Blessing written by Titus Brandsma Prayer We ask you, Lord, that by the example and intervention of Saint Titus Brandsma, who endured the torments of martyrdom with joy and full confidence in Your Divine Will, we too, Carmelites of the 21st Century – friars, contemplative nuns, religious of the active life, Third Order members, lay people of various groups – may always testify to the radical nature of Christian love and the values of the Gospel, and that our lives may be seeds of reconciliation and forgiveness. Amen. Mary, Mother of Carmel, pray for us. Titus Brandsma, Carmelite martyr, intercede for us. SAINT TITUS BRANDSMA Icon of Titus Brandsma & Edith Stein at the National Shrine of St Jude at Faversham, Kent, courtesy of the British Province of Carmelites Moreover, our Carmelite invited the religious whom he met in Dachau to pray for them. Deep down, he believed that yielding to hatred would be the true victory of evil. Fr Titus never hated the Germans either as a people, as a nation. When the Gestapo sergeant Hardegen asked him to write a small essay about the reasons why the Dutch, and especially Catholics, opposed National Socialism, the prisoner developed a brief composition in which he elaborated on the philosophical, ethical and religious motives (a theme about which he had spoken frequently in his university classes). Despite the head-on opposition, the text concluded with a beautiful blessing: God bless the Netherlands! God bless Germany! May God grant these two peoples to return to the path of peace and freedom, and to recognise His Glory for the good of these two nations that are so close. Today In a world like ours, full of divisions and conflicts, Fr Titus appears before our eyes as an example, as a witness that reconciliation and forgiveness are possible, despite the difficulties, and as a true martyr for those most authentic Christian values. carmelites.org.au/titusbrandsma 15
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