JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!
Today we celebrate the Three Wise Men who journeyed across the deserts of Arabia to present gifts to the New-born King. These three kings represented the opening of salvation for all of mankind, beyond the Chosen People, the Jews. One can only wonder what sort of journey this might have been for these astronomers who exhibited such faith and courage to follow the unknown. What an inspiration for us as we face our peaks and valleys of life, and Our Lord asks us to take His hand and trust Him in faith. He reminds us that He is our life and our salvation. He is our guiding light, our star, our Good Shepherd.
In 2005, World Youth Day was held in Cologne, Germany, where Benedict XVI set time aside to pray at the tomb of the Three Wise Men, which was an integral theme. During his speech, the pope talked about what really motivated their journey to Bethlehem.
"The Magi set out because of a deep desire which prompted them to leave everything and begin a journey. It was as though they had always been waiting for that star. It was as if the journey had always been a part of their destiny, and was finally about to begin. Dear friends, this is the mystery of God’s call, the mystery of vocation." Pope Benedict XVI
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), in a lecture delivered on 13 January 1931, speaks of those who were drawn to the manger. The shepherds were drawn by the message of an angel, while the wise men followed a star. Each in their own way responded to the call to entrust themselves to this small child and in doing so found peace. This is a short excerpt from her reflection, The Mystery of Christmas:
The star of Bethlehem remains a star in the dark night even today…Darkness covered the earth and the Christ child came as light to illumine the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend him. To those who received him, he brought light and peace…a deep interior peace of the heart. The dark night of sin stands in stark and sinister contrast with the Light which came down from heaven.
The Child in the manger extends his little hands and his smile seems to be saying what would come forth later from the lips of the man: ‘Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened’; and the poor shepherds out on the hills of Bethlehem, who heard the good news of the angel, follow his call and make their way with a simple answer, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem’. Also upon the kings from the orient lands, who followed the star with like simplicity, there dropped from the Infant hands the dew of grace and ‘they rejoiced with great joy’. These hands give and request at the same time: you wise men, lay down your wisdom and become like children; you kings, give up your crowns and your treasures and bow down meekly before the King of kings; do not hesitate to take up the burdens, sorrows and weariness which his service demands.
St. Teresa Benedicta again wrote of the special place Epiphany holds for the Church in her essay entitledThe Hidden Life and Epiphany. I hope you enjoy it!
(1
"The complete manuscript for this meditation for the Feast of the Three Wise Men from the East is found in the Archives under the label DI 16. The text is neither signed nor dated. Since Edith Stein came to Echt in 1938 and since there are two additional reflections for the Feast of the Three Kings in the Archives, one for the year 1941, the other for the year 1942, the present manuscript can be dated January 6, 1940 with certainty" (Volume XI of Edith Steins Werke, http://www.ocd.or.at/ics/edith/stein_7.html).
The Hidden Life and Epiphany 1
(1 "The complete manuscript for this meditation for the Feast of the Three Wise Men from the East is found in the Archives under the label DI 16. The text is neither signed nor dated. Since Edith Stein came to Echt in 1938 and since there are two additional reflections for the Feast of the Three Kings in the Archives, one for the year 1941, the other for the year 1942, the present manuscript can be dated January 6, 1940 with certainty" (Volume XI of Edith Steins Werke, http://www.ocd.or.at/ics/edith/stein_7.html).
When the gentle light of the advent candles begins to shine in the dark days of December a mysterious light in a mysterious darkness it awakens in us the consoling thought that the divine light, the Holy Spirit, has never ceased to illumine the darkness of the fallen world. He has remained faithful to his creation, regardless of all the infidelity of creatures. And if the darkness would not allow itself to be penetrated by the heavenly light, there were nevertheless some places always predisposed for it to blaze.
A ray from this light fell into the hearts of our original parents even during the judgment to which they were subjected. This was an
the visible Church grows out of this invisible one in ever new, divine deeds and revelations which shed their light ever new epiphanies. The silent working of the Holy Spirit in the depths of the soul made the patriarchs into friends of God. However, when they came to the point of allowing themselves to be used as his pliant instruments, he established them in an external visible efficacy as bearers of historical development, and awakened from among them his chosen people. Therefore, Moses, too, was educated quietly and then sent as the leader and lawgiver.
As were the hearts of the first human beings, so down through the ages again and again human hearts have been struck by the divine ray. Hidden from the whole world, it illuminated and irradiated them, let the hard, encrusted, misshapen matter of these hearts soften, and then with the tender hand of an artist formed them anew into the image of God. Seen by no human eye, this is how living building blocks were and are formed and brought together into a Church first of all invisible. However,
instruments of God without their knowledge and even against their will, possibly even people who neither externally nor interiorly belong to the church. They would then be used like the hammer or chisel of the artist, or like a knife with which the vine-dresser prunes the vines. For those who belong to the church, outer membership can also temporally precede interior, in fact can be materially significant for it (as when someone without faith is baptized and then comes to faith through the public life in the church). But it finally comes down to the interior life; formation moves from the inner to the outer. The deeper a soul is bound to God, the more completely surrendered to grace, the stronger will be its influence on the form of the church. Conversely, the more an era is engulfed in the night of sin and estrangement from God the more it needs souls united to God. And God does not permit a deficiency.
