Kathy Johnson

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Bill Swichtenberg
Date: Wed, Jul 8, 2020 at 4:50 PM
Subject: Day by Day with Father Bill (TUESDAY, July 14)
To: Kathy Johnson


MEMORIAL OF SAINT KATERI TEKAKWITHA (in USA only)

From Pope Benedict XVI’s homily on October 21, 2012 at the Mass of Canonization for Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint:

Kateri Tekakwitha was born in today’s New York state in 1656 to a Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother, who gave her a sense of the living God. She was baptized at twenty years of age and, to escape persecution, she took refuge in Saint Francis Xavier Mission near Montreal. There she worked, faithful to the traditions of her people, although renouncing their religious convictions until her death at the age of twenty-four. Leading a simple life, Kateri remained faithful to her love for Jesus, to prayer and to daily Mass. Her greatest wish was to know and to do what pleased God. She lived a life radiant with faith and purity. Kateri impresses us by the action of grace in her life in spite of the absence of external help and by the courage of her vocation, so unusual in her culture. In her, faith and culture enrich each other! May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are. Saint Kateri, Protectress of Canada and the first native American saint, we entrust to you the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all of North America!

Father Bill +