page 16 - Tuesday, 1 February 2011
The OBSERVER ROMANO
weekly edition Italian language - number 5 
Teresa of Avila and Edith Stein
The intermediary of master
............................................ ...
by Lucetta Scaraffia
Here's another book by Chris Dobner, author of great spiritual and cultural heritage, which has invented a highly personal style of writing: to speak through fragments of the works of authors who know and love, chosen because found in them a strong compliance with its human and spiritual soul.
Christian never speaks in first person, does not expose its intellectual discoveries theories of interpretation; tries, instead of disappearing behind the authors he prefers, and he wants to know and love. It gives us the paths of research, which she had already tried but where she never appears. Yet these paths maybe tell her much more than they could reveal autobiographical pages, because they indicate his spiritual journey and his exceptional ability to use culture to outline ways of inner growth.
We understand so clearly one thing: the common thread that unites the cultural readings and interpretations offered by Dobner, in this and his other books are the result of experiencing a spiritual path clean and clear, intellectually demanding and spiritually deep, never rests on the already said and heard, notes on safety but for now this lack of resonance in the soul of player. Writes clearly on the front pages of book: "There lies a cultural background in the abstract but a feeling that we have introjected.
In this book the author seeks to address - with the help of Edith Stein and some other saint, John of the Cross often - "the education aspects of spiritual 'aspects that depart from self-knowledge to get the relationship with others, and particularly that of spiritual guide and disciple.
The road indicated by Edith Stein is at the heart of this work, which includes but not only many quotations from his writings, but also stories of his life experiences that come from the testimony of his acquaintances and friends in the process of canonization. To confirm the fact that a holy community a way first of all through his life, and then also in this as in other cases, by his writings. Edith Stein knew, she told of having his conversion - or whatever the final decision to convert - to read the autobiography of Teresa of Avila: "Edith Stein was not struck by the Gospel, but by Teresa of Jesus: "was driving to my conversion," writes Chris.
Undoubtedly, the autobiography Teresa was the instrument through which he was encountered by Jesus, and this experience makes Stein, and consequently Dobner, particularly aware of the function that can have their writings.
In the reconstruction which is the Christian spiritual journey of Stein are not only reading, but they become essential experiences of life, recounted by witnesses to the process of canonization, which constitute a confirmation of his words, because "life and doctrine in her and her are inseparable." But if this is about Edith Stein, in general one can speak of the example of the saints, what Dobner, following the phenomenologist, call "Realism of the saints," as a tool particularly suited to overcome the stupidity of religion, because it demonstrates "how it should really be: where there is a real and living faith, there are the teachings of the faith, and the" mighty works of God " structure the content of life. "
And yet, Christian writes, "there is no other path than that of the example, to give a true teaching that creates a habit of life", as rest of Stein had learned in his long and successful experience as a teacher.
Dobner us to retrace the life of Edith Stein, the various stages of his spiritual growth: although the German philosopher converts without guides, counselors, spiritual directors, then they look, and listen to them with humility and obedience before becoming herself - in a second stage, but somehow it also has a continuity with his work as a teacher - a spiritual guide.
For Stein, the center and the starting point of any spiritual path is the human person, with his unique destiny, and therefore knowledge of oneself is an integral part the way to God if the starting point is always, necessarily, for meaning of life - is there an ultimate goal for human beings? Which life is it? Of those qualified by the adjective "eternal" - then your knowledge of own individual being the first rung of the ladder to start.
For Edith Stein, the self-knowledge and relationship with God, in fact, are closely connected: "Whoever does not get to know each other, they do not even find God and come to eternal life. Or, even more precise: who does not seek God, they can not even to himself or to the source of eternal life that awaits him in his deepest inner. "
In his role as spiritual adviser Stein uses intense empathy: "Empathy is the main way to get in touch with others and can be expressed in degrees after 'she had also studied in His experience of philosophical inquiry.
empathy towards others who had begun to experiment with Red Cross nurse caring for the wounded soldiers in World War I, then as a university professor and finally as a spiritual guide who can help others understand his faith and his vocation, well aware of the responsibility of those who play this role: "It was given the gift of penetrating their souls, to bring clarity to their condition and understand what is necessary to achieve what God has prescribed for them. "
The ability to relate with others raises the center of its path, from the beginning, but - as noted by Dobner - this is not "that ability to relate that today, in our time, teaches you to sell, deal with groups, direct services, "but something much deeper, which arises from the possibility to listen to the Holy Spirit.
intermingled with reflections of Edith Stein, Chris Dobner also gives us choices quotations from the works of John of the Cross and reflections on the Benedictine tradition of spiritual direction, well-known and experienced the same Stein.
is obvious to the reader the deep bond between the author's philosophy, which bind to the habit of intellectual work and the choice to the Carmelite religious life, and in the depths of book we can see the fruit of years of reading and meditation of the works and life of the saint. What makes writing so intense and compelling Christian is that it is not just a work of intellectual inquiry, but the narrative of an experienced intellectual and spiritual person, and so made his own.
do not know whether to take the author to the choice of life as a Carmelite nun was just reading - or Edith Teresa - but certainly his spiritual experience has been nourished by these readings, and it makes us a gift, humbly hiding its presence.
And certainly this is a valuable book, which will be part of the writings that nourish the soul because, as written by Edith Stein, cited by Dobner, "it is possible that the grace not to touch a human being, but rather choose persons as intermediaries; a human being can receive salvation by other people, in many ways differ ent. And for the love of a soul that has taken it to himself, God can attract another. "
So at the end of the reading, thanks to Christian, with a gesture of friendship, and knew he wanted to share this experience with us.
Lucetta Scaraffia
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