Mary and the Carmelite Saints

She is there at the foot of the Cross, and
my Master says to me; “Behold your
Mother.” He gives her to me as my
Mother! She is still there to teach me to
suffer as He did, to make known to me
the last utterances of His soul, which she
alone, His Mother, was able to catch.

-- Last Retreat #257

It is Our Lady, full of light, pure with the
divine purity, who will take me by the
hand to lead me into heaven, that realm
of dazzling brightness

-- From Calvary to Heaven #221

51

52

St. Teresa Benedicta
of the Cross

Her Personal Experience

Much has been written lately about the famous
German convert from Judaism, St. Teresa

53

Benedicta of the Cross, aka Edith Stein.
She was a mystic, religious, and martyr.

But one of the lesser known aspects of her
life is her strong devotion to the Blessed
Mother.

After several years of delay, as Edith finally
prepared to enter Carmel, she stood outside
the grille in the convent parlor in front of the
community for a formal examination.

The final test proved exceedingly difficult --
they asked her to sing a little song -- as was the
custom of the house.

54

Sing? What could she sing? She had not used
her voice in this way in years. But she recalled
a Marian hymn that the girls she had taught at
Speyer sang -- and somehow it had found its

55

way into her heart. It was a simple little tune:
"Segne, Du Maria: Bless thou, Mary."

Needless to say, the sisters were satisfied, and
Edith was accepted into Carmel.

So Mary, the Mother of God, blessed the desire
of Edith Stein to become a Carmelite -- and
Mary helped her enter her own order…

Her Teaching on Mary

Several years prior to this, Edith had
enjoyed a stint as a popular philosopher
and lecturer.

In her Salzburg lecture on The Ethos of
Women's Professions, she addressed the
special maternal gifts of women:

56

Woman tends towards the living and
personal, she wants the whole. To
cherish, to keep and protect, this is her
natural, her authentically maternal
desire. To share in another's life, to take
part in all that concerns him, in the
greatest as well as in the smallest things,
in joy and sorrow, but also in his work
and problems, that is her special gift and
happiness.

-- Ethos of Women’s Professions, 1930

57

The model for this work of mother and
protector that Edith proposes is (of course)
the Mother of God:

Mary at the wedding feast of Cana -- her
quietly observing eyes see everything and
discover where something is missing. And
before anyone else notices anything,
before there is any embarrassment, she
has already remedied the situation. She
finds ways and means; she gives the
necessary directions, everything quietly
and without attracting attention.

Let this be the example of women…

--Essays On Woman #55

58

In Edith’s view, Our Lady reveals the natural
vocation of woman:

The image of the Mother of God shows us
clearly which attitudes of the soul of the
woman correspond to her natural vocation.

In relation to man: obedience, confidence
and participation in his life which favors his
objective duties and the development of his
personality; in relation to the babe: faithful
protection, care, and development of the
talents bestowed on him by God; and for
both one and the other: complete gift of self
and promptness in withdrawing into silence
when she is not needed.

–Essays On Woman #55

59

She emphasizes that the term “Mary is the
Heart of the Church” is not just a figurative
imagining, but a very real statement:

60

In the same way as head and heart play a
prominent part in the human body, whose
other organs and members depend on them
for their being and working, so also Mary,
because of her unique relationship with
Christ, must have a real, that is to say a
mystical relationship with the other
members of the Church.

This relationship is superior to that between
the other members in degree, manner, and
importance, in a way analogous to the
relationship between a mother and her
children, which is also superior to that
between the children themselves.

-- Life and Letters #109

61

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross goes on to
calling Mary our Mother "in the most real and
eminent sense, surpassing earthly
motherhood."

She writes:

She (Mary) has borne us into our life of
grace, by casting her whole being, body
and soul, into the divine maternity.

Therefore she is intimately united to us:
she loves us, she knows us, she is anxious
to make each of us what he ought to be,
especially to bring each of us into as close
a relationship, as possible to our Lord.

-- Life and Letters #109

62

St. Teresa Benedicta’s Lesson
for Women of Today

Aware of the needs of modern women, St.
Teresa Benedicta of the Cross points out
the special significance Mary holds for
women in a number of her writings. Here
are two short excerpts:

Woman’s entrance into the various
professional fields can be a real blessing
for all social life, whether private or
public, provided she preserves the specific
feminine ethos. And in this case too we
could turn our gaze to the Mother of God.

-- Essays on Woman #58

63

ln their maternity, whether natural or
supernatural, and in their vocation to be
brides of God, the maternity and divine
bride-hood of the Virgin Mother are, as it
were, continued.

And . . . so we may believe in the
cooperation of Mary wherever a woman
fulfills her womanly vocation, as well as
in all the work of the Church.

-- Essays on Woman #57

64

65

St. Teresa of the
Andes

Her Personal Experience

Juanita Fernandez Solar was born at
Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900 in Santiago,
Chile into a well-to-do, distinguished family.

Even at a very young age, Juanita began to
demonstrate an extraordinary love for God
and for Our Blessed Lady.

Her brother Lucho taught Juanita how to
pray the Rosary. Both made the promise to
pray it every day. This was a promise that

66

Juanita kept until her death (there was only
one time, she writes, being very small that
she forgot).

It was during this time of her childhood,
that she describes the special relationship
she held with the Virgin:

67

More or less from the time I was seven
years old there took root in my soul the
greatest devotion to my Mother, the
Most Holy Virgin. I confided to Mary
everything that was happening to me,
and she spoke to me.

I heard her voice within me, quite clearly
and distinctly. She advised me and told
me all that I had to do to please Our Lord.
I thought that it was a perfectly normal
thing, and it never occurred to me to
relate to others what the Most Holy
Virgin was telling me…

-- Diary, St. Teresa of the Andes

68