The legend of the Order tells us that the Mother of God would have liked to remain with the hermit brothers on Mount Carmel. We can certainly understand that she felt drawn to the place where she had been venerated through the ages and where the holy prophet [Elijah] had lived in the same spirit that also filled her from the time her earthly sojourn began.
Released from everything earthly, to stand in worship in the presence of God, to love him with her whole heart, to beseech his grace for sinful people, and in atonement to substitute herself for these people, as the maidservant of the Lord to await his beckoning—this was her life.
Saint Edith Stein
On the history and spirit of Carmel (excerpt)
Augsburg Post, 31 March 1935
Stella Maris Church, Haifa Israel
Photo credit: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (Some rights reserved)
Stein, E. 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, translated from the German by Stein, W, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Carmelite Quotes 
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