Dear Kate,<\/p>\n
Sometimes I get so frustrated, being this far away from you and your cousins.\u00a0 How I wish I could be there with you, encouraging you, guiding you, teaching you the way of holiness!\u00a0 But God has decided I can be of more use here in this inhumanly drab cubicle-prison.\u00a0 And he knows best.\u00a0 He has the big picture in mind, but we only see little pieces.\u00a0 So I have to go on trusting him, more and more each day.\u00a0 And I recommend the same to you.\u00a0 I know you too are a bit frustrated these days, but don\u2019t fear!\u00a0 Trust in the Lord!\u00a0 He knows what he\u2019s up to, and he is watching over you.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I think of whenever I contemplate the example of Saint Kateri, the Lily of the Mohawks, the first beatified Native American, one of the brightest stars ever to shine forth from the great North American continent.<\/p>\n
Kateri was born in what is today the town of Auriesville, in upstate New York.\u00a0 Her father was a Mohawk chief, and her mother (who had been taken prisoner after an inter-tribal battle) was an Algonquin Christian.\u00a0 When she was just five years old, Kateri\u2019s parents and baby brother died in smallpox epidemic that decimated the tribe.\u00a0 She caught the disease, but survived, though it left her face scarred and her eyesight severely weakened.\u00a0 Her mother\u2019s dying wish was that Kateri might some day be baptized.<\/p>\n
Her uncle had adopted Kateri when he took over as chief and relocated the tribe across the Mohawk River.\u00a0 She was a hardworking girl, very productive.\u00a0 With the other women of the tribe she spent her days in the fields, or in the longhouse keeping the household in order, making baskets, doing beadwork and embroidery, and cooking.\u00a0 Her industry was exceeded only by her kindness and gentleness.\u00a0 Her Uncle was dissatisfied in only one thing: the girl had no desire to marry.\u00a0 He and the other relatives were determined to overcome this reluctance.<\/p>\n
But God had other plans.\u00a0 When she was a teenager some French missionaries visited the village.\u00a0 The Chief extended them a proper but nival welcome.\u00a0 As she served the men of God, Kateri became fascinated by them. When she saw them at their prayers (notably their rosary) she was reminded of her mother, and her mothers dying wish.\u00a0 Eventually they set up a little chapel in the village and traveled through regularly.\u00a0 She was drawn to the faith, longed to visit the chapel and receive baptism\u2026 but her uncle forbade her; she wasn\u2019t even permitted to speak to the missionaries.<\/p>\n
One day when she was 19 Fr Jacques de Lamberville stopped by her longhouse while the Chief was out.\u00a0 She immediately fell on her knees and asked to become a Christian. The priest was deeply impressed with her sincerity and piety.\u00a0 Somehow, he obtained permission from her guardian, and on Easter Sunday, 1676 the Mohawk maiden was baptized and given the name Kateri (Catherine).<\/p>\n
Her devotion grew quickly, and the abuse she suffered from other members of the tribe gave her a chance to grow just as quickly in holiness.\u00a0 They used to fling mud and sticks at her as she went to and from the chapel.\u00a0 They mocked her: \u201cThere goes the Christian\u2026\u201d\u00a0 On Sundays they would give her no food, since she refused to work on the Lord\u2019s Day.\u00a0 Once a drunken warrior burst into the longhouse where she was working quietly with a club, threatening to beat her to death unless she denounced Christ.\u00a0 She answered, \u201cYou may take my life, but not my faith,\u201d and bowed her head waiting for the fatal blow.\u00a0 But it never came.\u00a0 Her indomitable courage unnerved the assailant.<\/p>\n
Eventually the abuse became unbearable (they tried to force her to marry, tricking and deceiving her) and she decided to flee to the nearest Catholic settlement, more than 200 miles away through the wilderness.\u00a0 Two missionaries accompanied her and guided her to her new home, where she would receive her first Holy Communion, be inspired to make a vow of virginity, serve the community through work, prayer, and penance, and spend her last months tormented by horrible sickness as her life ebbed away.\u00a0 Through it all her constant companion was the Rosary.<\/p>\n
She passed away with the following words on her lips: \u201cJesus, Mary, I love you!\u201d\u00a0 She was only 24 years old.\u00a0 Only a few minutes after her death, while the priest was still kneeling beside her in prayer, her scarred features were suddenly and quietly transformed into the radiant face of a beautiful young Indian woman.\u00a0 It was the first miracle wrought by God for his especially beloved Mohawk daughter, and it wouldn\u2019t be the last.<\/p>\n
God knows what he\u2019s up too.\u00a0 If only we knew how to trust him!\u00a0 Saint Kateri did.\u00a0 May her prayers win us her wisdom.<\/p>\n
Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Kate, Sometimes I get so frustrated, being this far away from you and your cousins.\u00a0 How I wish I could be there with you, encouraging you, guiding you, teaching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n