An Example of Faith

     In Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) a young girl was born into a prominent Jewish family in 1891.  Her name was Edith Stein.  She grew to be an intelligent, dynamic student of philosophy, in particular phenomenology, at the University of Gottingen and earned her Doctorate.  She taught until 1922.  During her early years she abandoned her Jewish Faith.  She read the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila which led to a spiritual journey that brought her to the Catholic Church in 1922.  In 1934 she entered the Carmelite Order and took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

     With the rise of the Nazis, the Order moved her from Germany where she lectured and taught to a monastery in the Netherlands, for her safety.  When the Nazis occupied that country in 1940, the Dutch bishops spoke out against them, and a persecution followed.  The Nazis arrested all Dutch Jews, even those who had become Christian, and thus Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was sent to Auschwitz, where she died in the gas chamber on August 9, 1942.

     She was canonized in 1998 by the late Pope John Paul II and declared, along with Catherine of Siena and Bridget of Sweden, as co-patroness of Europe.  There were many who witnessed for the Faith in those dark days of World War II, and she and Maximilian Kolbe stand out as great examples of Faith.

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     Today also marks the dropping of the second atomic bomb on civilian cities in Japan, this time on the city of Nagasaki.  One of the results was the death of some 74,000 people.  Thank God that the world has never seen that kind of devastation again, even though we have lived in fear for the past 66 years.  By the way, did you know that Franciscan Father Maximilian Kolbe, the martyr of Auschwitz, was missioned in the city of Nagasaki during his priesthood.  He died in the Camp in 1941, a few years before Edith Stein and before the bomb.
We pray for all who lose their lives to war or hatred.