the struggling Church, these are his allies at the end of time. We, too, are called to that purpose."

Many of us are suffering at this time of growing paganism, of the surety of the loss of freedoms, of the prospect of imprisoned priests and harassed laity.  St. Theresa Benedicta's world was similar to ours--a time of growing tyranny and ruthlessness towards a particular religion, a specific culture.

The parallels strike us as not only timely, but a necessary meditation for us to ponder at this crossroad of history.

"Voluntary expiatory suffering is what truly unites one to the Lord intimately. When it arises, it comes from an already existing relationship with Christ. For, by nature, a person flees from suffering. And the mania for suffering caused by a perverse lust for pain differs completely from the desire to suffer in expiation....Only someone whose spiritual eyes have been opened to the supernatural correlation of worldly events can desire suffering  in expiation, and this is only possible for people in whom the spirit of Christ dwells, who as members are given life by the Head, receive his power, his meaning, and his direction. Conversely, works of expiation  bind one closer to Christ, as every community that works together on more task becomes more and more closely knit and as the limbs of a body, working together organically, continually become more strongly one."

I hope readers see that this is the time to consider reparation and expiation as part of our daily prayer.

St. Teresa Benedicta continues.....

"But because being one with Christ is our sanctity, and progressively becoming one with him our happiness on earth, the love of the cross in no way contradicts being a joyful child of God. Helping Christ carry his cross fills one with a strong and pure joy, and those who may and can do so, the builders of God's kingdom, are the most authentic children of God....."

She notes that Good Friday is not over....then, she states:

"Only those who are saved, only children of grace, can in fact be bearers of Christ's cross. Only in union with the Divine Head does human suffering take on expiatory power.."

It seems to me that the lay person would find this spiritual insight an easy path to follow in prayer and reflection. Are there not many who suffer daily now? Will not this suffering increase? Can we not use this suffering to join with Christ, "in union" with him and thereby become saints?

Perhaps the daily meditations demanded by our lives as Catholics can be focused on the Passion and Death of Christ. Many saints recommend thinking on the cross as a way to salvation.


St. Theresa Benedicta shows us that in times of great hardship, one can turn suffering into joy, and pain into reparation.

Two more posts on this saint.....

Framing Prayer 11 St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross continued....

Because of two books which I have now borrowed on the meditations of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, I can continue with the framing of prayer in a Carmelite way for the laity. Because I want to move on to Elizabeth of the Trinity, St. Ignatius and the Benedictines, I shall only have a few posts today on Edith Stein.

Someone remarked today that the theme of obedience has been a major one on this blog, which it has. St. Teresa Benedicta states this, "It is a mysterious fact that obedience is efficacious against the power of darkness...but it is a fact."

For a lay person to submit one's prayer life to another may be one of the greatest challenges of these times of priest and nun shortages. Spiritual direction can come in many ways, and in these times of difficulty and trials, to find one may not be possible.

Then, what do we do with our prayer life? We turn to the Church.

Interestingly, Edith Stein began studying Thomas Aquinas because of the guidance of her spiritual director she had as a lay person. This director told her not to enter Carmel right away, but to study Aquinas and pray for a while, as well as teach.  She did this for eight years, living under private vows at this time. When she came under a second spiritual director, she was told to travel and give lectures, while she wanted to go into the convent and pray.

I readily identify with her humble decision to follow the director and wait longer before entering the convent. How long have I waited for a little cell, a little house of prayer?

In the absence of a spiritual director, one goes with the movements of the Holy Spirit and speaks with holy friends for guidance. Out of these discussions can easily come a consensus. Then, one must choose obedience to that consensus.

For example, in my decision to go back to wearing blacks and whites, slowly but surely, I asked the opinion of three mature women in Christ. All three who have known me, (two for more than 10 years), agreed that this was a good idea for several reasons. I can trust these three mature spiritual women in the absence of a director at this time. I do not want to go into blacks and whites, but this seems to be God's Will for me at this time.

Edith Stein knew that if one surrendered one's will to the Will of God, graces would flow from this denial of the self. Finally, she was encouraged to enter Carmel. All her years were a test of self-denial, and a growth of virtue. She states that for the layperson, Sunday is the great "door" to heaven and grace, which will take one through the work week.  On that day, and the day of special feasts, the time to concentrate on prayer and celebrate the liturgy gives strength to the lay person for the entire week.

But, perhaps the most important framework for lay prayer following the Carmelite way may be clearly seen in this quotation: "Lay all care for the future, confidently, in God's hands, and allow yourself to be led by him entirely, as a child would. then you can be sure not to lose your way."

