Book of the Week
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Embracing Edith Stein: Wisdom for Women from St. Benedicta of the
Cross, by Ann Cost. Servant Boosk, 2014.
The author Anne Costa knows Edith Stein only through Edith's writings. "When I read and study her writings, I come away with a sense that I have spent time with someone who truly understands what it means to be a faithful woman in our
modern times and who offers a prescription for living that feeds my soul."
After being away from the Church for some time, Costa picked up some of Edith's writings and began seriously thinking about returning to the Church. She was drawn especially by Edith's writings on the formation of women, the feminine soul, and the role of women in Church and in society. "Edith's words seemed to be
offering me a place of affirmation and consolation." And Costa returned to the Church she had left years ago. Edith Stein soon became a close friend and confidante for Costa, one to whom she turned in various times in her life.
"If you are seeking a saintly sister in Christ who can celebrate with you your victories and take your heart whispers straight to the King, she won't let you down."
Even as Edith's story went from being a dedicated Jewish philosopher, to being converted to Catholicism, to a Carmelite Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, to a prisoner in the detention camp in Westerbork, to the death camp in Auschwitz, where she died in a gas chamber on August 11th, 1942, Edith was finally free to leave this world.
If one were to ask Edith Stein where women should be today,
she would probably answer, "Everywhere. At home, in the factories, in public life, in business, in health care, at home caring for children, in schools teaching children, in religious life dedicated to the Church, wherever there is a need."
"She challenges us to embrace and come to a deeper understanding of the essence of who we are as women and how we can make a unique contribution to the world
and those around us. Edith believes that before we can carry out our specific roles and fulfill our God-given vocations, we need to 'first become a person!'" Edith claims that one who longs to love and give love, must also become strong enough to be a true gift to another.
"Fill us every day with courage and zeal, in imitation of our beloved Blessed Mother and through the intercession of our
friend, St. Edith, to express these gifts for the good of the world for your greater glory---all for love for you. Amen."
(Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman OP for this review.)
Paperback, Kindle versions
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Saint of the Week
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St. Teresa of Avila: (1515-82) October 15 Teresa lived in an age of exploration as well as political, social and religious upheaval. It was the 16th century,
a time of turmoil and reform. She was born before the Protestant Reformation and died almost 20 years after the closing of the Council of Trent.
The gift of God to Teresa in and through which she became holy and left her mark on the Church and the world is threefold: She was a woman; she was a contemplative; she was an active reformer.
As a woman, Teresa stood on her own two feet, even in the man's world of her time. She was "her own woman," entering the Carmelites despite strong opposition from her father. She is a person wrapped not so much in silence as in mystery. Beautiful, talented, outgoing, adaptable, affectionate, courageous, enthusiastic, she was totally human. Like Jesus, she was a mystery of paradoxes: wise, yet practical; intelligent, yet much in tune with her experience; a
mystic, yet an energetic reformer. A holy woman, a womanly woman.
Teresa was a woman "for God," a woman of prayer, discipline and compassion. Her heart belonged to God. Her ongoing conversion was an arduous lifelong struggle, involving ongoing purification and suffering. She was misunderstood, misjudged, opposed in her efforts at reform. Yet she struggled on, courageous and faithful; she struggled
with her own mediocrity, her illness, her opposition. And in the midst of all this she clung to God in life and in prayer. Her writings on prayer and contemplation are drawn from her experience: powerful, practical and graceful. A woman of prayer; a woman for God.
Teresa was a woman "for others." Though a contemplative, she spent much of her time and energy seeking to reform herself and the
Carmelites, to lead them back to the full observance of the primitive Rule. She founded over a half-dozen new monasteries. She traveled, wrote, fought--always to renew, to reform. In her self, in her prayer, in her life, in her efforts to reform, in all the people she touched, she was a woman for others, a woman who inspired and gave life.
Her writings, especially the Way of Perfection and
The Interior Castle, have helped generations of believers.
In 1970, the Church gave her the title she had long held in the popular mind: Doctor of the Church. She and St. Catherine of Siena were the first women so honored.
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