Not everyone whom God uses as an instrument must be prepared in this way. People may also be
Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Discalced Carmelite [Edith Stein], "The Hidden Life and Epiphany" in Volume IV of the Collected Works of Edith Stein, The hidden life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, ed. Dr. L. Gelber and Michael Linssen, O.C.D., (1992, Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications), http://www.ocd.or.at/ics/edith/stein.html
The greatest figures of prophecy and sanctity step forth out of the darkest night. But for the most part the formative stream of the mystical life remains invisible. Certainly the decisive turning points in world history are substantially co-determined by souls whom no history book ever mentions. And we will only find out about those souls to whom we owe the decisive turning points in our personal lives on the day when all that is hidden is revealed.
Because hidden souls do not live in isolation, but are a part of the living nexus and have a position in a great divine order, we speak of an
kings at the manger represent seekers from all lands and peoples. Grace led them before they ever belonged to the external church. There lived in them a pure longing for truth that did not stop at the boundaries of native doctrines and traditions. Because God is truth and because he wants to be found by those who seek him with their whole hearts, sooner or later the star had to appear to show these wise men the way to truth. And so they now stand before the Incarnate Truth, bow down and worship it, and place their crowns at its feet, because all the treasures of the world are but a little dust compared to it.
In the people who are gathered around the manger, we have a analogy for the church and its development. Representatives of the old royal dynasties to whom the savior of the world was promised and representatives of faithful people constitute the relationship between the Old and the New Covenants. The kings from the far-away East indicate the Gentiles for whom salvation is to come from Judea. So here there is already "the Church made up of Jews and Gentiles." The
And the kings have a special meaning for us, too. Even though we already belonged to the external church, an interior impulse nevertheless drove us out of the circle of inherited viewpoints and conventions. We knew God, but we felt that he desired to be sought and found by us in a new way. Therefore we wanted to open ourselves and sought for a star to show us the right way. And it arose for us in the grace of vocation. We followed it and found the divine infant. He stretched out his hands for our gifts. He wanted the pure
Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Discalced Carmelite [Edith Stein], "The Hidden Life and Epiphany" in Volume IV of the Collected Works of Edith Stein, The hidden life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, ed. Dr. L. Gelber and Michael Linssen, O.C.D., (1992, Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications), http://www.ocd.or.at/ics/edith/stein.html
But this admirable exchange was not a one-time event. It fills our entire lives. After the solemn hour of bridal surrender, there followed the everyday life of observance in the Order. We had to "return to our own country," but "taking another way" and escorted by the new light that had blazed up for us at those solemn places. The new light commands us to search anew. "God lets himself be sought," says St. Augustine, "to let himself be found. He lets himself be found to be sought again."
After each great hour of grace, it is as if we were but beginning now to understand our vocation. Therefore an interior need prompts us to renew our vows repeatedly. That we do so on the feast of the three kings whose pilgrimage and affirmation are for us a symbol for our lives has a deep meaning. To each authentic, heartfelt renewal of vows, the divine Child responds with renewed acceptance and a deeper union. And this means a new, hidden operation of grace in our souls. Perhaps it is revealed in an epiphany, the work of God becoming visible in our external behavior and activity noticed by those around us. But perhaps it also bears fruit that, though observed, conceals from all eyes the mysterious source from which its vital juices pour.
Today we live again in a time that urgently needs to be renewed at the hidden springs of God-fearing souls. Many people, too, place their last hope in these hidden springs of salvation. This is a serious warning cry: Surrender without reservation to the Lord who has called us. This is required of us so that the face of the earth may be renewed. In faithful trust, we must abandon our souls to the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. It is not necessary that we experience the epiphany in our lives. We may live in the confident certainty that what the Spirit of God secretly effects in us bears its fruits in the kingdom of God. We will see them in eternity.
