Tomorrow is the feast of Blessed Kateri
Tekakwitha, who will become the first Native American Saint on October 21,
2012. Read and learn about this amazing young woman, an inspiration to all of
us to grow in purity and love of the Eucharist.
Kateri said: “I am not my own; I have
given myself to Jesus. He must be my only love.”
Kateri was born in
1656 in Ossernenon, now called Auriesville, a few miles west of Amsterdam. Her
mother was a Christian
Algonquin and her father was a Mohawk chief who died of smallpox when she
was 4 years old — a disease that damaged the girl's eyesight and scarred her
face. Her mother and younger
brother also died during the smallpox epidemic when she was a young girl. At
age 10, her village was burned down by French forces. She was given the name
Tekakwitha, a native word denoting her poor vision, She defied Mohawk culture
by refusing to marry and was further ostracized when she converted to
Catholicism at age 20. Two years later, she fled to Canada and lived in a
settlement of Christian Indians near Montreal. She led a dozen women who
practiced asceticism and cared for children and the elderly in her village. She
helped missionaries convert other Indians to Christianity. She is entombed
inside the St. Francis-Xavier
Church in Kahnawake, Canada. Kateri died at 24. Witnesses who attended her
death said her body glowed and the smallpox scars on her face disappeared. She
was known as "Lily of the Mohawks." http://www.timesunion.com
Documentation for
the final miracle needed for her canonization was sent to the Vatican in July
2009. It involved the recovery of a young boy in Seattle whose face had been
disfigured by flesh-eating bacteria and who almost died from the disease. But
he recovered completely, and the Vatican confirmed the work of a tribunal who
determined there was no medical explanation for it. On Dec. 19, the pope signed
the decree recognizing the miracle in Blessed Kateri's cause clearing the way
for her canonization on October 21, 2012. She is listed as patron of American
Indians, ecology and the environment and is held up as a model for Catholic
youths.
It was through the beauty and the power of Jesus in the
Most Holy Eucharist that Blessed Kateri was strengthened to endure the intense
persecution for her choice of virginity, as well as, her great sufferings which
resulted from small pox. Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, Who is purity
Itself, transformed her into His own image - the image of the unblemished Lamb.
Pope Pius XII explains in his encyclical that such virgins and souls are
described in Revelation as those who “follow the Lamb [Who is Jesus
Eucharistic] wherever He goes.” And it is these same souls, he writes, who will
sing the new canticle, that is the song of those whose robes have been washed clean
by the Blood of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, the unblemished Lamb. (Rev.14:4,
14:3 & 7:14).
May we travel in the footsteps of Blessed Kateri - Lily of the Mohawks and Lily of the Holy Eucharist - to the Throne of the Eucharistic Lamb of Love, singing with her the song of the new day “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power!” (Rev. 4:11). For those who receive and adore Him, who are washed clean in the Holy Eucharist will be transformed into Lilies of the Eucharist, and “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17b). And they will see the dawn of which “the glory of God is its Light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23b).
Prayer: Lily of purity, consoler of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, bright light for all Indians, courage of the afflicted, lover of the Cross of Jesus, flower of fortitude for the persecuted who loved Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament - pray for us. (Copyright 1998, M.B.S. All rights reserved.)
Excerpts from the Catholic Network's
biography of Blessed Kateri's Tekakwitha:
"Every
morning, even in bitterest winter, she stood before the chapel door until it
opened at four and remained there until after the last Mass." "Out from her Caughnawaga cabin at dawn and straight-way to chapel to adore the Blessed Sacrament, hear every Mass; back again during the day to hear instruction, and at night for a last prayer or Benediction. Her neighbors sought to be near her when she received Holy Communion, as her manner excited devotion." http://www.acfp2000.com/Saints/Kateri_Tekakwitha/Kateri_Tekakwitha.html
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