Kateri, “Lily of the Mohawk”

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connectedness, gifts, gratitude, Jesuit, missionaries, st. kateri tekakwitha, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today is the feast of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint, whom we New Yorkers claim for our own. Kateri  was born in 1656 in what is now Auriesville, New York and died only 24 years later. The daughter of a Mohawk chief and an Algonquin mother, she became an orphan at age four when a smallpox epidemic claimed both her parents and her brother. Her short life was one of generosity and holiness, influenced by Jesuit missionaries and her own deep faith.

In our day, we have learned to celebrate the spirituality of Native peoples who understand more clearly than most inhabitants of our beautiful land that we are not here to take advantage of the natural world but rather to protect and honor it. As Chief Seattle wrote, “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect…”

Today would be a good day to pray in gratitude for the gifts of the natural world and for those who work to protect it. A question to consider in our reflection might include our assessment of ourselves as environmentalists. Do I walk softly on the earth, trying never to disturb the balance of nature? Am I aware of my “carbon footprint” and taking steps to reduce it? Do I recycle and work to keep our waterways pure? The list goes on…How can we be kinder to our Mother Earth, each of us doing our part?

May you walk in beauty today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Great Men

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Christian life, clergy, down-to-earth, love of God, missionaries, pastoral, perseverance, Redemptorists, simplicity, St. Alphonsus Liguori, the faithful, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Word of God

Today is the feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori, a man who lived a long life (1696-1787, amazing even today!) and is known in our Church as the patron saint of moral theologians. A comment in his biographical sketch (http://www.americancatholic.org) could have been written of someone living in our day rather than four hundred years ago. It spoke of Alphonsus as a “practical man who dealt in the concrete rather than the abstract” and said this: His life was indeed a “practical” model for the everyday Christian who has difficulty recognizing the dignity of Christian life amid the swirl of problems, pain, misunderstanding and failure. During his life Alphonsus suffered all these things but was able to maintain an intimate sense of the presence of the suffering Christ through it all.

Alphonsus was the founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, commonly called the Redemptorists and known especially as missionaries and preachers of the Word of God, primarily by conducting parish missions. The stated purpose of these missions is to invite people to a deeper love for God and a fuller practice of the Christian life. In accordance with the instructions of St. Alphonsus, preaching is to be down-to-earth and understandable to all who are listening. Stated another way, his biography observes that his great pastoral reforms were in the pulpit and the confessional – replacing the pompous oratory of the time with simplicity and the rigorism of Jansenism with kindness.

My fondness for the Redemptorists goes beyond the need I see for clergy to speak directly to the experience of people in their congregations and to be especially willing to listen to those coming to them seeking an intermediary of God’s great love and forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation. My uncle was a Redemptorist priest, well-known in Boston and beyond as an embodiment of those qualities. As a child I recall his rare but exciting visits when he returned with stories from missionary work in Brazil. Later we were happy for more frequent opportunities to see him during the years he was stationed close to home. His passion was for people and their faith and his motivation was his own great love for God. Unlike the founder of his religious order, Uncle Walter died early at age 53 in 1970 during another tumultuous time in the Church, five years after the end of the Second Vatican Council. Some struggles still endure in the wake of the Council reforms but much that has come to be has given “the faithful” opportunities for what St. Alphonsus saw as essential: the deepening of love for God and the practice of the Christian life.

Today I will pray for clergy and all those who lead congregations in any religious tradition, that their purpose and vision will always be to foster love of God in their people and their example be that of kindness and humility. I will be most aware of those leaders who suffer in difficult circumstances because of the struggles in pastoral situations or ecclesiastical politics and will pray that perseverance will be the gift God gives as reward for their labors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A First

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Auriesville, jesuits, missionaries, Mother Marianne Cope, saints, st. kateri tekakwitha, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

When I was a child in Catholic school, we learned about missionaries from Europe who came to North America in the 1600s to work with the Native Americans. The native people called them “Blackrobes” because of their religious habit. They were members of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. There were exciting stories which sounded like the “Wild West” but were situated much nearer to where I lived in Massachusetts. We learned about a place in upstate New York called Auriesville – about 30 miles from Albany where St. Isaac Jogues and his companions ministered to the Iroquois nation and were protected by a peace treaty. Unfortunately Jogues was killed at the hands of a Mohawk war party, but his companions continued to serve the five nations and it was there that a young native maiden named Kateri Tekakwitha came under their tutelage and converted to Christianity. Because she was Christian she was always in danger from her own people, who treated her as a slave. Eventually, on the advice of one of the priests, she stole away and walked 200 miles to Canada, where she joined a Christian Indian village near Montreal. She dedicated her life to prayer and good works and dreamed of starting a religious community with two friends but since at the time there were no such communities she accepted that she was rather to live an “ordinary life” which for her involved constant prayer and fasting for the conversion of her nation.

When my family moved to upstate New York one of our day trips was to Auriesville where the stories came even more alive for me and after which I always kept Kateri close in my heart. In 2012, Catholics and Native Americans in New York State were blessed to have two women canonized as saints of the Church – one a religious Sister from Utica, NY – Mother Marianne Cope, often referred to as Mother Marianne of Molokai for her work as a missionary of her community in Hawaii working with the lepers (victims of Hansen’s disease) on the island of Molokai. She was also a great light in her native place as she was instrumental in founding two hospitals (in Utica and Syracuse, NY) and lived until 1918 so memories of her are alive in that community today. The other new saint is Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American recognized as a saint of the Church.

Today I plan to keep both of these women close in thought, grateful for strong women of faith who, as women “ahead of their times” contributed to the Christian story and heritage, women to look up to as examples of courage and willingness. I will also remember all our native brothers and sisters whose spirituality is so rich and from whom I have learned to reverence all creation.