Philosopher Edith Stein was once asked by a friend to explain why she converted from Judaism to Catholicism, a question to which she replied, secretum meum mihi—“my secret is mine.” Many other saints and spiritual writers, like St. Augustine and Thomas Merton, have mapped and shared their journeys toward God and conversion gladly, but Stein chose to remain true to her vocation as a philosopher, and explore her faith in that particular way. Out of her own free will, she kept this sacred act and all that was contained within her relationship with God close to her heart.
As I recalled this detail about Stein’s tragic life (she perished in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942), I couldn’t help but think about the human need to share or to conceal the events of life. In many ways, we have become members of a throwaway society in which we no longer value our own privacy and personal thoughts.