Her emphasis on "childlike confidence in God" follows the examples of the two great Ts, Teresa of Avila, and Therese of Lisieux.  She wrote that nothing is accidental, that all the "minute details" of her life were pre-designed, "in the plans of divine providence"  and therefore, "for the all-seeing eye of God a perfect coherence of meaning."

This confidence comes only through prayer, reflection and study.

She writes: "...those who attain the freedom of these heights and expansive views have outgrown what is usually called 'happiness' and 'unhappiness'. They may have to fight hard for worldly existence, may lack the support of a warm family life or, correspondingly, of the human community which sustains and supports--but lonely and joyless they can no longer be. Those who live with Holy Church and its liturgy, i.e., as authentic Catholics, can never be lonely: they find themselves embedded in the great human community; everywhere, all are united as brothers and sisters in the depths of their hearts. And because  streams of living water flow from all those who live in God's hand, they exert a mysterious magnetic appeal on thirsty souls. Without aspiring to it, they must become guides of other persons striving to the light; they must practice spiritual maternity, begetting and drawing sons and daughters nearer to the kingdom of God."

St. Teresa Benedicta was a lay person for a long time. Her ultimate goal was always oneness with God. The fact that she came to a holy lifestyle as a layperson inspires all of us.

The Carmelite way of prayer, study, reflection on one's own fits nicely into the single and married life.

I shall return to her later.....quotations are from Communion with Christ According to Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Author: Sister M. Regina van den Berg

Framing Prayer 8 Carmelites Again

I shall return again soon to St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, but I want to sum up a few ideas regarding prayer in times of turmoil.

One of the hardest things to do is to create and keep order in times of chaos. We are not God, who can create ex nihilo. We need something to use to create something, like the raw material of our lives.

What both St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and Titus Brandsma show us is not only the need for intense prayer in times of struggle, but the possibility of praying in times of trouble.

I have been learning this lesson myself in the past several months of turmoil in my life, turmoil which has included multiple moves, unsettled housing difficulties, financial problems, and the loss of treasured goods because of stealing. On top of this have been two health issues which cannot be addressed until I am in a place for some time.

But, God does not want me to put my prayer life on hold while I figure out how to put order into my daily life. He expects me to do at least the minimum of some of the Monastic Diurnal, or Divine Office, go to daily Mass, read the Scriptures and or holy books, and meditate or do affective prayer and intentional, also called acquired, contemplation.

No waiting for a perfect situation--if that were the case, I would never pray. These two saints teach us this lesson--they were both being harassed by an evil regime. They were under stress for themselves, their families, their congregations. But, they prayed through anxiety to peace, and prepared for the ultimate offering of their lives to God in martyrdom. Yesterday's Compline reminds us that the Prayer of the Church, the Office, said by both these saints in their Carmelite way, sustains us daily. Here is a key to the Carmelite way-private prayer, meditation, finally, contemplation, through the Dark Night to illumination, and, in the case of these two saints, union through martyrdom.

Take time, set time aside daily. Make meeting God your priority. Embrace your cross. These saints show us the way.

Psalm 143 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

A Psalm of David.

143 Hear my prayer, O Lord;
give ear to my supplications!
    In thy faithfulness answer me, in thy righteousness!
2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant;
    for no man living is righteous before thee.

3 For the enemy has pursued me;
    he has crushed my life to the ground;
    he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.
4 Therefore my spirit faints within me;
    my heart within me is appalled.

5 I remember the days of old,
    I meditate on all that thou hast done;
    I muse on what thy hands have wrought.
6 I stretch out my hands to thee;
    my soul thirsts for thee like a parched land.Selah

7 Make haste to answer me, O Lord!
    My spirit fails!
Hide not thy face from me,
    lest I be like those who go down to the Pit.
8 Let me hear in the morning of thy steadfast love,
    for in thee I put my trust.
Teach me the way I should go,
    for to thee I lift up my soul.

9 Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies!
    I have fled to thee for refuge![a]
10 Teach me to do thy will,
    for thou art my God!
Let thy good spirit lead me
    on a level path!

11 For thy name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life!
    In thy righteousness bring me out of trouble!
12 And in thy steadfast love cut off my enemies,
    and destroy all my adversaries,
    for I am thy servant.

With a little interruption on the devotion to the Holy Face,  I shall come back to Edith Stein...but after a look at that devotion, on to Elizabeth of the Trinity, again.

Framing Prayer 6 Carmelites Continued-Edith Stein

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross brought one of the greatest minds of her generation into the convent. She was Edmund Husserl's greatest student, but a student who grew out of the strictures of atheistic phenomenology, into a Catholic version, and finally, embracing Thomism for her studies and prayer.

