From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
March 3rd - Saint Katharine Drexel
(1858 - 1955)
The Feast Day of Saint Katharine Drexel, patroness of our region, is
observed on March 3rd. She was canonized in Rome by the Holy Father
Pope John Paul II on October 1, 2000.
A recent Forbes magazine article offers wealthy readers ways to avoid
ruining their children: make them do unpaid chores, say "no" to
expensive gifts such as cars, and steer them to summer jobs that open
their eyes as to how poorer folk live.
Good advice=E2=80=94but rich, late-nineteenth century American Catholics Francis and Emma (Bouvier) Drexel took a different approach with their
kids. (Francis had infant and toddler daughters at his first wife's
death and a third girl with Emma, his second wife, who reared the
other children as her own.)
The three Drexel sisters were raised with every advantage, from grand
private European "tours" to formal "coming out" parties. But if they
did not deprive their girls, the deeply devout parents also modeled a
clear philosophy of the purpose and place of money by their own lives.
Three afternoons a week, the Drexel daughters saw the doors of their
splendid Philadelphia home open to anyone in need. On behalf of the
family, as they grew older the girls helped Emma distribute huge sums
each year in clothing, medicine or rent money. They saw their mother
was no dupe, investigating to weed out con artists while she wholeheartedly=E2=80=94and personally=E2=80=94assisted the truly needy.
Seven days a week it was God, not money, the girls saw as the object
of their parent's devotion. When Emma designed the family mansion she
included a beautiful little chapel=E2=80=94for use, not show. Nightly, the Drexels gathered for prayer, and the Rosary was part of each day.
Francis Drexel's family knew, too, that despite his immersion in the
world of finance, when the powerful one-time partner of J. Pierpont
Morgan came home each night, it was not money that occupied his mind.
As soon as he had greeted his loved ones, Francis secluded himself for
half an hour's prayer.
When Emma died in 1883 after painful cancer, her daughters did not
read in obituaries of their mother's society galas or chic lifestyle.
Instead, the press reported Emma's "cheering visits" to "the poor, the
sick, the unemployed, the dying" and noted that "few women ever
secured so many jobs" for the unemployed.
One paper said, "The families she . . . aided can be numbered in the
hundreds, some of them supported entirely by her in time of need."
Emma's girls saw, too, the stream of poor who passed by her coffin,
weeping for one who had done them so much good.
Two years later, in 1885, their father died. Francis left $15 million, one-tenth to go at once to charity and the rest to be distributed to
the same worthy institutions after his girls' deaths, leaving them
only the (admittedly ample) interest income to divide among them
during their lives.
The Drexel girls did not rush to lawyers to get at more of the money.
Instead, they concentrated on using what they had to follow their
parents in service to others.
Elizabeth, the oldest, helped many orphans and founded St. Francis de
Sales' Industrial School in Pennsylvania, where orphans could learn a
trade before facing life on their own. The youngest, Louise, began
charities to black Americans that culminated in her establishment of
St. Emma's Industrial and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, where
young black men could combine liberal arts studies with vocational
schooling.
Best known of the three heiresses is the middle girl, Katharine.
Katharine spent all of her money on works for America's Indians and
blacks. But for her, even giving her wealth was not enough; she also
gave herself, becoming a nun=E2=80=94foundress of the Sisters of the Blesse=
d
Sacrament.
Katharine died at age 96 in 1955. For ten years she had been the lone
income beneficiary of her father's will. Although her own foundations=E2=80=94Xavier University for blacks in New Orleans, Indian
schools in the West and her order's uncompleted mother-house=E2=80=94needed money as much or more than the charities named long years before in
her dad's will, she never sought to break that document. On her death
those groups took all, leaving Katharine's works to the providence of
God. But the middle Drexel girl had long faced that prospect serenely.
After all, it was in God, not money, her parents had raised their
children to trust.
Ever loving God, You called Saint Katharine Drexel to share
the message of the Gospel and the life of the Eucharist
with the poor and oppressed among
Native and African American peoples.
Through her intercession, may we grow in
the faith and love that will enable us to be united
as brothers and sisters in You.
We pray this through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
Saint Quote:
Christ wishes the Christian Community to be a body that is perfect
because we work together towards a single end, and the higher the
motive which actuates this collaboration the higher, no doubt, will be
the union. Now the end in question is supremely exalted: the
continuous sanctification of the Body for the glory of God and the
Lamb that was slain.
-- Saint Katharine Drexel
Bible Quote:
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with
such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. (Hebrews 13:5)
<><><><>
Prayer, fasting, and mercy
Perseverance in faith, devotion, and virtue is assured by three
things: prayer, fasting, and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting
gains entrance, mercy receives. These three things, prayer, fasting,
and mercy, are all 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, for this is impossible. If we have
only one of them, if we have not all three together, we have nothing.
Whoever prays, then, must also fast; whoever fasts must also show
mercy. If we want our own petitions heard we must hear the petitions
of others. God's ear will be open to us if we do not turn a deaf ear
to other people.
When we fast we should understand what it means to be really
hungry. If we want God to take account of our hunger we must feel for
the hunger of others. If we hope for mercy we must show mercy. If we
look for kindness we must show kindness. If we want to receive we must
give. Only a shameless person would ask for himself what he refused to
give to others. In showing mercy this should be the rule: show it in
the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness as
you would wish it to be shown to you.
--St. Peter Chrysologus
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)