Mar 3 Katherine Drexel b. 1858 d. 1955 bl. 1988 c. 2000

Jack and Thommy,
Good morning, I love you
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Presidents’ Day. Actually, officially, Washington’s Day. I grew up with both a Washington’s Day and Lincoln’s Day, although the latter was never an official federal holiday. Today, we simply have the day off with banks closed and big sales. Presidency Day might make some sense, given the prestige and honor we give the office. But, presidents’ day? Not all presidents are created equal. Few of us can name the presidents, not even how many we’ve had in only 235 years of presidents. But Washington ranks up there in a pantheon of his own!
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Picking up again almost a week later. Now two weeks since I’ve written anything for the blog, for myself, for whatever hope I have of the right people reading my missives. In the past two weeks a plethora of people have continued to stop by. Thank you. I not only owe you the feeloughts that have not made it into electronics but also my thanks for coming by. I do not understand the increasing number of people [well, the increasing number of hits] who come by/return. Not only is what I write undeserving of anyone’s attention – except Thom’s and Jack’s – it’s not accomplished much that I know of. Except: I did not expect anyone to be stopping by. I am humbled and amazed by and appreciative of everyone’s excursion into this space.

Two weeks. A very long time. I set a recent record in rejection in these two weeks. But, it’s like the lottery. With a lottery ticket in your pocket, you can imagine you’re a millionaire. No tickey no laundry. No winning if you don’t buy the ticket. In baseball, a .300 hitter is a hall of famer, an all star – and he’s also making an out seven of ten at bats! The same in the job hunt/consultation business. Without an application out there, without submitting a proposal, there is no chance of getting on board. It’s not whether you’re down, weighted down, knocked down. Everyone gets put down – even Jesus! As we come up on Lent, remember the stations of the cross. Down three times. And up each and every time. And he knew where he was going – Golgotha. For us, of course. To take away our sins. Got up on his own: while being lashed, spat upon, cursed, etc. Got up with the grace of God. As we too must, can, will.

Yesterday, I got a voicemail from my cousin. She’s going to Florida in March and was organizing a visit on her way back. It took almost to the end of the message to get the message. All along the way I was thinking the call was about her mother. Not this time. I called her back and we talked for almost a half hour orchestrating a drive by visit. She’ll be going north on route 95. We agreed she’d call when she had a guess as to when she’ll be on 95 east of Raleigh.

And.

Also, today, I got an email about my father’s return trip from Florida to Chicago. According to the email, not from him, he’s going to visit his brother in Florida then he’s going to stop in Charlotte [about 90 minutes from my place] to visit the niece of his dead wife then head on to Chicago.

When I talked with my cousin I also seriously thought about ridding myself of the stuff in my place. There’s more here than I’ll ever use again. The having it all is a privilege and a burden. It’s also a gift for y’all – come by anytime and have at it. I’d like to have the cleaner slate, too.

Organizing our third grader faith formation class to provide a dinner [and gifts] for the families our parish is hosting for a week has been as/more rewarding as the privilege to teach the class, to participate in the faith formation the children. The enthusiasm of the children and their parents has been a blessing to be part of. My class preparation – my studying the lesson, my getting immersed in the references, my whittling a 60 minute lesson down to 50 minutes – is a weekly cursillo-style study. It is a blessing to be given the few minutes a week with these children.

Tonight I’ll be a Eucharistic Minister. Our parish Liturgy coordinator sent out an email to a few of us doing a particular role which is evolving as our pastor/LC continue to evolve. I appreciated the extra effort the LC put into the email reminder. The number of people it takes for just one Mass to go well for celebrant and participants, for individuals and congregation and parish in mindboggling. And the work it must take, the preparation, the learning, the prayerful mindset for the parish’s LC as well as the LC for each liturgy: behind the scenes is where the action is!

Monday on my way into the 9:00 Mass, the LC for the Mass asked me if I were going ‘to do the reading for tomorrow.’ I demurred: without an explanation. I had a reason – I did not want to be the person taking over someone else’s usual slot without that person having had the discussion with the LC that she was being replaced. The Tuesday I did it, the hand of God put the woman and me together with the substitute LC before Mass. She was asking a question about which communion antiphon was to be used. The sub was put in the embarrassing situation of trying to explain to her that the LC had gotten me to do the reading. And, no, the LC hadn’t spoken to the woman. Thank God for the pre-Mass conclave. But, no thanks, I don’t want to be part of that. [oh by the way. The LC has decided my name is Jim. I told her my name, she wrote it down correctly on her assignment sheet for that Tuesday, but now she greets me with a hi, Jim.]

I’ve read a book a day now for over a week. From Vince Flynn [read his pre 9/11 books and wonder who else was ahead of our intelligence community.] to C.S. Lewis. I should be reading more psychology, management, et al. It is not time to punt on my professional development. My writing has also increased – this bio related as well as professional musings about family therapy and institutional decisions and their institutionalization contrary to the original intent.


March 3

Katherine Drexel b. 1858 d. 1955 bl. 1988 c. 2000

When I pulled up this saint – not because she’s a biggie but because I know someone who knew her personally – I had to ask myself why have I not before included in my routine selecting the Catherine saints. If I’m going to do William, Thomas, Kenneth, Joseph, John why not Catherine Mary? I’ll let y’all analyze that. But, Catherine is now in.