For the lay person, Teresa Benedicta, or Edith Stein, as she is known in the world still, allows one to apply prayer to the daily anxieties of living in extremely difficult times. Being a Jewish-Catholic, Edith was protected for a time by her order, which moved her to what was thought to be a safe place. However, as we know from her biography, both Sister Teresa and her sister, a lay sister, were arrested and murdered at Auschwitz in 1942. St. Teresa Benedicta was fifty at the time of her death.

What intrigues me about this Carmelite are three points for us to consider when looking at her life and prayer. The first point is that she was converted to Catholicism by reading books-by St. Teresa of Avila. This fact alone points to the importance of daily spiritual reading for the lay person. Edith Stein was a lay person when she was drawn to the important books by this Doctor of the Church. Although we must admit that Edith Stein is one of the philosophical stars in the firmament, her example of being converted through reading should be a habit we can easily emulate, even in this day of anti-intellectualism. 

The busy mom and dad can take time to stop and read something daily. Turn off the radio, the baseball game, go into a quiet corner and read. God blesses us when we take time to read the lives of the saints and their suggestions for a life of holiness.

The second point refers to keeping a schedule even in times of chaos. What could be more chaotic for a Jewish-Catholic than the evil of Nazism? St. Teresa Benedicta's prayer and study were not set aside because of  "troubles". Indeed, some of her most beautiful writings on the Cross and the suffering of Christ were created by her under the anxiety of arrest and death. A habit of prayer transcends time, circumstances, emotional upheaval. In fact, prayer grounds one in God. Her example shows us that one can even face death with peace and courage, if one had learned patience and the death of self through intense prayer. Let me share part of the canonization homily from St. John Paul II, as the Cross was the center of St. Teresa Benedicta's prayer. The Cross must be the center of our prayer as well. This love of the Cross involves each one of us embracing suffering as well as letting Christ take us up into His own Passion and Death.

The third point I want to stress is that if one looks for truth in prayer, one will find God. Or, rather, as St. John Paul II noted below, in these excerpts, the Truth, who is a person, seizes one. If we set aside time for prayer, Truth, Who is a Person, will answer us with love. When we pray daily, we place ourselves into a path towards truth, which includes self-knowledge.

Carmelites value the cell, the solitude, the silence which takes us into the Truth more closely than we can ever imagine. The method of meditating on the Cross, Passion, and Death of Christ form the beginning of real prayer---meditation comes before contemplation. Have the courage, states St. John Paul II, to decide to follow Christ, give Him time in prayer, suffer in and with Him.

Read these bits from the longer Homily of St. John Paul II For the Canonization of Edith Stein, given on Sunday, 11 October 1998


1. “Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14).

St Paul’s words to the Galatians, which we have just heard, are well suited to the human and spiritual experience of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who has been solemnly enrolled among the saints today. She too can repeat with the Apostle: Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Cross of Christ! Ever blossoming, the tree the Cross continues to bear new fruits of salvation. This is why believers look with confidence to the Cross, drawing from its mystery of love the courage and strength to walk faithfully in the footsteps of the crucified and risen Christ. Thus the message of the Cross has entered the hearts of so many men and women and changed their lives.

The spiritual experience of Edith Stein is an eloquent example of this extraordinary interior renewal. A young woman in search of the truth has become a saint and martyr through the silent workings of divine grace: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who from heaven repeats to us today all the words that marked her life: “Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
2. On 1 May 1987, during my Pastoral Visit to Germany, I had the joy of beatifying this generous witness to the faith in the city of Cologne. Today, 11 years later, here in Rome, in St Peter's Square, I am able solemnly to present this eminent daughter of Israel and faithful daughter of the Church as a saint to the whole world.

Today, as then, we bow to the memory of Edith Stein, proclaiming the indomitable witness she bore during her life and especially by her death. Now alongside Teresa of Avila and Thérèse of Lisieux, another Teresa takes her place among the host of saints who do honour to the Carmelite Order.

Dear brothers and sisters who have gathered for this solemn celebration, let us give glory to God for what he has accomplished in Edith Stein.

.....

4. 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”.

5. Dear brothers and sisters! The love of Christ was the fire that inflamed the life of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Long before she realized it, she was caught by this fire. At the beginning she devoted herself to freedom. For a long time Edith Stein was a seeker. Her mind never tired of searching and her heart always yearned for hope. She traveled the arduous path of philosophy with passionate enthusiasm. Eventually she was rewarded: she seized the truth. Or better: she was seized by it. Then she discovered that truth had a name: Jesus Christ. From that moment on, the incarnate Word was her One and All. Looking back as a Carmelite on this period of her life, she wrote to a Benedictine nun: “Whoever seeks the truth is seeking God, whether consciously or unconsciously”.
Although Edith Stein had been brought up religiously by her Jewish mother, at the age of 14 she “had consciously and deliberately stopped praying”. She wanted to rely exclusively on herself and was concerned to assert her freedom in making decisions about her life. At the end of a long journey, she came to the surprising realization: only those who commit themselves to the love of Christ become truly free.

