Every Catholic blog must be linking to the Vatican's just launched Youtube channel. It can be found at
www.youtube.com/vatican.
However, I was particularly attracted by
this video clip, in which Pope Benedict explains the value of a presence of the Holy See in the modern means of communication. His reference to being at the service of the truth, and therefore at the service of peace, was what I particularly appreciated in this clip.
I was at Maryvale Institute last weekend, at the first residential weekend for a new cohort of students following Maryvale's initial teacher training course for Secondary RE. I end the lecture I do at this residential with a slide showing some photos of Edith Stein, suggesting that she can be a role model for us as teachers, and even more so for those of us who have some part in teacher training. My notes from this slide are below, and you will see how seeing education as being a service to truth resonates with Pope Benedict's interview in the video clip.
Middle photo: Edith Stein as a student at Gottingen (1913-1916) – moved there to study philosophy(=phenomenology) under Edmund Husserl – this period of her life can be characterised by “search for the truth” – encounter with religious phenomena as an area worthy of phenomenological study/encounter with people who were religious believers/encounter with Christians and the power of the Cross/being received into the Catholic Church
EDUCATION IS ABOUT BRINGING OUR STUDENTS TO KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT IS TRUE, GOOD, BEAUTIFUL AND NOBLE
Right hand photo: Edith Stein while on the staff of the Dominican Convent in Speyer (photo taken in 1931, at the end of her time on the staff of the Convent) – she taught there for 8 years after becoming a Catholic, working with trainee teachers at the school as well as teaching the pupils; she lived an almost religious life with the nuns – “With very few words - just by her personality and everything which emanated from her - she set me on my way, not only in my studies but in my whole moral life. With her you felt that you were in an atmosphere of everything noble, pure and sublime which simply carried you up with it”. “She really gave us everything. We were still very young, but none of us has forgotten the charm of her personality…Her heart stood wide open for everything noble and beautiful to take its place besider her union with God. That is how she stands before us still”.
EDITH STEIN AS A MODEL OF OUR ROLE AS TEACHERS
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