Today we celebrate the feast day of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.  Below view Father Thomas Rosica’s reflection in honour of her feast day.

Find the full text of Father Rosica’s reflection below:

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha: Mohawk Mystic of North America
Model of the First Evangelization and New Evangelization

In his final words spoken at World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, ten years ago, Blessed John Paul II addressed the throng of young people present at the Downsview Air Force Base on Sunday July 28, 2002, during the concluding Eucharistic celebration of Canada’s blessed event. The Holy Father said during his homily:

“At difficult moments in the Church’s life, the pursuit of holiness becomes even more urgent. And holiness is not a question of age; it is a matter of living in the Holy Spirit, just as Kateri Tekakwitha did here in America and so many other young people have done.”

For his last World Youth Day, Blessed John Paul II singled out a young native woman, one of the nine young saints and blesseds he had offered to Canada as patrons of World Youth Day 2002, holding her up as a model of holiness, goodness, humanity for millions of young people who were and remain part of the great adventure of World Youth Days. And yet Kateri’s story is a very curious one. We hear little of her own voice in her biographies. What drew Kateri to Baptism? What was the source of her love of Jesus Christ and the Church? How could the life of a 17th century young native woman speak to contemporary society, culture and Church today? What will her faith and Canonization do to heal the First Nations people today, broken because of a history of oppression, abuse, and discord?
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