A localized way to celebrate St. Teresa Benedicta/Edith Stein’s feast on this Province Blog during the 80th anniversary year of her passing into eternal life would be to express thanks for the person who translated the story of Edith’s early years for us into English, Life in a Jewish Family: Sister Josephine Koeppel.

The schedule in our monasteries includes an activity called the hour of recreation, in which the community gathers in a common room to talk together. It typically follows the evening hour of mental (silent) prayer, and the two share a lot in common.

In the first half of this episode, we discuss the conversion of St. Edith Stein. Then, we have an interview with the Lasnoski family.

For Edith Stein the happy ending to a lengthy conversion process came with her baptism on the first day of 1922. This was preceded by her completed reading of the Autobiography of Saint Teresa of Jesus a few months previous in the summer of 1921, one hundred years ago.

The sabbatical I was granted after service as Provincial that lasted from August 2014 to November 2015 gave me the opportunity to extend my knowledge of Saint Teresa Benedicta (Edith) Stein and to speak about her to several audiences in Europe. The following fruit of those months spent at the Carmelite monastery in Kensington, England is now one way to show my appreciation and to open out on to a fascinating description created for the Vatican.