Carmelite wisdom to encourage & inspire
As we remember Blessed Isidore Bakanja on his feast day, this "martyr of the Scapular" calls us to follow his example of fidelity to the Blessed Virgin. We share excerpts from the homily of St. John Paul II and a brief biography from the Carmelite Order's website.
In a tender letter to her mother, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity reassures her mother once again that her heroic sacrifice will be recorded "in the great book of life." But she also intimates that her health is failing: the prioress insists that Elizabeth should "spend time out in the fresh air."
On 10 August 1567, Carmelite Prior General Giovanni Battista Rossi wrote from Barcelona giving St. Teresa permission to found two houses of "contemplative Carmelite friars" in Castile. Here is the story of how they met...
Keenly aware of Europe's urgent situation, in 1939 God prompted St. Edith Stein to offer herself to "the Heart of Jesus as a sacrifice of propitiation for true peace." We examine her request in the light of Carmelite spirituality and the examples of Discalced Carmelite martyrs who made similar offerings in centuries past.
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity writes for the last time to Père Gonsalve Vallée, her Dominican spiritual father, that “next year I will celebrate your feast with St Dominic in 'the inheritance of the saints in light'.” This letter is a testament to his spiritual guidance over the course of six years.
For our ninth meditation in this novena, we read St. Edith Stein's letter to her prioress requesting permission to offer herself "to the Heart of Jesus as a sacrifice of propitiation for true peace." She is insistent "because it is the twelfth hour. I know that I am a nothing, but Jesus desires it." Thank you for joining us in prayer for this novena.
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; the following year he proclaimed St. Teresa Benedicta a Co-Patroness of Europe.
St. Teresa impresses upon her nuns, "Shouldn't we consider ourselves lucky to be able to repay something of what we owe Him for His service toward us? I say these words "His service toward us" unwillingly; but the fact is that He did nothing else but serve us all the time He lived in this world...."
Upon the death of a lay sister in the Carmel of Cologne, St. Edith Stein wrote to a friend that she was not worried about her "Master" Edmund Husserl, who was seriously ill and, in fact, would die one month later. Edith had one, straightforward reason not to worry: "It has always been far from me to think that God's mercy allows itself to be circumscribed by the visible church's boundaries. God is truth"
In her poem, "I Will Remain With You", St. Edith Stein writes, "You reign on the Almighty’s throne also in transfigured human form, ever since the completion of your work on earth."
¡Cuanta necesidad tenemos de subir al monte en nuestra sociedad, para tener una mirada más amplia sobre la historia, para liberarnos del miedo, para superar la irracionalidad y la ideologización!
In lectures delivered during the summer of 1932, St. Edith Stein addressed the problems of women's education. In one lecture, she mentioned the Church's position on women and demonstrated how, despite patriarchal viewpoints that claim a woman's place is in the home, theologians have been able to examine liberal feminist claims to evaluate their "compatibility with the entire Catholic philosophy of life." St. Edith states that the Church's serenity lies in her ability to preserve eternal truth while adjusting with "unmatchable elasticity" to the "circumstances and challenges of changing times."
Albert degli Abbati was born at Trápani, Sicily, in the thirteenth century, and entered the Carmelite Order as a youth. He became renowned as a fervent preacher of the Gospel and a worker of miracles. He was Provincial of Sicily in 1296, and died at Messina, probably in 1307, with a reputation for purity and prayer.
In 1940, St. Edith Stein wrote, "Since September 29 we've had a new Mother who would like me to write something again." She wrote from Westerbork Transit Camp on 5 August 1942 asking the nuns in Echt to send her the manuscript of The Science of the Cross.
Today St. Edith Stein shares with a close friend that Edith realized religious life isn't a matter of naval-gazing but rather an imperative "to carry the divine life" into the world. And the "the deeper one is drawn into God", the greater is this mandate.
"We have the very wisdom and the very beauty and the very fortitude of God in shadow, because the soul here cannot comprehend God perfectly," writes St. John of the Cross. In this excerpt from the Living Flame of Love, he describes how we enjoy God's glory in the shadow of his glory.
St. Edith Stein the philosopher introduces us to the basic "dilemma of all human philosophizing: truth is but one, yet for us in falls into truths (plural) that we must master step by step." Sooner or later, she says, we have to dive in.
Writing to a nun, as he could to each one of us, Brother Lawrence prays for patience and strength that she may be able to suffer as long as God desires. "Find consolation in him... happy are they who suffer with him."
St. Edith Stein the catechist teaches us today that "God the Creator is present in each thing and sustains it in existence [...] God dwells in this manner in every human soul, also." The soul, Edith says, "is in his power." As St. Edith said after she read St. Teresa's autobiography, "This is truth." Jesus tells, "you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
We have the right to dream of a Nicaragua without rulers who oppress the people, where the dignity and rights of every person are respected...
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Antonio Mas Arrondo
Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices. ~ St. Teresa of Avila
Monasterio de las Batuecas Carmelitas Descalzos
¡Caminemos y construyamos nuestra libertad!
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