So this is how we want to bring our gifts to the Lord: We lay them in the hands of the Mother of God. This first Saturday
See http://www.stanselminstitute.org/files/Stein_The%20Hidden%20Life%20and%20Epiphany%20(1940).pdf2 is particularly dedicated to her honor, and nothing can give her most pure heart greater joy than an ever deeper surrender to the Divine Heart. Furthermore, she will certainly have no more urgent petition for the Child in the manger than the one for holy priests and a richly blessed priestly ministry. And this is the petition today's Saturday for priests bids us make and which our Holy Mother has enjoined on us so compellingly as an essential constituent of our vocation to Carmel. gold of a heart detached from all earthly goods; the myrrh of a renunciation of all the happiness of this world in exchange for participation in the life and suffering of Jesus; the frankincense of a will that surrenders itself and strains upward to lose itself in the divine will. In return for these gifts, the divine Child gave us himself. invisible church. Their impact and affinity can remain hidden from themselves and others for their entire earthly lives. But it is also possible for some of this to become visible in the external world. This is how it was with the persons and events intertwined in the mystery of the Incarnation. Mary and Joseph, Zechariah and Elizabeth, the shepherds and the kings, Simeon and Anna all of these had behind them a solitary life with God and were prepared for their special tasks before they found themselves together in those awesome encounters and events and, in retrospect, could understand how the paths left behind led to this climax. Their astounded adoration in the presence of these great deeds of God is expressed in the songs of praise that have come down to us. illuminating ray that awakened in them the knowledge of their guilt, an enkindling ray that made them burn with fiery remorse, purifying and cleansing, and made them sensitive to the gentle light of the star of hope, which shone for them in the words of promise of the "protoevangelium," the original gospel.
(1
"The complete manuscript for this meditation for the Feast of the Three Wise Men from the East is found in the Archives under the label DI 16. The text is neither signed nor dated. Since Edith Stein came to Echt in 1938 and since there are two additional reflections for the Feast of the Three Kings in the Archives, one for the year 1941, the other for the year 1942, the present manuscript can be dated January 6, 1940 with certainty" (Volume XI of Edith Steins Werke, http://www.ocd.or.at/ics/edith/stein_7.html).
The Hidden Life and Epiphany 1
(1 "The complete manuscript for this meditation for the Feast of the Three Wise Men from the East is found in the Archives under the label DI 16. The text is neither signed nor dated. Since Edith Stein came to Echt in 1938 and since there are two additional reflections for the Feast of the Three Kings in the Archives, one for the year 1941, the other for the year 1942, the present manuscript can be dated January 6, 1940 with certainty" (Volume XI of Edith Steins Werke, http://www.ocd.or.at/ics/edith/stein_7.html).
When the gentle light of the advent candles begins to shine in the dark days of December a mysterious light in a mysterious darkness it awakens in us the consoling thought that the divine light, the Holy Spirit, has never ceased to illumine the darkness of the fallen world. He has remained faithful to his creation, regardless of all the infidelity of creatures. And if the darkness would not allow itself to be penetrated by the heavenly light, there were nevertheless some places always predisposed for it to blaze.
A ray from this light fell into the hearts of our original parents even during the judgment to which they were subjected. This was an
the visible Church grows out of this invisible one in ever new, divine deeds and revelations which shed their light ever new epiphanies. The silent working of the Holy Spirit in the depths of the soul made the patriarchs into friends of God. However, when they came to the point of allowing themselves to be used as his pliant instruments, he established them in an external visible efficacy as bearers of historical development, and awakened from among them his chosen people. Therefore, Moses, too, was educated quietly and then sent as the leader and lawgiver.
As were the hearts of the first human beings, so down through the ages again and again human hearts have been struck by the divine ray. Hidden from the whole world, it illuminated and irradiated them, let the hard, encrusted, misshapen matter of these hearts soften, and then with the tender hand of an artist formed them anew into the image of God. Seen by no human eye, this is how living building blocks were and are formed and brought together into a Church first of all invisible. However,
instruments of God without their knowledge and even against their will, possibly even people who neither externally nor interiorly belong to the church. They would then be used like the hammer or chisel of the artist, or like a knife with which the vine-dresser prunes the vines. For those who belong to the church, outer membership can also temporally precede interior, in fact can be materially significant for it (as when someone without faith is baptized and then comes to faith through the public life in the church). But it finally comes down to the interior life; formation moves from the inner to the outer. The deeper a soul is bound to God, the more completely surrendered to grace, the stronger will be its influence on the form of the church. Conversely, the more an era is engulfed in the night of sin and estrangement from God the more it needs souls united to God. And God does not permit a deficiency.
Not everyone whom God uses as an instrument must be prepared in this way. People may also be
Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Discalced Carmelite [Edith Stein], "The Hidden Life and Epiphany" in Volume IV of the Collected Works of Edith Stein, The hidden life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, ed. Dr. L. Gelber and Michael Linssen, O.C.D., (1992, Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications), http://www.ocd.or.at/ics/edith/stein.html
The greatest figures of prophecy and sanctity step forth out of the darkest night. But for the most part the formative stream of the mystical life remains invisible. Certainly the decisive turning points in world history are substantially co-determined by souls whom no history book ever mentions. And we will only find out about those souls to whom we owe the decisive turning points in our personal lives on the day when all that is hidden is revealed.
