Today, Holy Mother Church remembers one of Carmel’s saints – Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein). The Nazis’ web of terror ensnared Saint Teresa Benedicta. She, her sister Rosa together with other Roman Catholic religious of Jewish heritage, died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. In short, the Gestapo rounded up more than 100 religious men and women in retaliation to the Dutch Bishops’ Conference public stance against the treatment of the Jewish people by the Nazis. This link provides you with the Vatican’s biography.
On August 9, 1942, I am sure that my grandmother, a youthful mother, together with her two little girls walked under the hot summer sky in South Texas. Across the ocean, in a distant place from Texas on that day, a saintly nun walked quietly towards Heaven through the portals of Auschwitz. I am certain that each step Saint Teresa Benedicta took deepened her love of God and cemented her trust in Him. Even today her signature phrase consoles us:
[quote]Learn to live at God’s hands. – Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross[/quote]