Today is August 9, the Optional Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
We read at today’s Mass, “Moses said to the people: ‘Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest” (Dt 6:4-5).
Today’s reading brings us the Shema, the great prayer of Israel. It’s a powerful declaration of love and fidelity — so central to the Jewish tradition that it’s prayed daily and etched into the very heart of Jewish faith. In the Church, we echo it every week in Night Prayer. Why? Because it reminds us of our deepest calling: to love God with everything we are.
This makes today’s memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as Edith Stein, especially meaningful.
Born into a devout Jewish family, Edith Stein was a brilliant philosopher and a seeker of truth. Her journey led her to the Catholic Church where she was baptized, eventually joining the Carmelite order and taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Her conversion did not mean forgetting her Jewish roots. Rather, her life came to fulfill them in a profound and deeply Christ-centered way.
Authentic children of God
In the face of suffering, Teresa Benedicta found meaning not in escape or despair, but in union with the crucified Christ. She wrote, “Being one with Christ is our sanctity, and progressively becoming one with him is our happiness on earth. The love of the cross in no way contradicts being a joyful child of God.”
What a remarkable insight: that helping Christ carry his cross fills one with a strong and pure joy. For Teresa Benedicta, suffering was not an obstacle to holiness — it was a path to it. Joy, she teaches us, is not found in comfort but in communion with Christ.
This is where we return to the theme of thirst. Our thirst for meaning, especially in times of pain, is satisfied only when we unite our suffering to Jesus’ own thirst on the cross. As she writes, those who help build the Kingdom of God through this deep union — those who can carry the cross with Christ — are the most authentic children of God.
Let us pray,
God of our Fathers, who brought the Martyr Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross to know your crucified Son and to imitate him even until death, grant, through her intercession, that the whole human race may acknowledge Christ as its Savior and through him come to behold you for eternity. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