Because hidden souls do not live in isolation, but are a part of the living nexus and have a position in a great divine order, we speak of an
kings at the manger represent seekers from all lands and peoples. Grace led them before they ever belonged to the external church. There lived in them a pure longing for truth that did not stop at the boundaries of native doctrines and traditions. Because God is truth and because he wants to be found by those who seek him with their whole hearts, sooner or later the star had to appear to show these wise men the way to truth. And so they now stand before the Incarnate Truth, bow down and worship it, and place their crowns at its feet, because all the treasures of the world are but a little dust compared to it.
In the people who are gathered around the manger, we have a analogy for the church and its development. Representatives of the old royal dynasties to whom the savior of the world was promised and representatives of faithful people constitute the relationship between the Old and the New Covenants. The kings from the far-away East indicate the Gentiles for whom salvation is to come from Judea. So here there is already "the Church made up of Jews and Gentiles." The
And the kings have a special meaning for us, too. Even though we already belonged to the external church, an interior impulse nevertheless drove us out of the circle of inherited viewpoints and conventions. We knew God, but we felt that he desired to be sought and found by us in a new way. Therefore we wanted to open ourselves and sought for a star to show us the right way. And it arose for us in the grace of vocation. We followed it and found the divine infant. He stretched out his hands for our gifts. He wanted the pure
Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Discalced Carmelite [Edith Stein], "The Hidden Life and Epiphany" in Volume IV of the Collected Works of Edith Stein, The hidden life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, ed. Dr. L. Gelber and Michael Linssen, O.C.D., (1992, Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications), http://www.ocd.or.at/ics/edith/stein.html
But this admirable exchange was not a one-time event. It fills our entire lives. After the solemn hour of bridal surrender, there followed the everyday life of observance in the Order. We had to "return to our own country," but "taking another way" and escorted by the new light that had blazed up for us at those solemn places. The new light commands us to search anew. "God lets himself be sought," says St. Augustine, "to let himself be found. He lets himself be found to be sought again."
After each great hour of grace, it is as if we were but beginning now to understand our vocation. Therefore an interior need prompts us to renew our vows repeatedly. That we do so on the feast of the three kings whose pilgrimage and affirmation are for us a symbol for our lives has a deep meaning. To each authentic, heartfelt renewal of vows, the divine Child responds with renewed acceptance and a deeper union. And this means a new, hidden operation of grace in our souls. Perhaps it is revealed in an epiphany, the work of God becoming visible in our external behavior and activity noticed by those around us. But perhaps it also bears fruit that, though observed, conceals from all eyes the mysterious source from which its vital juices pour.
Today we live again in a time that urgently needs to be renewed at the hidden springs of God-fearing souls. Many people, too, place their last hope in these hidden springs of salvation. This is a serious warning cry: Surrender without reservation to the Lord who has called us. This is required of us so that the face of the earth may be renewed. In faithful trust, we must abandon our souls to the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. It is not necessary that we experience the epiphany in our lives. We may live in the confident certainty that what the Spirit of God secretly effects in us bears its fruits in the kingdom of God. We will see them in eternity.
So this is how we want to bring our gifts to the Lord: We lay them in the hands of the Mother of God. This first Saturday
See http://www.stanselminstitute.org/files/Stein_The%20Hidden%20Life%20and%20Epiphany%20(1940).pdf2 is particularly dedicated to her honor, and nothing can give her most pure heart greater joy than an ever deeper surrender to the Divine Heart. Furthermore, she will certainly have no more urgent petition for the Child in the manger than the one for holy priests and a richly blessed priestly ministry. And this is the petition today's Saturday for priests bids us make and which our Holy Mother has enjoined on us so compellingly as an essential constituent of our vocation to Carmel. gold of a heart detached from all earthly goods; the myrrh of a renunciation of all the happiness of this world in exchange for participation in the life and suffering of Jesus; the frankincense of a will that surrenders itself and strains upward to lose itself in the divine will. In return for these gifts, the divine Child gave us himself. invisible church. Their impact and affinity can remain hidden from themselves and others for their entire earthly lives. But it is also possible for some of this to become visible in the external world. This is how it was with the persons and events intertwined in the mystery of the Incarnation. Mary and Joseph, Zechariah and Elizabeth, the shepherds and the kings, Simeon and Anna all of these had behind them a solitary life with God and were prepared for their special tasks before they found themselves together in those awesome encounters and events and, in retrospect, could understand how the paths left behind led to this climax. Their astounded adoration in the presence of these great deeds of God is expressed in the songs of praise that have come down to us. illuminating ray that awakened in them the knowledge of their guilt, an enkindling ray that made them burn with fiery remorse, purifying and cleansing, and made them sensitive to the gentle light of the star of hope, which shone for them in the words of promise of the "protoevangelium," the original gospel.
