As a young adult who was single for many years before getting married, I was able to travel quite a bit. I went on mission trips, hiking trips, camping trips, white water rafting trips – just about anything that was feasible and affordable. I saw many landscapes, looked out many airplane windows and drove countless highway miles. I have flown over the Grand Canyon on a 6-seater plane, driven through Yosemite Park and Death Valley and taken a dip in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
On one of my bigger trips, I traveled to Europe with my parents to attend a priestly ordination. I spent the majority of my time in Rome, but was able to take a side trip to Poland to visit a friend. What I saw there will always remain engraved in my memory. Besides visiting several quaint towns, my friend brought me to a concentration camp. I had already been to the Holocaust Museum stateside, which was a horrific experience in itself, but nothing could have prepared me for the eerie feeling I would get stepping foot on the grounds where thousands upon thousands of people were mercilessly murdered.
Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, born as Edith Stein. A Jewish convert to Catholicism, a philosopher and a nun, she was arrested by the Gestapo and put to death at Auschwitz in August of 1942. I can only imagine her horror as she was herded into the gas chamber with her sister and hundreds of other Jews, and then her body burned in an oven. Yet, she went willingly. “Even now I accept the death that God has prepared for me in complete submission and with joy as being his most holy will for me. I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death … so that the Lord will be accepted by his people and that his kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world.” (ewtn.com)
St. Teresa lived out the words of Christ in today’s Gospel: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” As she closed her eyes in death, the gates of everlasting life were opened to her. She denied herself, she accepted the evil that God allowed to happen to her and offered it up for the salvation of souls.
Let us be encouraged by the example of St. Teresa today to take up any crosses that we may be called upon to bear in our daily lives. Let us keep in mind that life in the Lord is so much greater than any death we may experience. Let us remember that our lives are in His hands, for it is God who “deal[s] death and give[s] life”. (Psalm Response)
Daily Reading
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings for the Memorial of Saint Clare, Virgin Reading 1 1 Kgs 19:4-8 Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert,until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath…
Saint of the Day
Saint Clare of Assisi
Saint Clare of Assisi was one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares.
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