March 3 2025 - St. Katharine Drexel - Serving in undivided love

 

Mother Katharine Drexel was born into wealth in mid-19^th Century Philadelphia. Her father was a very successful international banker, and she was an heiress to a large fortune. As a young woman she was involved in many of her family’s philanthropic and charitable works.

Around the age of 30, aware of the plight of the poor and the marginalized, and she was touring Europe, when she met Pope Leo XIII, and she asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O’Connor.  The pope replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?”

This question led Katharine to consider God’s calling. She could have easily dismissed the Pope’s suggestion and left the work to someone else.  She could have married, and used some of her wealth for this good and holy work, but, she heard God calling her to something more. 

She made the decision to give herself to God, along with her inheritance, through service to Native Americans and African Americans as a consecrated religious. Initially she entered the convent of the Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia, and then went on to establish a new religious order for women called the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, for in the Eucharist Katherine saw the total gift of Christ as the model and source of strength for her and her community.

One of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, Sister Jane Nesmith, is the director of African American Ministry here in the Diocese of Cleveland.

Listen to what Pope John Paul II said at his homily when he canonized Katharine in the year 2000: “From her parents, she learned that her family’s possessions were not for them alone, but were to be shared with the less fortunate.  As a young women she was deeply distressed by the poverty and hopeless conditions endured by many native americans and African americans.  She began to devote her fortune to missionary and educational work amongst the poorest members of society.  Later, she came to understand that more was needed. With great courage and confidence in God’s grace, she chose to give, not just her fortune, but her whole life, totally to the Lord.  St. Katherine Drexel is an excellent example of that practical charity and generous solidarity with the less fortunate which has long been the distinguishing mark of American catholics.  May her example, help young people in particular, to appreciate that no greater treasure can be found in this world than in following Christ with an undivided heart and in using generously the gifts we have received for the service of others and the building of a more just and fraternal world.” 

As we prepare for the upcoming season of Lent, we do well to consider what the Lord is calling us to give up, so that we may be more fully in his service. How is God calling me to be more attentive to the needs of the poor and suffering?

In the Gospel, the rich young man went away sad because he was unwilling to give up his possessions. His heart was divided. St. Katharine shows us the fulfillment that comes when we trust the Lord, in serving him with an undivided heart, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Let us bring our prayers before the Lord, confident in his mercy.

For the Holy Father, Pope Francis in this time of serious illness, that he may know the grace, strength, consolation of our merciful Savior.

For the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and all religious communities That they may be strengthened in their charisms and continue faithfully in their mission of education, outreach, and prayerful devotion, touching lives with compassion and mercy,

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, especially in those areas of the world most in need of them.

For the grace to serve the Lord in undivided love: That each of us may surrender whatever hinders us from fully giving ourselves to God, so that we may serve Him with a pure heart and bring hope to others,

That the poor, sick, downtrodden and marginalized may know the closeness of the Lord through the charity of the Church.

For the deceased, that they may be welcomed into the eternal kingdom of God, rejoicing in the reward of the just, especially N.

Almighty and ever-living God, You inspired St. Katherine Drexel to give her life and treasure for the sake of the poor and the spread of Your Gospel. Grant us the grace to follow her example in serving You with an undivided heart. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 - Preparing for Lent

 Before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the three sundays before Lent would already have the priest garbed in Lenten Penitential Purple. 

There was an old tradition that on the third Sunday before Lent, the parish priest would take a scroll with the word “Alleluia” written on it and bury it in the church yard, as Alleluia is not said or sung during Lent until our Easter Celebration of Jesus rising from the tomb. 

These purple garbed sundays before Lent and the burying of the Alleluia served as reminders to prepare well for the upcoming Lenten season which begins this wednesday with the solemn imposition of Ashes on our foreheads.

Before Wednesday it is important to prepare well for Lent—to devise a Lenten plan for yourself and for your family—to consider what will your Lenten prayer consist of, what will your Lenten fasting consist of, what will your lenten almsgiving consist of. For those three Lenten practices are of great importance; by them, the Holy Spirit prepares us for the new life of Easter—but we need to make some intentional choices. 

It is important to prepare well for Lent, so that Lent may prepare you well for Easter. If you don’t spend any time really reflecting upon what God is calling you to this Lent, you’ll likely not get out of Lent what God wants you to get out of it.

And what might that be? Well, sanctification of course. Growth in virtue, growth in charity, depth of prayer, mastery over disordered passions, and learning to more deeply unite yourself to Jesus Christ—to die with him, that you might live with him for fully.

The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Lencten, which is the lengthening of days as we approach springtime, the season of new Growth. And any good gardener knows that before the spring planting and growing season can begin, you first need to clear away the clutter, the dead weeds.  Or how our houses need spring cleaning as dust and dirt and grime and clutter have accumulated over these last months, and spring cleaning is a bit of work, but it’s undergone so that we can live more happily and blessedly. Cleanliness is next to godliness physically and spiritually. 

So, before Wednesday, make a list of your Lenten obligations: stations of the cross, confession, daily spiritual reading, holy week events. 

Bug again, those three practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are so important because they help us to become more like Jesus, which is the goal of the entire Christian life. We hear in the Gospel today, “No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.” The entire Christian life trains us to be more like our Master, and Lent is a particularly intense, focused, and intentional part of that training. 

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving conform us to Christ because these are activities that the Master himself undertook, We pray because he prayed. We fast because he fasted. We gave because he gave. And by them we adopt his own heart and mind: complete trust in the Father, self-sacrificial love, and humble service of others.

We see in the Gospels how often Jesus withdrew to pray—He communed with the Father constantly. So, too, in prayer, we learn to place God first, just as Jesus did. Prayer reminds us that we can do nothing apart from God. It fosters the humility and dependence on the Lord which is to mark each of our days and interactions. By seeking His will in silence, we gradually align our desires with His.

Jesus fasted. He fasted in the desert for forty days, resisting temptation and preparing for His ministry. So, too, fasting teaches us detachment from worldly goods and helps us gain mastery over our appetites. By denying ourselves some legitimate comfort (like a favorite food), we train in the self-control that is so vital to the Christian life.

How many of our sins have been failures of self-control. Most of them, right? So many sins are failures to control our words, failures to control our bodies, failures to control our impulses and appetites, failures to control our tempers. Practicing self-control is incredibly hard due to our fallen natures. Our gratification-centered culture sure doesn’t help things out, either. So fasting, training in fasting, is so important. 

And so too is Almsgiving. The Lord was constantly giving of Himself—healing, feeding, teaching, and ultimately laying down His life for us. Almsgiving challenges us to look beyond ourselves. So too we become more like Christ by caring concretely for our neighbor’s needs. Generosity combats self-centeredness and fosters compassion, reflecting the heart of Jesus who is “rich in mercy”.

St. Peter Chyrsologus, about 1600 years ago wrote of the importance of the three Lenten practices: He wrote: “Prayer, mercy and fasting: These three are one, and they give life to each other. Fasting is the soul of prayer; mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing.”

So again, prepare well for Lent this week by considering how you are being led by the Holy Spirit to take these practices seriously. That this season of spiritual growth may be fruitful. That it may truly be a period of purification and enlightenment in the ways of the Lord—and unite us more fully to Him for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.