From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   July 14th - Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha   
      
   (1656-1680)   
      
   The blood of martyrs is the seed of saints. Nine years after the Jesuits   
   Isaac Jogues and John de Brebeuf were tortured to death by Huron and   
   Iroquois Indians, a baby girl was born near the place of their martyrdom,   
   Auriesville, New York. She was to be the first North American native to be   
   canonized. Her mother was a Christian Algonquin, taken captive by the   
   Iroquois and given as wife to the chief of the Mohawk clan, the boldest and   
   fiercest of the Five Nations. When she was only four, Kateri lost her   
   parents and little brother in a smallpox epidemic that left her disfigured   
   and half-blind. She was adopted by an uncle, who succeeded her father as   
   chief. He hated the coming of the Blackrobes, but could do nothing to them   
   because a peace treaty with the French required their presence in villages   
   with Christian captives. She was moved by the words of three Blackrobes who   
   lodged with her uncle, but fear of him kept her from seeking instruction in   
   the Catholic faith. She refused to marry a Mohawk brave and at 19 finally   
   got the courage to take the step of converting. She was baptized with the   
   name Kateri (Catherine) on Easter Sunday.   
      
   Now she would be treated as a slave. Because she would not work on Sunday,   
   she received no food that day. Her life in grace grew rapidly. She told a   
   missionary that she often meditated on the great dignity of being baptized.   
   She was powerfully moved by God's love for human beings and saw the dignity   
   of each of her people. She was always in danger, for her conversion and holy   
   life created great opposition. On the advice of a priest, she stole away one   
   night and began a 200-mile walking journey to a Christian Indian village at   
   Sault St. Louis, near Montreal.   
      
   For three years she grew in holiness under the direction of a priest and an   
   older Iroquois woman, giving herself totally to God in long hours of prayer,   
   in charity and in strenuous penance. At 23, Kateri took a vow of virginity,   
   an unprecedented act for an Indian woman, whose maintenance depended on   
   being married. She found a place in the woods where she could pray an hour a   
   day-and was accused of meeting a man there! Her dedication to virginity was   
   instinctive: She did not know about religious life for women until she   
   visited Montreal. Inspired by this, she and two friends wanted to start a   
   community, but the local priest dissuaded her. She humbly accepted an   
   "ordinary" life. She practiced extremely severe fasting as penance for the   
   conversion of her nation. She died the afternoon before Holy Thursday.   
   Witnesses said that her emaciated face changed color and became like that of   
   a healthy child. The lines of suffering, even the pockmarks, disappeared and   
   the touch of a smile came upon her lips.   
      
   Comment:   
      
   We like to think that our proposed holiness is thwarted by our situation. If   
   only we could have more solitude, less opposition, better health. Kateri   
   repeats the example of the saints: Holiness thrives on the cross, anywhere.   
   Yet she did have what Christians-all people-need the support of a community.   
   She had a good mother, helpful priests, and Christian friends. These were   
   present in what we call primitive conditions, and blossomed in the age-old   
   Christian triad of prayer, fasting and alms: union with God in Jesus and the   
   Spirit, self-discipline and often suffering, and charity for her brothers   
   and sisters.   
      
      
   Quote: "I am not my own; I have given myself to Jesus. He must be my only   
   love. The state of helpless poverty that may befall me if I do not marry   
   does not frighten me. All I need is a little food and a few pieces of   
   clothing. With the work of my hands I shall always earn what is necessary   
   and what is left over I will give to my relatives and to the poor. If I   
   should become sick and unable to work, then I shall be like the Lord on the   
   cross. He will have mercy on me and help me, I am sure."   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words   
   in order   
   to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could   
   never be put   
   into words.  (Romans 8:26 )   
      
   <><><><>   
   PRAYER   
      
      JESUS, the Cross is hard.  It is the most difficult reality   
   those who seek to follow Your way are called upon to   
   accept.  Yet it is an inescapable fact of human existence   
   that, in one way or another, we all must share in Your   
   Cross.  It can come in the form of physical pain and illness,   
   mental and emotional disorders, shattering heartbreak,   
   failure, poverty, or a million other forms.  By the example of   
   Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, grant us the grace to accept our   
   personal crosses and, by joining them with Your Cross,   
   share in Your Resurrection and eternal peace and   
   happiness with Your saints forever.   
   Amen.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Always bear in mind this determination to die rather to fail to reach the   
   end of the   
   way, if God ever causes you to suffer from thirst as He guides you this   
   life, it is   
   because He will give you drink in plenty in the next life, without any fear   
   of it ever   
   failing you.   
    --St. Teresa of Avila   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Canticle Isaiah 2   
      
   The mountain of the house of the Lord   
      
   In the last days, at the end of time,   
    the mountain of the house of the Lord   
    will be prepared high above all mountains.   
   It will be raised above the hills   
    and all nations will come to it.   
      
   And many peoples will come there and say   
    "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,   
    to the house of the God of Jacob.   
   Let him teach us his ways,   
    so that we may walk in his paths".   
   For from Sion the law will go forth,   
    from Jerusalem the word of the Lord.   
      
   And he will judge the nations   
    and rebuke many peoples.   
   They will beat their swords into ploughshares   
    and their spears into sickles.   
   Nation will lift sword against nation no longer.   
    No longer will they go out into battle.   
      
   People of Jacob, come:   
    let us walk in the light of the Lord.   
      
   Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,   
    as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,   
    world without end.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)