Today's Feast: St. Edith Stein

Things were in God's plan which I had not planned at all. I am coming to the living faith and conviction that, from God's point of view, there is no chance and that the whole of my life, down to every detail, has been mapped out in God's divine providence and makes complete and perfect sense in God's all-seeing eyes.

Only the person who renounces self-importance, who no longer struggles to defend or assert himself, can be large enough for God's boundless action.

If anyone comes to me, I want to lead them to Him.

God Himself teaches us to go forward with our hand in His by means of the Church's liturgy.

One cannot desire freedom from the Cross when one is especially chosen for the Cross.

In order to be an image of God, the spirit must turn to what is eternal, hold it in spirit, keep it in memory, and by loving it, embrace it in the will.

~St. Edith Stein, aka St. Teresa Benedicta of the Holy Cross

Today's saint is so dear to my heart! I hope to write more about her today -- as if I could possibly add anything to the wide variety of material already available on the Web! The good stuff includes the Vatican's biography of St. Edith Stein here. Laura Garcia of Crisis magazine focuses on St. Edith Stein's contributions to the understanding of the soul and the vocation of the woman here. St. Anthony Messenger, as always, provides a good bio, available here. Marianne Sawicki, Ph.D., writes of the phenomenolgy of St. Edith Stein here. Best of all are some of the writings of St. Edith Stein here, "The hidden life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts." Today I sure would like to stay home and do nothing but read and meditate upon this wise and holy woman and her life and thought, but since God's will is otherwise for me, I'm happily heading out shortly to do my part in the building the kingdom for which St. Edith Stein so gladly gave her life. Blessed be God in all His saints!