The Pastor's Pen

August 14, 2022, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A Month Of Mary; August 15th to September 15th: We begin 30 days in the Liturgical Year which are “bookended” by feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We begin with the feast of Mary’s assumption into heaven on August 15th –, followed by that of her Queenship on August 22nd. Then as we move toward the conclusion of the 30 days we celebrate the Nativity of Mary on September 8th and end with her memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15th. So even more appropriate than May, which when observed as a Marian month often puts the honor we would wish to give to Mary in competition with the attention that is due to the Resurrection of Christ in the 50 day Season of Easter, let us be especially mindful of Mary as we observe these feasts that begin in mid-August and conclude in mid-September.

Edith Stein; From Faithful Jew to Atheist to Catholic to Carmelite To Martyr: A Saint for Our Times: Born on Yom Kippur in 1891 and raised in a devout Jewish Family in Germany, Edith admitted that by the time she was 14 she was an atheist who had stopped praying. Very intelligent, she exceeded in her studies, eventually attending university and earning a Doctorate in Philosophy in 1917. Yet even though she had left faith behind in her early adolescence, obviously Divine Providence was still at work as her pursuit of the truth through Philosophy had called some of her attention to Catholicism and its great thinkers both medieval and modern. When she visited the widowed wife of a colleague who had been killed in Flanders during World War I and did not find a bereaved woman overwhelmed by grief but rather consoled by her Christian Faith, Edith reflects: “ That was my first encounter with the Cross and the divine power it imparts to those who bear it - It was in this moment that my unbelief collapsed, and Christ began to shine his light on me- Christ in the mystery of the Cross.” After reading the autobiography of St. Theresa of Avila in 1921, Edith had a sense that it contained the Truth that she had been pursuing her whole life. In 1922 she was baptized, and by 1932 she had entered the Carmelites taking the name Sister Theresa Benedicta of the Cross. In her writings she relates that she rediscovered her Jewish identity when she finally returned to God, and thus she felt connected to Christ not only spiritually but by the Jewish blood that she shared with him. When the Nazis intensified their persecution of the Jewish people in Germany in 1938, Edith’s religious superiors moved her and her sister Rosa who had also converted to Catholicism to a Carmel in the Netherlands to protect them. However, in 1942, when the bishops there protested the Nazi persecution of the Jews, in retaliation, the Gestapo rounded up Jews especially those who had converted to Christianity for deportation to the concentration camps. Edith and Rosa were taken by the Gestapo from the convent chapel on August 2, 1942, transported first to Westerbork, and then Auschwitz where they were gassed and cremated alongside many of their Jewish brothers and sisters on August 9th , just 80y years ago last Tuesday.

Many adolescents in our times admittedly lose faith in their early teens often under the influence of public educators who erroneously emphasize faith as being completely incompatible with science. As their parents, grandparents, godparents and pastors, we might pray for our young people, asking the intercession of Saint Edith Stein, that their pursuit of knowledge and truth will ultimately lead them, as it did her, back to faith in God whose love is still most powerfully revealed in the Cross of Jesus Christ!

Calling All Golfers!! Sign up to participate in the annual Christ the King Charity Golf Tournament to be held at Willow Bend Country Club on September 12th. This is a way of both doing something you very much enjoy but at the same time helping to continue good works for the poor among those in need in our wider community. Registration materials may be found at the entrances to the church or through the parish office!

Foster Kids Go Back to School Too!
Kids in foster care are often the over-looked back-to-schoolers. Thankfully, three organizations have been formed by foster parents who care for other people’s children in their homes:

Capecodfostercloset.org founders: foster parents Sharon and Andy Palmer
Kindheartsforkids.org Nicole Mitchell, foster parent, founder
Capecodambassadors@gmail.com

A back-to-school event will be held on Saturday 08/27/22 for foster parents, adoptive parents, and grandparents /relatives caring for children not their own. Each child will receive a new backpack of their choice, new sneakers, new socks, underwear, books and school supplies. The event will be held in Centerville at the Centerville Rec for pre-registered families.
Contact the organizations directly or Marchdupont@comcast.net or 508-477-3411
And remember, kids come in ALL sizes!