Time is the purchase money of grace, salvation, and enve God Himself. All the riches, all the honors of the world are not of as great a value as a moment of time, in which we can gain an increase of glory and best of all glory to God by a single act of love which would not occupy a minute's consideration; how important it is to make good use of time, while it is granted to me. Of what fearful grace am I not guilty if I lose it. The days of man are short, and the number of his months are with you. If I live to eighty-two there is now two years five months and it may be today; tomoorw, I must work the works of Him that sent me, whie it is day; the night comes when no man can work, for if such were needful to him how much more me. You know that if you prefer His service to every good while the choice is in your power, you honor Him. Behold Lord, infinite in goodness, dreadful in majesty, and unspeakable in all perfections, I make an absolute divorce from all self-love, sensuality, and affection to creatures and give myself by an absolute donation. I am nothing, I have nothing, I can do no good; I am an unprofitable servant I utterly hate and distrust myself and totally rely upon You, O my Lord, my lover, and my all, and upon my life to live, Mother, your gift to me from the cross; this total denegation of self and surrender of will of God is contained in these words, "Lord, what do you wish to with me" and in it as far depended on Paul. All his salvation resolved from that moment forward to permit none of his faculties of mind or sense to serve the animal or sensual life. He delivered himself over to the service of the Almighty in whatever manner or direction should become known to him as being the Divine Will, ready to execute it without delay or question. As the most High searches the secrets of the human heart, he saw the sincerity with which Saint Paul corresponded with his vocation and yielded to his divine will and disposition. He not only received him with pleasure but multiplied exceedingly his graces, gifts, and wonderful favors which he would not have received or even have merited without this entire submission to the wishes of the Lord. Forget the visible, the apparent, and deceitful.
-Saint Katharine Drexel
(Check out my thread of Magnificat: Story of the Little Prayer Book That Could (George Weigel on the Magnificat))
One of our more modern pastors was building a new church and it was quite expensive. We were all wondering what new and innovative structural blight was going to be inflicted on the desert people. Well,we learned that he had gone back east and had studied the architecture of some of the old churches. To our amazement he came back with gorgeous old stained glass windows and relics and miracle of miracles the altar from Saint Catharine Drexel's private chapel. It is so beautiful and so is the church. It is just incredible that we now have one of the most beautiful churches built over the past 40 years in this country.
Many of us believe that Mother knew where her altar was going and guided him to build a church that would befit her private altar.Something struck him and whatever it was we are all grateful. He has also become much more orthodox and Catholic than he once was. Three cheers and a lot of thanks to her. We are happy!!
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.'" He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth." Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to (the) poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through (the) eye of (a) needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God." Peter began to say to him, "We have given up everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and (the) last will be first."
BTTT on the Optional Memorial of St. Katherine Drexel, March 3, 2007!
Saint Katharine Drexel, virgin
Optional Memorial
March 3rd
Saint Katharine Drexel
Photographer unknown
Collect:
Ever-loving God, You called Saint Katharine Drexel
to teach the message of the Gospel and to bring the life of the Eucharist
to the African American and Native American peoples.
By her prayers and example, enable us to work for justice among the poor and the oppressed,
and keep us undivided in love in the eucharistic community of Your Church.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Readings are from the Common of Virgins or of Holy Women.)
On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Katharine Drexel, an American heiress who devoted her life (and her considerable fortune) to establishing missions, schools and homes for black and Indian children in this country. She was beatified November 20, 1988
Katharine was born in Philadelphia November 26, l858, barely three years before the outbreak of the Civil War. So deeply divided was the country over the issue of slavery, with all its heavy moral, ethical, cultural, economic and emotional considerations (not unlike those which attend the abortion issue today), that the young nation was forced to undergo this terrible war to determine whether any nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" could "long endure", as President Lincoln so concisely expressed it at Gettysburg.
Katharine Drexel grew to maturity in the shadow of the agony of that great war and its aftermath of bitterness and confusion. Although the war to abolish slavery was won and the union of the States preserved, deep and lasting damage had been done. Not only were many thousands of lives destroyed, not only was a culture virtually demolished, but even those who had been "liberated" -- the emancipated slaves -- were subject to continued humiliation and brutal poverty.
Katharine's wealthy and socially prominent family were deeply religious Catholics who conducted a Sunday school for black children in their home. Her parents' example of devotion to their faith and to the needs of others had an indelible formative effect on Katharine. At the age of thirty-three, she founded a separate order of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament which was entirely devoted to the active care of blacks and Indians. She spent the rest of her long life tirelessly and courageously evangelizing and educating these "poorest of the poor". She died Marcn 3, 1955.
Like Saint Philippine Duchesne, who preceded her in work with the Indians of America (and who was canonized in 1988), and like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Saint Katharine's example shows us that the path to holiness can be found in our willing response to Christ's voice heard in the cries of the most lowly and needy of His people.
Through the strength of their faith and their valiant perseverence in spite of conflict and hardships; through their vigorous and unselfish consecration of all their womanly energies and talents and gifts to serving others; through their whole-hearted obedience to God's will for them, all these women have carried the Light of Christ into the darkest corners of the Earth. They have given strength to the weak with the love and the prayers of their "maternal hearts"; they have sheltered and comforted the forsaken in the warm embrace of their "maternal arms."
Excerpt from Valiant Women, Vigorous Faith, by Helen Hull Hitchcock