A reflection on the remarkable life and thought of Edith Stein from the 'Carmelite Sisters' at Thicket Priory:
Today we celebrate the Feast of St Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross): Jew, philosopher, educator, Carmelite, martyr: there is so much more we could say about her, too! Her whole life was a search for the truth and once she found it, she lived according to that truth and dedicated her whole life to God, first as a lay teacher, then as a Carmelite nun and finally in the horror of Auschwitz at the hour of her martyrdom.
This is an extract from the Office of Readings for today, taken from an address Edith wrote for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross in 1939, just after the outbreak of the Second World War, and a year after fleeing Germany for the relative (but short-lived) safety of Holland:
"The world is in flames: the fire can spread even to our house, but above all the flames the cross stands on high, and it cannot be burnt. The cross is the way which leads from earth to heaven. Those who embrace it with faith, love, and hope are taken up, right into the heart of the Trinity......Through the power of the cross you can be present wherever there is pain, carried there by your compassionate charity, by that very charity which you draw from the divine heart. That charity enables you to spread everywhere the most precious blood in order to ease pain, save and redeem."
Read more about her extraordinary life: https://www.thicketpriorycarmel.org/st-edith-stein
