Summer 2022 - Year C

SUMMER BULLETIN

Our weekly bulletin is a taking a summer break .

We would like to wish all our parishioners a very enjoyable, prayerful and safe summer. 

ABOUT SAINT EDITH STEIN
ST. TERESA BENEDICT OF THE CROSS

The youngest of eleven children, Edith Stein was born into a Jewish Orthodox family. In her youth she turned her back on the Jewish faith and turned instead to atheism. On leaving school she initially studied German and  history.

In 1913 she moved to Göttingen in Germany to study philosophy, psychology, history and German.

A meeting with the Christian widow left a deep impression on Edith Stein. Having read the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila she found herself at a turning point. She turned to the Catholic faith and was baptized in 1922.  In 1934 Edith Stein entered the order of the Discalced Carmelites in Cologne, taking the name Sister Teresa Benedict of the Cross (i.e., "she who is blessed by the Cross").  During the Third Reich Edith Stein, as a Jew by birth, was prohibited from teaching. With the increasing persecution of Jews in December 1938 she was forced to flee Germany and she found refuge in the Carmelite convent in Echt in the Netherlands, where she was joined by her sister Rosa who had also converted to Catholicism.   After the Netherlands were occupied by Hitler's forces Edith and Rosa were arrested on August 2, 1942 together with many other converted Jews and deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. On leaving Echt, Edith said to her sister: "Come, let us go for our people.“ She was killed 70 years ago in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. 

On the feast day of Edith Stein, Aug. 9, the Church prays:

Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

You led the holy martyr Edith Stein, Sister Teresa Benedict of the Cross to see Your son on the Cross and guided her as one of His followers until her death.

At her intercession let all people recognize the Redeemer in the man on the Cross and in turn see Your full glory.

This we ask through Jesus Christ. 

Amen.