SCRIPTURE READING
Exodus 5:1–4
Let my people go
Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.” Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has revealed himself to us; let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God, or he will fall upon us with pestilence or sword.” But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get to your labors!”
MEDITATION
Letter 259 to Sr. Adelgundis Jaegerschmid, OSB
23 March 1938
God is truth
Our Sister Clara departed today for eternity, very gently, after a year of suffering. I commended our dear Master (Edmund Husserl) to her often, and I will do so again tonight at the wake. I believe one is well taken care of in her company. She was our eldest lay sister, tireless in the lowliest of tasks, but a strong and manly character who had grasped and lived the Carmelite ideal with complete determination [Cf. The Way of Perfection, 7:8, 21:2]. So faith turned it into a completely spiritual life.
I am not at all worried about my dear Master. 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. All who seek truth seek God, whether this is clear to them or not.
PRAYER
Lord, God of our fathers,
you brought Saint 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.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.
Author Melissa Presser prayerfully composed this year’s St. Edith Stein Novena. Melissa Presser is a Jewish girl who was led home to the Catholic Church by St. Edith Stein. Melissa writes about redemptive suffering and finding God in the dark at MissioDeiCatholic.org. Find out more about her conversion and ministry at MelissaPresser.com.
Stein, E. 1993, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916-1942, Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Discalced Carmelite, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
All scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.
Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.
Let us unite in prayer
Carmelite Quotes 
This evokes strong feelings in me. Is the reference to “determined determination” my old Formator taught me? One of the forst things I learned from reading 2/3 of the Cathechism was that the Catholic Church has botht visible and invisible bounds. I quite agree that it is absurd to limit Grace to her visible bounds. One thin ks of the Pharisees… And I have read, I have no idea who wrote it, “Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is secretly looking dfor the Love of God” – how much more so, those who seek after Truth, by any name?
You are spot on, Kathie. That’s why I included in brackets the two references in the Way of Perfection where St Teresa encourages her nuns: “I would not want you, my daughters, to be womanish in anything, nor would I want you to be like women but like strong men. For if you do what lies in your power, the Lord will make you so strong that you will astonish men” (Way of Perfection 7:8) and the reference to “determinada determinación” in the Way 21:2.
Than k you! Not so rusty then… To quote a Dominican, St Catherine of Siena, “Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire”…