Carmelite Saint of the Day-Feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Photo: R. Massaro Lourdes, France

 St.Teresa Benedicta of the Cross , OCD

Feast Day: August 9

known in the world as Edith Stein


A prayer to St. Teresa



Lord, God of our fathers,

you brought St. 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.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.



"Love will be our eternal life."


Edith Stein


Read about St. Teresa


http://www.ewtn.com/faith/edith_stein.htm

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, ocds

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS

Novena to St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

(Edith Stein)

Feast Day: August 9

Novena to St. Teresa

This novena is unique in that it gives a glimpse of her life from August 1 through August 9 in 1942.

http://www.hebrewcatholic.net/novena-day-1-sat-aug-1-1942/

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS

CARMELITE QUOTE

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

Feast Day: August 9

Since the Mother of God is among women the most intimately bound to Christ, she is the heart of the Church of which Christ is the head. Mary helps those who strive to unveil Christ in the heart of another. Thus, woman's mission is to imitate Mary. She must further the life of faith by providing secure and enduring foundation. As teacher, she must be the maternal, loving educator for Christ. She must nourish a rich life of faith in young persons through their intellectuality and voluntariness. By so consecrating herself to supernatural maternity, the Catholic woman becomes an organ of the Church.

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

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS

Advent Meditation

ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS
By St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

When the days grow shorter and shorter, when --in a normal winter--the first snowflakes fall, then quietly and softly thoughts of Christmas begin to surface, and from the mere word a certain magic exudes that affects every heart. Even those of other faiths, or of no faith at all, to whom the story of the Child of Bethlehem has no meaning, prepare for the feast and even make plans to convey its joy here or there. Months and weeks in advance, there flows a warmth like a stream of love over the whole world. A festival of love and joy--that is the star which beckons all mankind in the first winter months.

Photo: R. Massaro

For the Christian, and especially for the Catholic Christian, it is yet something else. Him the star leads to the manger with the little Child who brings peace to earth. In countless endearing pictures, artists have created the scene for our eyes; ancient legends, replete with all the magic of childhood, sing to us about it. Whoever lives along with the Church hears the ancient chants and feels the longing of the spirit in the Advent hymns; and whoever is familiar with the inexhaustible fount of sacred liturgy is daily confronted by the great prophet of the Incarnation with his powerful words of warning and promise.

             Drop down dew from above and let the clouds rain
             the Just One! The Lord is near! Let us adore Him!
             Come, Lord, and do not delay! Jerusalem, rejoice
             with great joy, for your Savior comes to you!

From 17 to 24 December, the great O Antiphons to the Magnificat call out with ever greater longing and fervor their 'Come, to set us free.' And with still more promise (on the last Advent Sunday), 'Behold, all is fulfilled:' then, finally, 'Today you shall know that the Lord is coming and tomorrow you shall see His splendor.'

Photo: R. Massaro-St. Augustine Church Barberton, Ohio

Yes, on that evening when the lights on the tree are lit and the gifts are being exchanged, that unfulfilled longing is still there groping for another ray of Light until the bells for Midnight Mass ring out, and the miracle of that Holy Night is renewed upon altars bedecked with lights and flowers: 'And the Word was made flesh.' Now the moment of the blessed fulfillment has arrived.



Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds

Byzantine Cultural Center-Cleveland, Ohio

He stretched out his hand for our gifts. He wanted the pure GOLD of a heart detached from all earthly goods; the MYRRH of a renunciation of all the happiness of this world in exchange for participation in the life and suffering of Jesus; the FRANKINCENSE of a will that surrenders itself and strains upward to lose itself in the divine will. In return for these gifts, the divine child gave us himself.”
From the Hidden Life and Epiphany-From the Collected Works of Edith Stein


From the life of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross 
(Edith Stein)

On New Year's Day 1922, Edith Stein was received into the Catholic Church and was baptized with the name of Teresia because it was the study of the life of this seraphic saint of Avila which led to her conversion. The details surrounding this event, particularly the reception of her first Holy Communion, filled her with intense joy. However, the subsequent disclosure to her beloved mother and family resulted in pain and alienation. Yet as a dutiful daughter, Edith remained some months at home and continued to accompany her mother to the synagogue as usual. The urge to pursue her desire to devote herself completely to God in a monastery was only partially fulfilled by a teaching position with the Dominicans in Speyer. During this quiet time she devoted herself to her work, to prayer and research. She translated John Henry Newman's Letters and Diaries up to his Entrance into the Church which was published in Munich as Volume I of his collected works. Her name spread far and wide beyond Germany with the publication in 1930 of  Thomas of Aquinas' Question of Truth.

