August 9--St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr

Atheism has a hold on many in modern society on the grounds that immaterial things, like ideas and God, don’t exist; only material things, like bodies and matter, do. Atheism and materialism have many converts, including many scientists. They don’t seem to be able to deal with a reality that they can’t measure or perceive with their senses. Today’s saint, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, born as Edith Stein, was one such atheist, as well as philosopher.

She was born in 1891 to a Jewish family in Germany. She became an atheist at age 14 and later a philosopher. However, her search for truth, and reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, led her to convert to Catholicism. She taught in the universities in Germany until her Jewish heritage required her to step down. She became a Discalced Carmelite in 1933 and was sent to Holland in 1938 to escape Nazi oppression. Arrested in 1942 after the Dutch bishops condemned the Nazis, she was sent to Auschwitz where she was martyred along with her sister.

As a philosopher, she developed a proof for the existence of God based on the existence of human beings and our egos, which are dependent on the existence of a higher being, who is not dependent on any other being for existing. God is! We are because God is. But St. Teresa Benedicta did not die for a philosophical abstraction. Some claim that it is only because of her Jewish heritage that she was killed. However, her martyrdom was directly connected to the Dutch bishops’ condemnation of the immorality of the Nazis and thus, she is a true martyr. She died because she believed in a loving God who died for us. Atheism cannot comprehend such a love!

December 14--St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"  That line from Monty Python's Flying Circus sets off comedy sketches about the ineptitude of the inquisitors.  However, our saint of the day was not beset by British comics pretending to be ruthless interrogators; St. John of the Cross actually spent nine months in a jail cell being investigated by the Spanish Inquisition.

How is it that a saint who was the co-founder, along with St. Teresa of Avila, of the Discalced Carmelites, a mystic who wrote amazing poetry and described the dark night of the soul in which it seemed that God abandoned him, was arrested and thrown into prison?  It was because of his association with St. Teresa that he helped start the reform of his religious order in Spain.  Due to his efforts and misunderstandings by his superiors he was imprisoned and eventually released.  Through his sufferings he came to realize that "the soul must empty itself of self in order to be filled with God."

What is in our souls?  Is it desire pleasure, power, or prestige?  There is nothing wrong with the good things of this earth that bring us closer to God, but we must remember Jesus' admonition:  "No one can serve two masters.  He will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt. 6:24).  Is God at the center of our lives?  "For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be" (Mt. 6:21).  Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, but the difficulties and sufferings we face may help us to realize that we are utterly dependent upon God, who is our only treasure.

October 15—St. Teresa of Avila, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Try these quotations on for size:  “May God deliver me from gloomy saints.”  “There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.”  “To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience.” “Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.”  “Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.”  “Don't let your sins turn into bad habits.”  “Pain is never permanent.”  “We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.”

What a wealth of wisdom!  St. Teresa of Avila was a reformer in Spain in the 16^th century, helping turn spiritually weak nuns into spiritually strong nuns.  She reformed her religious order of Carmelites.  She is one of four women who have been declared Doctors of the Church along with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Thérèse of Lisieux and, this month, St. Hildegard of Bingen.

Wisdom is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and we really need this gift in these times.  “The beginning of wisdom is fear of the LORD, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Pr. 9:10).  Fear of the Lord refers to knowing our place before God as his creatures.  When we know that, we can start on the path to wisdom.  Further, Jesus told his disciples, and us:  “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves” (Mt. 10:16).  St. Teresa truly was one of the wise virgins:  “Anyone who truly loves God travels securely.”  Let us be wise, love God, and travel through life secure in the Lord.