Sister Sandra and her sister began Project Respect in Nashville. I was given the opportunity to provide some support for her ministry. The ministry began as an after school reading/tutoring program for children in Nashville’s poorest [blackest] community. Not only did this post retirement pair of sisters bring Christ and Church to the children, families, community they brought an effective service. It was a blessing for me to help them raise money – which somehow was easy. Just put one of them in front of a benefactor to tell the story of the ministry, and, voila, a check was written. Sister Sandra was invited by the City schools to apply for a grant to expand the service. In the midst of the discussion of what she’d do with the grant money, she was told that, of course, she’d have to secularize the space and not include prayer or references to faith and all that. Sister Sandra simply stopped what she was doing and began to gather up her few materials. Cool, calm, collected, peaceful and polite, Sister Sandra began to leave. In horror, one of the participants asked her what she was doing. She kindly explained that Project Respect was a Catholic ministry and she would continue to provide as much service as she could without the city’s money if the city’s money was contingent on secularizing her service. The committee backed down – choosing to look away at this egregious violation of federal/state/local law so that the children in the community would get this service.

I did spend time helping with the tutoring as well. Helping with homework. Teaching math skills. Beginning and ending each session with a prayer of petition and thanksgiving. After the children left and we were cleaning up, it was wonderful to hear the sisters talk about their lives of service – remember, these were seventy year old black women in Nashville Tennessee – each with advanced degrees and academic and community accomplishments as well as their service to church and community. Learning at the feet of gracefilled women. Deo Gratias.


Vatican.com

Katherine Drexel was born in Philadelphia. Her father was a well known banker and philanthropist. Both parents instilled in their daughters the idea that their wealth was simply loaned to them and was to be shared with others.



When the family took a trip to the Western part of the United States, Katharine, as a young woman, saw the plight and destitution of the native Indian-Americans. This experience aroused her desire to do something specific to help alleviate their condition. This was the beginning of her lifelong personal and financial support of numerous missions and missionaries in the United States.



The first school Katherine Drexel established was St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico (1887).



Later, when visiting Pope Leo XIII in Rome, and asking him for missionaries to staff some of the Indian missions that she as a lay person was financing, she was surprised to hear the Pope suggest that she become a missionary herself.



After consultation with her spiritual director, Bishop James O'Connor, she made the decision to give herself totally to God, along with her inheritance, through service to American Indians and Afro-Americans.

Her wealth was now transformed into a poverty of spirit that became a daily constant in a life supported only by the bare necessities.



On February 12, 1891, Katherine Drexel professed her first vows as a religious, founding the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament whose dedication would be to share the message of the Gospel and the life of the Eucharist among American Indians and Afro-Americans.

Always a woman of intense prayer, Katharine found in the Eucharist the source of her love for the poor and oppressed and of her concern to reach out to combat the effects of racism.



Knowing that many Afro-Americans were far from free, still living in substandard conditions as sharecroppers or underpaid menials, denied education and constitutional rights enjoyed by others, she felt a compassionate urgency to help change racial attitudes in the United States.



The plantation at that time was an entrenched social institution in which the colored people continued to be victims of oppression. This was a deep affront to Katharine's sense of justice. The need for quality education loomed before her, and she discussed this need with some who shared her concern about the inequality of education for Afro-Americans in the cities. Restrictions of the law also prevented them in the rural South from obtaining a basic education.



Founding and staffing schools for both Native Americans and Afro-Americans throughout the country became a priority for Katharine and her congregation.

During Katherine Drexel’s lifetime, she opened, staffed and directly supported nearly 60 schools and missions, especially in the West and Southwest United States. Her crowning educational focus was the establishment in 1925 of Xavier University of Louisiana, the only predominantly Afro-American Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States at the time.



Religious education, social service, visiting in homes, in hospitals and in prisons were also included in the ministries of Katharine Drexel and the Sisters.

In her quiet way, Katharine Drexel combined prayerful and total dependence on Divine Providence with determined activism.



Her joyous incisiveness, attuned to the Holy Spirit, penetrated obstacles and facilitated her advances for social justice.



Through the prophetic witness of Katharine Drexel's initiative, the Church in the United States was enabled to become aware of the grave domestic need for an apostolate among Native Americans and Afro-Americans. She did not hesitate to speak out against injustice, taking a public stance when racial discrimination was in evidence.



For the last 18 years of her life she was rendered almost completely immobile because of a serious illness. During these years she gave herself to a life of adoration and contemplation as she had desired from early childhood. She died on March 3, 1955.



Katharine left a four-fold dynamic legacy to her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament , who continue her apostolate today, and indeed to all peoples:

– her love for the Eucharist, her spirit of prayer, and her Eucharistic perspective on the unity of all peoples;

– her undaunted spirit of courageous initiative in addressing social iniquities among minorities — one hundred years before such concern aroused public interest in the United States;

– her belief in the importance of quality education for all, and her efforts to achieve it;

– her total giving of self, of her inheritance and all material goods in selfless service of the victims of injustice.

Katharine Drexel was beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 20, 1988

At Katherine Drexel’s death there were more than 500 Sisters teaching in 63 schools throughout the country.

Because of her lifelong dedication to her faith and her selfless service to the oppressed, Pope John Paul II canonized her on October 1, 2000 to become only the second recognized American-born saint.

I love you,
Dad
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