Commentary of the Gospell

Witness of the Little Ones

One of the several events that led the intellectually gifted Edith Stein to convert to catholic faith was witnessing a simple, ordinary woman, walking into a church to pray. In Edith’s own words:

            “We stopped in at the cathedral for a few minutes; and, while we looked around in respectful silence, a woman carrying a market basket came in and knelt down in one of the pews to pray briefly. This was something entirely new to me…. Here was someone interrupting her everyday shopping errands to come into this church, although no other person was in it, as though she were here for an intimate conversation. I could never forget that.”

Edith never forgot it. That little example given unawares by that simple woman led to Edith’s conversion and gave us the martyr and saint,  Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.