ST TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS AND ST MAXIMILIAN KOLBE:

      This week we commemorate two martyrs from the faith from the Second World War. Both St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a Carmelite nun who grew up in a Jewish family in Germany who converted to Catholicism, and Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest in Poland, were put to death in the Auschwitz concentration camp. We commemorated St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross on Sunday, August 9. St Kolbe has his feast day this Friday, August 14. Since we are reading the Bread of Life Discourse from the sixth Chapter of John's Gospel in our Sunday mass celebrations these past weeks, here are two wonderful quotes from these saints regarding the Eucharist.

St. Maximilian Kolbe: "You come to me and unite Yourself intimately to me under the form of nourishment. Your Blood now runs in mine, Your Soul, Incarnate God, penetrates mine, giving courage and support. What miracles! Who would have ever imagined such!"

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross - "'And the Word became flesh'. That truth became a reality in the manger at Bethlehem. But it was to be fulfilled in yet another form: 'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life.' The Savior, who knows that we are human beings and will remain human beings who have to struggle daily with weaknesses, comes to our assistance in a truly divine manner. Just as the human body is in need of daily bread, so also does the divine life in us require constant nourishment.”