I really only began to read about St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) last year, and did a post Here and Here. (I get nostalgic when I go to my old blog and read the comments some of you left on these two posts; unfortunately, comments didn’t get transferred when I changed sites).
This year I’d like to share another passage from Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda’s book, a passage which spoke to me of what was at the root of St. Teresa Benedicta’s ability to embrace the Cross, and what must be at the root of all of our lives if we desire to be self-giving, if we desire to embrace that same Cross the way she embraced it:
“Perhaps one of Edith’s greatest legacies to the body of believers is her own devotion to prayer. Edith understood every person’s need for still and quiet prayer. “We need those hours in which we listen silently and let the divine word work within us,” she wrote (Daybook, 121). After her baptism but before entering the Carmelites, even with her busy teaching and speaking schedule, Edith sought constant opportunities to pray. It is precisely people with many obligations and who are fully involved, she argued, who need such communion with God in inner stillness. Edith the scholar, the philosopher, the theologian, the spiritual giant, the feminist, and finally, the martyr, teaches us that we do not need to be in a church to be still with God in prayer. We can – and need to – catch our breath spiritually anywhere, constantly.”
If you wish to read more about St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, we have some wonderful posts today at:
Aeternus
Catholic Geek (see Phil’s 2 posts)
Receiving Light
If you’d like some excellent audio, we have Part 1 and Part 2 of, “Edith Stein: An Historical Perspective”, on the EWTN website, hosted by Father Charles Connor, of the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania.