Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

Archbishop Prendergast writes about Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha :

Today in Canada the liturgy allows for the optional memorial of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the Lily of the Mohawks.

During the recent CNEWA familiarization tour, Archbishop Alex J. Brunett of Seattle shared with us the news that a miracle undergone by a young man in his region, and attributed to the intercession of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, seems to have passed all the medical and scientific tests as being inexplicable.

This information was recently sent to Rome for study and, if determined to be a miracle by the Congregation of the Causes of Saints and confirmed as such by the Holy Father, could lead to her canonization. This would be great news for the Native Peoples of not only the United States and Canada but also for all the indigenous peoples of the Americas and elsewhere...

O God, who, among the many marvels of Your Grace in the New World, did cause to blossom on the banks of the Mohawk and of the St. Lawrence, the pure and tender Lily, Kateri Tekakwitha, grant we beseech You, the favor we beg through her intercession, that this Young Lover of Jesus and of His Cross may soon be counted among the Saints of Holy Mother Church, and that our hearts may be enkindled with a stronger desire to imitate her innocence and faith. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Our eldest daughter was born while we were living in Saint Theresa Point, Manitoba - a fly-in community, part of a Cree reservation. She was named Margaret Rose Kathleen after her mother and her grandmothers, but also because we were thinking of Blessed Kateri. She was baptized(snug in her tikanogan) in St. Theresa Point, by Fr. Antonio Alberti, along with about seven other babies, several of whom were named Kateri Tekakwitha. Our three years in St. Theresa Point were very formative for our young family, and we owe a debt to them for developing our sense of Catholic community and mission.

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