From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Imitating Christ and Despising all Vanities on Earth  {1}   
      
       He who follows Me, walks not in darkness," says the Lord. John   
   8:12. By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and   
   habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness   
   of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of   
   Jesus Christ. The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the   
   advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a   
   hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care   
   little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever   
   wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his   
   whole life on that of Christ.   
   --Thomas à Kempis--Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 1   
      
      
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   March 3rd - Saint Katherine Drexel   
   (1858-1955)   
      
   Saint Katherine Drexel was a modern-day American saint. Saint   
   Katherine was moved to extend services being offered by the Church to   
   those who society ignored, specifically African Americans and Native   
   Americans. At a time in history when this was both controversial and   
   dangerous, “Mother Katherine” stood up for the rights of the   
   downtrodden and forgotten. She brought the love and charity of the   
   Lord to those in abject need, and in the process, changed the way that   
   many looked at the mission of the American church.   
      
   Born in Philadelphia in 1858, Katherine’s mother died just weeks after   
   her birth. She and her sister were subsequently raised by an aunt and   
   uncle until her father remarried in 1860 and brought the girls back   
   home. Together with a new sister, the three were raised in a warm   
   family, full of faith and God’s love. Rather well-off, Katherine’s   
   father instructed his girls at home, with the aid of tutors. He taught   
   that any wealth had was meant to be shared with those who had not.   
   Katherine felt a strong pull toward the faith life, and began teaching   
   Sunday school during her high school years. It was immediately   
   apparent that she had a special gift from the Lord.   
      
   When her stepmother became ill, Katherine nursed her through 3 years   
   of suffering, which she later wrote reminded her of the suffering of   
   Christ. During this experience, she became more and more certain of   
   her call to religious vocation, and spoke of this desire often with   
   her spiritual director. He advised her to continue praying to the   
   Lord, and to wait for an answer.   
      
   Katherine’s father died unexpectedly in 1885, and she and her sisters   
   found themselves having inherited his fortune. As Katherine became   
   more involved in her church, she was invited to accompany a mission   
   trip throughout the Northwest territories, visiting the Native   
   American Indian reservations and peoples living there. Katherine was   
   moved by their plight and poverty, and along with her sisters, flew to   
   the Vatican for a personal audience with the pope. Pope Leo XIII   
   received the sisters, and when Katherine begged for a missionary   
   priest to be sent to the American Indian peoples, he responded kindly,   
   “Why not, my child, yourself become a missionary?”   
      
   Katherine had received her call from God, although not in the form she   
   had expected. Previously, she had envisioned a quiet, contemplative   
   life in a cloister. What the pope was suggesting was something   
   altogether different. She again spoke with her spiritual director who   
   encouraged her in the direction of the papal advice. After prayer and   
   contemplation, she accepted the challenge.   
      
   Katherine took her veil as the first Sister of the Blessed Sacrament   
   on February 12, 1891. With the money she had inherited, following her   
   father’s early advice, Katherine began building schools on Native   
   American Indian reservations. She extended food, clothing, and   
   financial assistance to the struggling people, and more than that, she   
   extended her love and respect, finding the dignity in each person she   
   worked with. Not content to limit her efforts, Katherine extended her   
   mission to the poor of the American cities, namely African American   
   communities. There she built churches, schools, and eventually   
   boarding schools for African American youth. By 1942 Katherine had   
   established a system of African American Catholic schools in 13   
   states, 40 mission centers, 23 rural schools, 50 American Indian   
   missions.   
      
   Katherine’s community grew, with boarding schools, churches, and   
   missions spreading throughout the country. She founded a school to   
   increase the training of teachers for children in Louisiana, what came   
   to be known within a few years as Xavier University, the nation’s   
   first university for African American students. Katherine continued   
   leading her sisters in aggressive missionary work until she suffered a   
   heart attack at age 77. After her heart attack, she continued her life   
   cloistered, as she had at one planned, praying and meditating, and   
   directing the work of her community. She lived approximately 20 more   
   years, the last of her sisters to go home to their Maker.   
      
   Two miraculous cures of deafness have been attributed to Saint   
   Katherine’s intercession. On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II   
   canonized her, officially recognizing her sainthood. Her shrine was   
   declared an American National Shrine in 2000. The Sisters of the   
   Blessed Sacrament continue their work today in education, charity, and   
   service.   
      
   Saint Katherine Drexel lived a life of bravery and courage, forged by   
   the fire of the Lord in her heart. She stood resolute in face of   
   threats, criticism, and public opinion, serving the Lord tirelessly in   
   her efforts to serve others. How often do we let our own fears, the   
   judgments of others, or obstacles in our path turn us from what the   
   Lord would have us do? What can we learn from Saint Katherine Drexel   
   about confidence in the Lord, love and acceptance of all, and service   
   to those in need? Her life is a tribute to the Lord, and her words a   
   call to service of His people:   
      
      
   Saint Quotes   
   “If we wish to serve God and love our neighbor well, we must manifest   
   our joy in the service we render to Him and them. Let us open wide our   
   hearts. It is Joy which invites us. Press forward and fear nothing.”   
      
   "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:   
   So my heart rejoices, my soul delights, my body too will rest secure,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)