Single Mothers of Mary Topic 26
Goal: To learn about the nature of authentic renewal and enlightenment
Topics that will be covered in this post:
- Inspirational Women: Mary and Edith Stein (St. Teresia Benedicta of the Cross, 1891-1942)
- First Luminous Mystery: The Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist
- Guidance on how to assess when temptation becomes sinful, on the dignity of woman, and conversing with God.
- Questions on how women are devalued, on how to be a good mom despite being a single mom, and on how to discern authentic enlightenment.
† Born in Breslau to a Jewish family, the youngest of eleven children.
† Quiet and thoughtful, at a young age she decided she wanted to become an atheist in 1904.
† When she went to the University of Göttingen, she studied philosophy, earning her doctorate in 1916. She concentrated her studies on theories of women, empathy, human sexuality, relationships, and phenomenology (the philosophy of perception). She was able to translate works from Greek, Latin, English, and French.
† She arose as one of Europe’s brightest philosophers and was sought after by many universities to lecture on philosophy but could not obtain a professorship since she was a woman.
† As a traveling lecturer and professor of philosophy, she endeavored to expand her studies in phenomenology using Thomistic thought (as begun by St. Thomas Aquinas). This would be her first contemplation with Christian thought.
† As time went by, she found a copy of an autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila (one of the doctors of the Church) and was deeply called to conversion, so much so that she wanted to become a vowed discalced Carmelite nun like St. Teresa. She was baptized in 1922. However, since her mother was so shocked with her conversion, Edith decided to wait on studying to be a Carmelite.
† In 1932, she left the university to work as a teacher in a Dominican school. She also lectured at the Educational Institute in Munich but had to resign because the Nazi tensions were rising.
† In 1934, she finally became a nun with the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
† In 1938, she had to be smuggled to the Netherlands to hide from the Nazis, but in 1940 they overtook that country as well.
† In 1942, she was arrested for being a non-Aryan Catholic and for being of Jewish descent–that same year she died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz.
† John Paul II canonized her as a martyr and mystic, having read and admired many of her works to understand women, their dignity and vocation–she also successfully fused scholasticism and phenomenology.
Prayer: First Luminous Mystery (The Baptism of Jesus)
- Start with short introductory prayer of praise and thanksgiving, intercession and petitions.
- Read Mark 1: 1-15 and reflect.
- The Creed and a decade of the Rosary with St. Louis, praying for the grace to fulfill our Baptismal promises with Jesus, in His Baptism.
- Reflect silently on the Mystery of His Baptism.
- Discuss any inspirations or questions about the Mystery.
- Discuss the rebirth of the spiritual pulse that we have been given, which is further signified by Jesus’ descending into and ascending out of the water.
Readings:
- St. Francis De Sales, Part IV, Chapter 6 (how temptation/attraction can become sinful)
- CCC 535-537 (baptism of Jesus), 836-838 (who belongs to the Catholic Church),
- Edith Stein excerpts
- St. Francis De Sales, Part III, Chapter 26 (conversation with God)
Faith Witness:
- What kinds of things devalue women for who they are?
- What kinds of things nourish the nature of woman?
- What are some things we can do to keep our lives balanced even though we have the added challenge of being single mothers?
- How does baptism help us to become fully human?
- What must we renounce and what must we embrace to be fulfilled?
- Read CCC 25 about the goal of authentic teachings. What teachings can we always count on?
- Pray with Jesus in His Baptism this week with the prayer of Beatitudes.
Single Mothers of Mary 