This woman had to face the challenges of such a radically changing century as our own. Her experience is an example to us. The modern world boasts of the enticing door which says: everything is permitted. It ignores the narrow gate of discernment and renunciation. I am speaking especially to you, young Christians, particularly to the many altar servers who have come to Rome these days on pilgrimage: Pay attention! Your life is not an endless series of open doors! Listen to your heart! Do not stay on the surface, but go to the heart of things! And when the time is right, have the courage to decide! The Lord is waiting for you to put your freedom in his good hands.

6. St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was able to understand that the love of Christ and human freedom are intertwined, because love and truth have an intrinsic relationship. The quest for truth and its expression in love did not seem at odds to her; on the contrary she realized that they call for one another.

And, can we not identify today with what St. John Paul II said here? Also, her words quoted by the saint-pope echo the words of Fr. Chautard examined here last week.

In our time, truth is often mistaken for the opinion of the majority. In addition, there is a widespread belief that one should use the truth even against love or vice versa. But truth and love need each other. St Teresa Benedicta is a witness to this. The “martyr for love”, who gave her life for her friends, let no one surpass her in love. At the same time, with her whole being she sought the truth, of which she wrote: “No spiritual work comes into the world without great suffering. It always challenges the whole person”.

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross says to us all: Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. 

These next line can become our battle cry in these days of losing religious freedom and freedom of speech......how prophetic were these sentences at the time St. John Paul II shared them with the Church.

And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth! One without the other becomes a destructive lie.

If we learn to suffer in prayer, and prayer does bring suffering, we can face physical suffering. But, as St. Teresa Benedicta states below, suffering is a mystery for the Bride of Christ, for each one of us.

7. Finally, the new saint teaches us that love for Christ undergoes suffering. Whoever truly loves does not stop at the prospect of suffering: he accepts communion in suffering with the one he loves.

Aware of what her Jewish origins implied, Edith Stein spoke eloquently about them: “Beneath the Cross I understood the destiny of God’s People.... Indeed, today I know far better what it means to be the Lord’s bride under the sign of the Cross. But since it is a mystery, it can never be understood by reason alone”.

How timely are these words. These could be emblazoned today, especially this line--"But nothing is more eloquent than the Cross when silenced." Such is the life of the contemplative, or the martyr.

The mystery of the Cross gradually enveloped her whole life, spurring her to the point of making the supreme sacrifice. As a bride on the Cross, Sr Teresa Benedicta did not only write profound pages about the “science of the Cross”, but was thoroughly trained in the school of the Cross. Many of our contemporaries would like to silence the Cross. But nothing is more eloquent than the Cross when silenced! The true message of suffering is a lesson of love. Love makes suffering fruitful and suffering deepens love.

Through the experience of the Cross, Edith Stein was able to open the way to a new encounter with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith and the Cross proved inseparable to her. Having matured in the school of the Cross, she found the roots to which the tree of her own life was attached. She understood that it was very important for her “to be a daughter of the chosen people and to belong to Christ not only spiritually, but also through blood”.

8. “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:24).

Years ago, I discovered this saintly nun through my studies of phemenology. I knew her first as Edith Stein, then as a great writer of meditations on the Cross. Now, I see her as calling me deeper into contemplation, a model of suffering and prayer. But, she speaks to all lay people, of the need to keep moving towards silence, towards total conversion, towards self-denial. We are all called to do this in prayer, even in our tense lives.

Dear brothers and sisters, the divine Teacher spoke these words to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. What he gave his chance but attentive listener we also find in the life of Edith Stein, in her “ascent of Mount Carmel”. The depth of the divine mystery became perceptible to her in the silence of contemplation. Gradually, throughout her life, as she grew in the knowledge of God, worshiping him in spirit and truth, she experienced ever more clearly her specific vocation to ascend the Cross with Christ, to embrace it with serenity and trust, to love it by following in the footsteps of her beloved Spouse: St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is offered to us today as a model to inspire us and a protectress to call upon.

We give thanks to God for this gift. May the new saint be an example to us in our commitment to serve freedom, in our search for the truth. May her witness constantly strengthen the bridge of mutual understanding between Jews and Christians.

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, pray for us! Amen.

I am book begging here today--right now, ICS Publications has the  Letters to Roman Ingarden by St. Teresa Benedicta. If someone would like to get this volume for me, I would appreciate it. I would also like to have the other volumes 1-11, but that is a lot to ask. God bless you all.

I shall be returning to St. Teresa Benedicta, as I asked a friend to borrow a book on her Meditations to share with you, but the book will not get here for several days. But, I am sure your can pick up where I left off here today.