Neither reputation nor honor could affect her modesty. The celebrated philosopher longed for the solitude of the monastery... 




Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds

CARMELITE SAINT OF THE DAY

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

(Edith Stein)

The year 1933 was designated by the Church as a Holy Year to commemorate the 1900th anniversary of the death of Jesus Christ. During Mass on the First Friday of April that year, Edith discusses further her awareness that she was to carry the cross for her Jewish people. "I talked with the Savior and told Him that I knew that it was His cross that was now being placed upon the Jewish people; that most of them did not understand this, but that those who did, would have to take it up willingly in the name of all. I would do that. He should only show me how. At the end of the service I was certain that I had been heard. But what this carrying of the cross was to consist in, that I did not yet know."

(Selected Writitngs, 17).

READ MORE ABOUT HER LIFE


CARMELITE AUTHORS 101: EDITH STEIN

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, ocds

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CARMELITE QUOTE

ST. TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS (EDITH STEIN)

(1891-1942)

For September 14, 1939, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross--and at her Prioress's request--Edith wrote an expressive and challenging meditation for the community's biannual renewal of vows, an occasion she viewed as  "dreadfully serious business." 

Photo: R. Massaro (c)2013SpiritSinging
Banner displayed in Lourdes, France

More than ever the cross is a sign of contradiction. The followers of the Antichrist show it far more dishonor than did the Persians who stole it. They desecrate the images of the cross, and they make every effort to tear the cross out of the  hearts of Christians.  All too often they have succeeded even with those who, like us, once vowed to bear Christ's cross after him...Therefore, the Savior today looks at us, solemnly probing us, and asks each one of us: Will you remain faithful to the Crucified? Consider carefully! The world is in flames, the battle between Christ and the Antichrist has broken into the open. If you decide for Christ, it could cost you your life. Carefully consider what you promise...The world is in flames. The conflagration can also reach our house. But high above all flames towers the cross. They cannot consume it. It is the path from earth to heaven. It will lift one who embraces it in faith, love, and hope into the bosom of the Trinity.
Scaperlanda, Maria Ruiz. Edith Stein St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Huntington, Indiana:Our Sunday Visitor, 2001.Print.


Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds
, 

CARMELITE QUOTE

                                         

                    Photo: (C) R.Massaro Nativity Cave & Chapel (Replica) Nativity of the Lord Jesus Church Akron, Ohio 

 ‘And the Word became flesh.” That truth became a reality in the 
manger at Bethlehem. But it was to be fulfilled in yet another form: 
‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life”. The 
Savior, who knows that we are human beings and will remain human beings who have to struggle daily with weakness, comes to our assistance in a truly divine manner. Just as the human body is in need of daily bread, so also does the divine life in us require constant nourishment. ‘This is the living bread which came down from heaven’. Whoever really takes this as his daily bread, experiences each day the mystery of Christmas. The Word made flesh. And that is doubtless the surest way to maintain constant union with God, to grow each day more firmly and deeply into the mystical Body of Christ.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, OCD (Edith Stein)
Excerpt from The Mystery of Christmas-Incarnation and humanity







Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds

Carmelite Quote

From the life of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

(Edith Stein)

Feast Day: August 9

Referring to her entry into the Carmelite monastery, she wrote of the pain of leaving her mother:

She covered her face with her hands and began to weep. I stood behind her chair and held her silvery head to my breast. Thus we remained for a long while, until she let me persuade her to go to bed. I took her upstairs and helped her undress, for the first time in my life. Then I sat on the edge of her bed till she herself sent me to bed...I don't think either of us found any rest that night."

Read more about this Saint

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, ocds

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Stained Glass Flowers-Little Accounts of the Miraculous

From the life of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein):

...For almost twelve years, Carmel had been my goal; since summer 1921, when the life of our Holy Mother Teresa had happened to fall in my hands and had put an end to my long search for the true faith. At the advice of her spiritual advisor and with the awareness that her mother would not be able to withstand this second blow ( after her baptism into the Catholic faith) Edith had decided to wait patiently.

By the end of April, assured within her heart that the time was right, Edith began to take the first steps in preparation. She asked Archabbot Walzer's permission to seek admission to the Carmelite Order, which he granted  in mid-May of 1933.

Edith was admitted to the Cologne Carmel on the vigil of St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila) on October 14, 1933.

Excerpt from Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross by Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda

The biography of St. Teresa from the Vatican

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds
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