If you’ve read some of the recent US press discussion on this topic, which has a “how dare you!” tone to it, I urge you to read this article, which presents background on the issue, and a defense of the current language of the prayer. It is not easy reading, but well worthwhile.

Once again, Rabbi Neusner does a better job of defending Catholic practice than many Catholics. I read his book about Jesus when I was considering conversion to Judaism many years ago. Ironically, his book helped me understand the uniqueness of the claims of Jesus, and helped me return to a deeper and more committed Christian faith (ultimately a Catholic faith.)

On Sunday, August 9, 1942, Edith Stein died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, and entered into eternal life with God.

Rather than my own prayers today, I give you the English translation of the mourner’s Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead:

Magnified and sanctified be God’s great name in the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom soon, in our lifetime. Let us say: Amen.

May His great name be praised to all eternity.

Hallowed and honored, extolled and exalted, adored and acclaimed be the name of the Holy One, though He is above all the praises, hymns, and songs of adoration which men can utter. Let us say: Amen.

May God grant abundant peace and life to us and to all Israel. Let us say: Amen.

May He who ordains harmony in the universe grant peace to us and to all Israel. Let us say: Amen.

Today, we remember her arrival at Auschwitz, the place of her death.

The prayer below is my own:

St. Edith, you arrived at Auschwitz and were counted among the worthless, but you maintained your dignity. Join your prayers to ours, that we might  remember that we, and all people we encounter, are created in the image of God.

In today’s meditation, we read this interesting passage:

At Scifferstadt, however, a door might have been opened for a few moments, during which time, our Edith managed to recognize an ex-pupil standing on the platform and to convey to her greetings for her Sisters. “Tell them” she said “I am on my way to the East.” Perhaps she was unaware that she was on her way to Auschwitz.

Maybe I’m off-base, but could she have meant this in a spiritual sense? That she was on her way to the East, to resurrection? Perhaps it is reaching, but I prefer to think this.

The prayer below is my own:

St. Edith, you saw the Resurrection to come, even as you drew near your own share of Christ’s cross. Add your prayers to ours that we may trust that same hope in our times of trouble.

Today we commemorate the day St. Edith and her fellow captives spent at Westerbork camp, being plundered of any goods of value they still owned, given identification numbers, and generally being processed as prisoners.

The prayer below is my own:

St. Edith,  the petty bureaucracies and little deprivations of the Nazis were part of their cruelty and your martyrdom. Add your prayers to ours, that we might use the annoyances of our lives to make us holy.

On this day we remember St. Edith’s travel to yet another transitional camp. She and the other prisoners are forced to travel in complete darkness, without knowledge of their destination, knowing only that they will ultimately be killed. Near the end of their journey, they are herded into the wilderness to travel on foot.

The prayer below is my own:

St. Edith, we too find ourselves traveling in the darkness and stumbling through wilderness, though in less dire circumstances than yours. Add your prayers to ours, that God might give us confidence in his love, leading us not to avoid suffering but, through suffering to gain a greater good for souls.

Today we read this remarkable account of how the clergy and religious imprisoned at Amersfoort turned their prison into a place of prayer:

The religious grouped themselves spontaneously into a little community which regarded Saint Edith as its Superior, so unquestionable was the ascendancy of her spirit. Arrangements were made to recite the Breviary, the Rosary and to meditate. A copy of the Imitation of Christ which had been smuggled into the camp provided matter for meditation. The Confiteor was sung daily, despite the catcalls of the guards.

The two Trappist priests were unable to celebrate Holy Mass and distribute Holy Communion at Amersfoort; but they heard confessions and did what they could to redress the morale of the internees, shaken by the sudden change in their fortunes. Their presence was a blessing, all the more so, since it was generally felt that the journey was a ‘journey to heaven’ as one Sister put it; for them their would be no return. On one occasion, the guards stood the two Trappist Fathers against a wall and pointed their guns at them, in the presence of the Sisters — all for a joke.

The prayer below is my own:

St. Edith, you maintained the disciplines of your religious life even in a place of desolation and abuse. Join your prayers to ours, that we may develop routines and habits in the good times of our lives to sustain us through the times of trial.

Today we recall the journey of Edith and her sister Rosa from Echt, throughout the Netherlands, to Amersfoort, where the Nazis had a transit camp. Because of the convoluted route taken (in order to round up more prisoners, the trip lasted until the early hours of the morning.

When I looked at this novena last year, I was surprised to see the mention of Amersfoort, a city that now a has more positive significance for me and many other people. Amersfoort is now the European headquarters of SQPN, the Star Quest Production Network, which is the birthplace of some very exciting and enlightening new Catholic podcasts.

The prayer below is my own:

St. Edith, Amersfoort was one of the stations on your personal Way of the Cross. Through God’s mercy and love, blessings are now flowing to God’s people from that same city. Add your prayers to ours, that we may likewise receive blessings from God in the places of our pain.

Some people had a problem with St. Edith’s canonization as a “virgin and martyr,” because she was murdered in Auschwitz. They see her as a Jewish holocaust victim, not a Catholic martyr. Today’s meditation explains more fully why the designation as a virgin and martyr is fitting and right. Please read today’s meditation in full, but here is the summation:

The deportation of our Martyr and her sister was an act, undertaken in hatred of the faith, as a reprisal for the condemnation of the Nazi persecution of the Jews by the Catholic Hierarchy of Holland; that our Martyr was of Jewish origin, would not in itself, have furnished a sufficient cause for her deportation and death.

The prayer below is my own:

St. Edith, because the Church witnessed to the truth of the evil of Nazism, the temporary protection you enjoyed was stripped away. In your brave response to your arrest, you teach us to uphold the full truth of the Church regardless of the cost. Pray for us that God may give us the courage and serenity he gave you in the time of trial.

St. Edith, you received grace from God to understand how your sufferings could be made part of His greater plan. Add your prayers to ours, that God might give us strength and wisdom to unite even our small setbacks with the sufferings of Christ.