MAGPIE/ Prompt #17

photo/ willow/ magpietales

 ANNE

I hope the window I stand before in dreams,
finally opens and lets the sparrow out. 
Tomorrow I will lose my certain touch,
eyes that could kiss,
my taste for wine, 
and the velvet skin brushed lightly 
by he who gives my name to myth forever.

Black light, a dim glow that seems to be rain,
runs down the walls. 
I hope that God grants me my wish
to hold my eyes open. 
I will become a rivulet of red. 
But I'll keep my eyes open. 
I beg the executioner 
to say I never closed them. 

I pray that courage eats my fear, 
so I may watch my ebbing soul. 
The sparrow flies out the window. 

Who stands there? 
Who is that who stretches arms out to me
and whispers so low that I have to walk closer?

Come here, child, she says, walk with me. 
I have a prize to show.  
She leans over a headstone,
brushes leaves and tiny spiders,
spinning across the open eyes of memory.
  
Forever the sandstone head of a girl amazed. 
Eyes open and waiting,
and a gasp that never makes a sound.   

If I should die before I wake? 
Am I awake before I die? 
Tomorrow.

ANNE BOLEYN
Born  1501-1507?  Died  May 19, 1536/ Tower of London


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A Plan

ST. TERESA BENEDICTA of the CROSS (EDITH STEIN) 1891-1942
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I WAS MILDLY SURPRISED TODAY WHEN I CAME ACROSS AN ARTICLE that seemed to connect up with my previous post. When coincidence presents itself, I appreciate how the world seems to flow. It wants me to pay attention. I don't know anything for certain, so I'm always pleased when all I have to do is follow the trail.
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My last post discussed the bravery of a woman, an artist, whose great courage saved her from extermination in Auschwitz. This morning I learned about a woman, Edith Stein, who became a Carmelite nun and experienced a different fate entirely.
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Edith Stein was born into a prominent Jewish family in Breslau, Germany, (now Wroclau, Poland). She was a brilliant young girl, philosophical in outlook, and abandoned her faith at the age of 14. She became captivated by the autobiography of Teresa of Avila, and began her spiritual journey, which led to her Baptism in 1922. Twelve years later she took the name of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, becoming a Carmelite, as her namesake had. Her appointment as lecturer at the Educational Institute of Munich ended under pressure of the Nazis. She lived in Cologne as a Carmelite (1934-1938), then moved to the Carmelite monastery in Echt, Netherlands.
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The Nazis occupied that country in 1940. Dutch bishops denounced the Nazis, who arrested all Dutch Jews who had become Christians. Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa, also a Catholic, died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942.
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Pope John Paul II beatified Teresa Benedicta in 1987 and canonized her in 1998. The artist, Dina Babbitt, also a prisoner at Auschwitz, survived after making a deal in her favor with the Nazis. You can read about her exploits in the previous post, "Survivor".
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Edith Stein...St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, said," Whatever did not fit in with my plan, did lie within the plan of God.."


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXEDITH STEIN