Valiant Vignette: Kate Lipner

Kate Lipner was seventeen years old.  Her father was in a German labor camp and her mother had recently died.  She lived alone in Vichy France, the southern half of France that had been taken over by the Nazis.  She started working for the French Resistance, and through her connections there, she took three Jewish children into her care.  During the war she risked her life many times to keep the Gestapo from finding the children and sending them to concentration camps.  She succeeded, and all of them survived the war due to her courage.

Valiant Vignette: Mother Elizabeth of the Eucharist

Mother Elizabeth of the Eucharist, born Elise Rivet, was the Mother Superior of a French convent during the Second World War.  She and her Sisters helped hide Jewish refugees, specifically women and children, as well as weapons for the French Resistance.  In 1944, she was denounced to the Gestapo and the convent was searched.  Mother Elizabeth and only one other Sister were arrested, and the refugees and remaining Sisters were left unharmed.

She was sentenced to hard labor and taken to the concentration camp at Ravensbruck.  After a year of prayer and cheerful suffering, she offered to go to the gas chambers in place of a mother.  It was March 30, 1945--Good Friday.  It was only a few weeks before the end of the war.

Trust

Some Valiant Women for you today

Sorry for the recent cyber silence!  It's been a busy week, but full of good things.

Last night we went to a baptism for THREE little ones!  (a one-year old and infant twins)  Their mother is a valiant woman who is returning to the Catholic faith after many years away.  As a single mother in difficult circumstances, she was considering an abortion during her most recent pregnancy, even though she knew it was wrong.  She asked God to give her a sign if He wanted her to keep her child--to let it be twins.  Lo and behold, she now has a beautiful boy and girl.

So now she is in need of every prayer she can get for her and her family as she learns more about the Catholic Faith and continues to get her life in order.  [I won't give her name, to protect her privacy, but if you could please pray for "the mom who chose life," you would be doing great things!]

I also have a story here about some amazingly valiant Sisters of Charity in Texas:
Sisters of Charity Orphanage

Have a beautiful autumn weekend!

Sophie Scholl

Tucked away in a corner of Berlin is the Museum der Deutsche Widerstand, or Museum of German Resistance. The museum is actually located on the site where the Valkyrie (Walküre) conspirators, including Col. Klaus von Stauffenberg, were executed. The museum is smaller than most in Berlin, and definitely not impressive in its architecture or in the layout of the display. What is impressive, though, is walking through room after room, looking at the walls lined with pictures, names, and stories of the people who said, “No.” One room is dedicated to a group that called itself “The White Rose.” Among its founding members was a young girl by the name of Sophie Scholl.

Happy Feast of St. Therese!