Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent

Year of Saint Joseph

Other saints: Saint Katharine Drexel, Foundress (1858-1955)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 26 Unauthorized Association with the Excommunicated

Mass: Jer 18:18-20; Resp Ps 31; Mt 20;17-28

I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.

HEART OF JESUS, BURNING FURNACE OF CHARITY,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Jesus is pretty clear about how things should be with us: Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20:26-28). 

Our saint of the day, Saint Katharine Drexel, was certainly someone who took Jesus' words to heart. Read about her if you can. Just a few tidbits from Butler's, Katharine "Kate" Drexel, was born November 26, 1858, into an affluent family in Philadelphia, the second of three girls. Raised in the faith by her father Francis and her step-mother Emma (her own mother Hannah died only five weeks after Katharine's birth), "the entire family attended Mass and practised one half-hour of mental prayer every day." Her parents distributed their vast amounts of money to the needy and Emma even "ran a dispensary from the house for the sick, while Francis contributed to his own charities." Katharine followed suit and to make a lively story short, Mother Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1891 and in 1915 opened a teacher's college in Louisiana, now Xavier University of New Orleans, "one of the first schools in the U.S.A. to admit people of colour." "By the time her active missionary life was brought to an end, Mother Katharine had herself established 145 Catholic missions and twelve schools for Indians and fifty for African Americans, but she had brought a whole generation of Catholic Americans to an awareness of the needs of the minorities. She was to die within the very decade marked by the campaign for civil rights led by Martin Luther King, Jr. It may be said that Katharine Drexel, while not uninterested in the civil rights aspect of the life of the minorities, had her sights fixed elsewhere. What she wanted passionately to bring to them was the life of grace and the food of the Eucharist" (Butler's Lives of the Saints, March volume, pp. 20-22). Amen.

Saint Katharine Drexel, the second American (the first was another powerhouse, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, "Mother Seton", canonized in 1975 by Pope Saint Paul VI) and first one born a US citizen, was canonized by Pope Saint John Paul II on October 1, 2000.

SAINT KATHARINE DREXEL,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US. 

Today's photo: Thanks to my bro, James Andrew, this awesome shot from Ft. Myers Beach, FL, came through just as I was pondering what photo to use for today's post. And it happens to fit with today's Gospel versicle. God is praised.

© Gertrude Feick 2021