From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   March 3rd - St. Katherine Drexel   
      
   (1858-1955)   
      
   If your father is an international banker and you ride in a private railroad   
   car, you are not likely to be drawn to a life of voluntary poverty. But if   
   your   
   mother opens your home to the poor three days each week and your father   
   spends   
   half an hour each evening in prayer, it is not impossible that you will   
   devote   
   your life to the poor and give away $12 million. Katherine Drexel did that.   
   She   
   was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She had an excellent education and   
   traveled   
   widely. As a rich girl, she had a grand debut into society. But when she   
   nursed   
   her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the   
   Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a   
   profound turn.   
      
   She had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been   
   appalled by reading Helen Hunt Jackson's " Century of Dishonor". While on a   
   European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries   
   to   
   Wyoming for her friend, Bishop James O'Connor. The pope replied, "Why don't   
   you   
   become a missionary?" His answer shocked her into illness.   
      
   Back home, she visited the Dakotas, met Red Cloud the Sioux chief and began   
   her   
   systematic aid to Indian missions.   
      
   Katherine could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop   
   O'Connor, she wrote in 1889, "The feast of St. Joseph brought me the grace   
   to   
   give the remainder of my life to the Indians and Colored." Newspaper   
   headlines   
   screamed "Gives Up $7 Million!"   
      
   After three-and-a-half years of training, Katherine and her first band of   
   nuns   
   (Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored) opened a boarding   
   school in Santa Fe. A string of foundations followed. By 1942 she had a   
   system   
   of black Catholic schools in 13 states, plus 40 mission centers and 23 rural   
   schools. Segregationists harassed her work, even burning a school in   
   Pennsylvania. In all, she established 50 missions for Indians in 16 states.   
      
   Two saints met when she was advised by Mother Cabrini about the "politics"   
   of   
   getting her Order's rule approved in Rome. Katherine's crowning achievement   
   was   
   the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first university in   
   the   
   United States for blacks.   
      
   At 77 she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her   
   life   
   was over. But now came almost 20 years of quiet, intense prayer from a small   
   room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record   
   her   
   various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at 96.   
      
   She was beatified in 1988. The Vatican announced in early 2000 that she will   
   be   
   canonized a saint later in the year, likely in October.   
      
   Comment:   
      
   Saints have always said the same thing: Pray, be humble, accept the cross,   
   love   
   and forgive. But it is good to hear these things in the American idiom from   
   one   
   who, for instance, had her ears pierced as a teenager, who resolved to have   
   "no   
   cake, no preserves," who wore a watch, was interviewed by the press,   
   traveled by   
   train and could concern herself with the proper size of pipe for a new   
   mission.   
   These are obvious reminders that holiness can be lived in today's culture as   
   well as in that of Jerusalem or Rome.   
      
      
   Saint Quotes:   
   "The patient and humble endurance of the cross-whatever nature it may be-is   
   the   
   highest work we have to do." "Oh, how far I am at 84 years of age from being   
   an   
   image of Jesus in his sacred life on earth!"   
   -Mother Katharine Drexel   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. And they by the way   
   side   
   are they that hear; then the devil cometh, and taketh the word out of their   
   heart, lest believing they should be saved. Now they upon the rock, are they   
   who   
   when they hear, receive the word with joy: and these have no roots; for they   
   believe for a while, and in time of temptation, they fall away. And that   
   which   
   fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked   
   with   
   the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit. But   
   that on   
   the good ground, are they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word,   
   keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience.  (Luke 8:11-15)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A prayer to Our Lady of Divine Providence:   
      
   Mary, Immaculate Virgin and Mother of divine Providence, keep my soul with   
   the fullness of thy grace: do thou govern my life and direct it in the way   
   of virtue to the fulfillment of the Divine Will. Obtain for me the pardon   
   and remission of all my sins; be thou my refuge , my protection, my defence   
   and my guide in my pilgrimage through the world; comfort me in the midst of   
   tribulation; bring me safe through every danger; in the storms of adversity   
   afford me thy sure protection. Obtain for me, O Mary, the renewal of my   
   heart within me, that it may become a holy dwelling place for thy divine   
   Son Jesus; keep far from me, who am so weak and miserable, every kind of   
   sin, negligence, lukewarmness, cowardice and human respect. Dear Mother of   
   divine Providence, turn thy motherly gaze upon me, and if through weakness   
   or malice, I have provoked the threats of the eternal Judge and saddened   
   the Sacred Heart of my dear Jesus, do thou cover me with the mantle of thy   
   protection and I shall be safe. Thou art the Mother of Providence; thou   
   art the Virgin of pardon; thou art my hope on earth. Grant that I may have   
   thee as my Mother in the glory of heaven. Amen.   
      
   Hail Mary... (thrice)   
      
    Imprimatur: Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbp of New York, May 31, 1950.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)