Catholic Fire

Today, August 9, is the feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), virgin and martyr, a Jewish convert to Catholicism, who later became a Discalced Carmelite nun and was martyred at Auschwitz. Born on October 12, 1891, of Jewish parents, Siegried Stein and Auguste Courant, in Breslau, Germany, Edith Stein showed a strong aptitude for learning, and by the time of the outbreak of World War I, she had studied philology and philosophy at the universities of Breslau and Goettingen. Following the war, she continued her higher studies at the University of Freiburg and was awarded her doctorate in philosophy Suma Cum Laude at age 25. She later became the assistant and colleague of Professor Husserl, the famous founder of phenomenology , who greatly appreciated her brilliant mind. Edith was searching for the truth and found it in the Catholic Church, initially through her study of the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila and the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. She was bapt...

Image Source In a message to the bishops of France for the 70th anniversary of D-Da y, Pope Francis rendered homage to the numerous soldiers who left their countries to land on the beaches of Normandy, in order to fight against Nazi barbarism and liberate occupied France.” The Pope also “does not forget the German soldiers” as well as “all the victims of this war,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, who signed the papal message. “This commemoration reminds us that the exclusion of God from the life of people and societies can bring only death and misfortune ,” continued the prelate, who said that Pope Francis desires that St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) be “a guide and a protector to advance on the path of peace.” ~ Via Catholic World News.

"When you pray, go to your inner room." In those who have entered into the unity of the divine inner life, everything is one: rest and activity, contemplation and action, silence and speech, listening and communicating, loving receptiveness, and loving gift of self in thanksgiving and praise... We need hours of silent listening, when we allow the divine Word to work in us, until it craves to become fruitful in the sacrifice of praise and of action. We need the traditional forms and participation in the set forms of acts of regular worship, so that the inner life can be awakened and guided and find a suitable expression. The solemn divine praise must have its homes on earth where it is developed to the greatest perfection possible to human beings. From these it ascends to heaven for the whole Church and becomes effective in the members of the Church, quickening their interior life, inviting their participation. But it must itself be quickened from within even in these place...