Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, OCD, is honored on this date by Mother Church but because it is Sunday, her feast is either transferred or not commemorated in the sacred Liturgy today. She lived from 1880-1906 and beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 25, 1984.
Her last words were: “I am going to Light, to Love, to Life!”
As we move through history we come to have real remembrances of our saints like this child photo of Blessed Elizabeth.
The saints lead us to a deeper relationship with Christ. A new saint of ours, Mary of Jesus Crucified (1846-1878), known in history as Mariam Baouardy (also spelled Mariam Bawardy) was a Carmelite nun. She as a Stigmatic and Victim Soul. She was a communicant of the Melkite Church.
You can read more of her history here.
The biographer of Saint Mary of Jesus says that she heard in a clear voice from Jesus, “This is how everything passes. If you will give me your heart, I shall always remain with you.” These words penetrated and took root in the young heart of Mariam.
Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified, as a Palestinian Carmelite nun was recognized as being filled with the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit to an extraordinary degree (think of St Paul). Her mission now is to intercede for us with the Trinity; no doubt one her intentions is ask for the gift of conversion of Islam to Jesus Christ.
Pray to her for peace in the world and Church.
In his homily at the canonization Mass of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Pope John Paul II said:
“Because she was Jewish, Edith Stein was taken with her sister Rosa and many other Catholics and Jews to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she died with them in the gas chambers. Today we remember them all with deep respect. A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: ‘Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed.’”
The witness of this woman is poignant.
“Tell my Sisters, I am en route to the East.”
These last recorded words of Saint Teresa Benedicta on 6 August 1942. One of Edith Stein’s former students recognized her at the train station in Schifferstadt, as she stood at the window of a locked compartment.
The Discalced Carmelite Father General shared these words with the Order as he concluded his circular letter:
“Ad orientem. Yes, the last phase of her sacrificial ascent, toward the light, had begun. We do not know when, where, and how she reached her destination. Many rumors, including that of her murder by gas in Auschwitz, have reached us, but not one confirmed reliable report.
“We no longer seek her in this world, but with God, who has accepted her sacrifice and who gives its fruit to the people for whom he prayed, suffered, and died, in the fullest sense of the word.
Our Church liturgically remembers the Blessed Martyrs of Compiègne. The 14 Carmelite nuns and two others were killed during the French Revolution.
The women were fearless before the guillotine. Rather, they sang as each one mounted the steps to her death.
Martyrs of Compiègne, pray for us.
On Sunday I posted a brief piece on Saint Mariam Baourady –in the Carmelite Order she is known as Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified (read this link for more info).
Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified has been known as “The Little Arab,” may she intercede for all those currently being religiously persecuted in the Middle East.
May Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified pray for us, for the people of the Middle East.
Earlier today in Rome, the Holy Father canonized some new saints. Among the 4 new saints is Saint Mariam Baouardy (5 January 1846 – 26 August 1878), a Discalced Carmelite nun of the Melkite Catholic Church. She was born to Greek Catholic parents in Ibillin, Galilee. Saint Mariam had the distinguished reputation of being a mystic and a person gifted with the experience of the holy stigmata (the physical wounds in the hands and feet that Jesus suffered and which redeemed us).
The Pope said of Saint Mariam,
An essential aspect of witness to the risen Lord is unity among ourselves, his disciples, in the image of his own unity with the Father. Today too, in the Gospel, we heard Jesus’ prayer on the eve of his passion: “that they may be one, even as we are one” (Jn 17:11). From this eternal love between the Father and the Son, poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5), our mission and our fraternal communion draw strength; this love is the ever-flowing source of our joy in following the Lord along the path of his poverty, his virginity and his obedience; and this same love calls us to cultivate contemplative prayer. Sister Mariam Baouardy experienced this in an outstanding way. Poor and uneducated, she was able to counsel others and provide theological explanations with extreme clarity, the fruit of her constant converse with the Holy Spirit. Her docility to the Spirit also made her a means of encounter and fellowship with the Muslim world.
Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, turns 500 today. Teresa is one of the most remarkable women of the Church who stood up to the bankruptcy of many churchmen in order to follow the command of the Savior “to rebuild my Church.” She was not only brilliant thinker and teacher, a reformer but she was an intense lover of Jesus. And from this posture, she is able to touch souls.
Several quotes come to mind:
“ Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.”
“You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.”
“There’s a time for partridge and a time for penance.”
“God has been very good to me, for I never dwell upon anything wrong which a person has done, so as to remember it afterwards. If I do remember it, I always see some other virtue in that person.”
“Christ has no body now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ looks compassion into the world.
Yours are the feet
with which Christ walks to do good.
Yours are the hands
with which Christ blesses the world.”
“A sad nun is a bad nun,” Teresa said. “I am more afraid of one unhappy sister than a crowd of evil spirits….What would happen if we hid what little sense of humor we had? Let each of us humbly use this to cheer others.”
“Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.”
“Let nothing disturb thee;
Let nothing dismay thee:
All thing pass;
God never changes.
Patience attains
All that it strives for.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing: God alone suffices.”
‘In spite of my littleness, I would like to enlighten souls as did the Prophets and the Doctors. I have the vocation of the Apostles. I would like to travel over the whole earth to preach your Name and to plant your glorious cross on infidel soil. But…one mission alone would not be sufficient for me, I would want to preach the Gospel on all the five continents simultaneously and even to the most remote isles. I would be a missionary, not for a few years only, but from the beginning of creation until the consummation of the ages.’
(The Story of a Soul
May the Saint intercede for the missions, at home and abroad.
Saint Teresa Benedicta said: “love will be our eternal life.” She also said, “As for what concerns our relations with our fellow men, the anguish in our neighbor’s soul must break all precept. All that we do is a means to an end, but love is an end in itself, because God is love.”
This Carmelite saint of the 20th century was killed for her love, for her abiding affection and love for her Divine Lover, Jesus Christ.
We know from experience that the measure of the person is recognized not by words, but by the actions one does in the face of diminishment, exhaustion, laziness, and persecution. Seeing ourselves in action is crucial for growing in our personal mission given to us by the Holy Spirit. Do we know what our mission is in this life?
We also know from experience based on regular self-reflection and discernment that what can sustain our hearts is the love we have for our Creator, the Infinite, and the concern we have for the salvation of others. Of course, this concern is first based on acceptance that are saved by Grace. The concern for the destiny of others, hence, is the exact same as what Jesus had for the 12 Apostles, the disciples, and for each of us.
All this leads me to think of the ways I am a mature Christian. Recall that Saint Paul talks about the goal of Christian is to be mature in his or her relationship with Christ and neighbor, even when it we meet immaturity in the other person; to be mature in living as faithful members in the Church. We have to admit that some days this can be difficult and only the reasonableness of faith Christ and honest friendship makes this possible and beautiful. This is why Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is a beautiful and reasonable witness: she understood the goal: eternal life. Can we follow her as she points to Jesus?