Friday Aug 9

 

St Teresa Benedicta of the cross

St. Teresa did not start out as a Catholic. 

She started out as Edith Stein, a Jew. 

She read the life of St. Teresa of Avila and converted to Catholicism. 

And became St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a Carmelite nun. 

But she did not leave her Jewishness behind. 

It was part of who she was. 

Pope Pius IX said we are all spiritual Semites. 

Meaning we come from Jewish roots for Jesus, Mary and Joseph were Jewish. 

But Teresa was born Jewish and because she was,

The Nazis arrested her and took her to Auschwitz. 

Where they experimented on her on how to kill people through various gases. 

She was one of the first to die in Auschwitz. 

As a Jew and as a Catholic,

She is a bond that connects Jews and Catholics 

In a common spirit and in common suffering.