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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Model For Fathers - Saint Joseph

(bronze of Jesus and Joseph at the workbench, in Mary, Queen of the Universe Nat'l Shrine, Orlando)

“He was chosen by the eternal Father as the trustworthy guardian and protector of his greatest treasures, namely, his divine Son and Mary, Joseph’s wife. He carried out this vocation with complete fidelit y until at last God called him, saying: ‘Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord’”. (St. Bernardine of Sienna)
via American Catholic

St.John of God

Today is an optional memorial for St. John of God. He is a great example of someone who revered life, and made the care of the mentally ill his particular mission.

Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...” (1 Peter 1:3a).

Pope Benedict XVI,2006

...Which was, then, the "cathedra" of St. Peter? He, chosen by Christ as "rock" on which to build the Church (cf. Matthew 16:18), began his ministry in Jerusalem, after the ascension of the Lord and Pentecost. The first "seat" of the Church was the Cenacle, and in all probability in that room, where Mary, the Mother of Jesus, also prayed with the disciples, a special place was reserved for Simon Peter.

Subsequently, the see of Peter was Antioch, a city situated on the Oronte River in Syria, today Turkey, which at the time was the third metropolis of the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria in Egypt. Of that city, evangelized by Barnabas and Paul, where "for the first time the disciples were called Christians" (Acts 11:26), Peter was the first Bishop.

In fact, the Roman Martyrology, before the reform of the calendar, established also a specific celebration of the Chair of Peter at Antioch. From there, Providence led Peter to Rome, where he concluded with martyrdom his course of service to the Gospel. For this reason, the See of Rome, which had received the greatest honor, received also the task entrusted by Christ to Peter of being at the service of all the local Churches for the building and unity of the whole People of God.

In this way the See of Rome came to be known as that of the Successor of Peter, and the "cathedra" of its Bishop represented that of the apostle charged by Christ to feed all his flock. It is attested by the most ancient Fathers of the Church, as for example St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, who in his treatise "Against Heresies" describes the Church of Rome as "greatest and most ancient, known by all; … founded and constituted at Rome by the two glorious Apostles Peter and Paul"; and he adds: "With this Church, because of her outstanding superiority, the universal Church must be in agreement, that is, the faithful everywhere" (III, 3, 2-3).

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also at American Catholic

Fra Angelico

Today is the feast day of Blessed John of Friesole (1400-1455)

Dominican monk, painter.

“One has to believe that this good monk has visited paradise and been allowed to choose his models there.”(Michelangelo)

Saint Patrick

St. Patrick is one of my favourite saints, by virtue of his evangelization of Ireland. I was born a Mullen, and have always been fond of my 'Irish' roots in Tyrone Co., Northern Ireland.

So, here is a little help to celebrate a great Saint Patrick's Day!


"The Deer's Cry" sung by Angelina, an arrangement of St. Patrick's Breastplate.

Lorica of Saint Patrick

A Biography

A Veggietale Short

Homeschool Activities

Chaplet of Saint Patrick

Hail Glorious St. Patrick

Saint Thomas More- June 22

Thomas More is of our family's favourite saints, and apparantly one of Jay's !