July always needs some St. Kateri...

http://catholicmom.com/2019/07/08/a-special-devotion-for-july/

Hey everyone, and welcome to a humid and uncomfortable early-July edition with the Catholic Librarian. :-0 Thank you so much to everyone who reached out and wished me well following my post last week about my upcoming adventures as a finalist in my very first (and let's be real, probably only) dance competition!  I'm super nervous about it. 😬 But I'm grateful for the opportunity. I'll definitely devote a whole post to my preparation process sometime this summer! Finals are in late September.

😬😬😬

But onward and upwards! This is a summer of many changes, as I've talked about several times in recent weeks. The kids are growing and changing soooo quickly. Anne is at Girl Scout camp this week, and she had a rough first day. 😢 My kids are both introverts, just like Mike and I, and so new situations, especially those that:

(a) involve lots of unknown people,
(b) are loud, and
(c) involve games and singing

...are very hard on them. I completely relate to this, and I'm a soft touch, so tears of not wanting to go back make me want to crumble. But of course, perseverance is also important (she wanted to go to this camp, I wouldn't have signed up up otherwise) and so I told her that she needed to give it at least 1 more day. If after the second day it was clear that it was a bad fit and was actively making her miserable, I would not have pushed her. But the first day is never a perfect indicator of how things will be going forward, you need to give it just a wee bit more time. So I took her on the second day feeling uber guilty, and she came home exhausted and hangry again. However, she also chirped on about the woodsy things that they had done, the other girls, and the homemade beef and macaroni dish they had for lunch. She had a good time. And wanted to go back the next day.

HUGE sigh of relief. But the week has been emotionally draining as a result. Therefore my July piece over at CatholicMom comes at a perfect time and on an ideal topic. St. Kateri is a huge source of consolation for me, as I mention in this article (and there is a link back to the original piece fully detailing St. Kateri's place in my and my family's faith journey in there), and right now, I need her more than ever. So, if you need a dose of St. Kateri too, I'd love it if you would check out my piece over there. Comments on the CatholicMom website are always super welcome!

Who are you favorite summer saints? My kids' feast days are also in July: St. Henry on July 13th, and Sts. Anne and Joachim on July 26th. July is a great saint month. 😀

Back-to-school briskness and busyness, and school-related novenas...

St. Kateri is our back-to-school patron this year!

Anecdote of the day: Anne greets me first thing this morning outside our bedroom door, wearing her nightgown, tossled hair, and a frown:

"Mom. You have to come quick."

Uh oh.

She hustles me down to her little bedroom, where she has clearly *just* stepped out of bed, and points an accusing finger at a shelf:

"How did Peppers get up there?!"

Peppers is her new stuffed animal friend, a parrot. I actually have no idea how Peppers got up onto a shelf, as I tucked them into bed together last night, and that does seem a little scary, doesn't it? Did he fly up there?!

😂

"Daddy probably put Peppers up there when he checked on you last night, Honey. Maybe he had fallen out of the bed."

"But why would he put Peppers up there and not back into bed with me?!"

Well, I don't know. But Anne was clearly outraged. :0 Poor Peppers.

In other news, we're in full on back-to-school prep over here. Although we're still getting flare ups of humidity around these parts, September is in the air. We're getting occasional cool nights, and the campus where I work is beginning to look different. Students are arriving for orientation, and there is a bustling sensation in the air. Classes start for them on Monday. I don't start teaching until week 3 due to the way our library lab is structured, so I still have some time to breathe, thankfully. My kids don't start school until the Wednesday following Labor Day.

It's kind of a big year for my Henry, because he's going into 8th grade. That's the highest level in his and Anne's Catholic school, and the whole thing is a bit emotional for me.

😭

I'm struggling with/panicking about this quite a bit. Next year, he will start high school, and it does NOT seem like this is possible. I know, I know, I've whined about this before. :0 But I can't help it. This is big. I never pictured myself as old enough to have a child in high school, and here we are on the very precipice of that. I'll make it, but it isn't easy. At least I have Mike to share the journey with me. *heart*

As we move into the fall, Henry is facing the Catholic High School Entrance Exam. We don't know for certain that he will attend Catholic high school (i.e. whether we can afford it), but his top choice is the Catholic boys high school that is minutes away from our house. Assuming that the financial aid package is manageable, we'd love to send him there. But it's a big "if," to be sure.

Accordingly, given that the entrance exam is in early November, and sometime thereafter we would find out the financial information, Henry and I are going to pray a novena starting Sunday (August 26th) using this novena to St. Kateri.

Would anybody like to join us? This would mean that the last day of the novena would be Labor Day here in the U.S., and since my kids start school right after that, the timing seems apt. :) I asked Henry which saint he would like to ask to intercede for him, and he chose St. Kateri, isn't he precious? If you'll be joining us, let me know!

All right, I have a bunch of beginning-of-semester emails to send out, so I'd better get on that.

*groans*

How is your back-to-school season going? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Tea Time with Tiffany #105 - Spotlight on St. Kateri!

Hello everyone, and welcome to a St. Kateri themed edition of:

Today I include the first installment in our Church Triumphant series: St. Kateri Tekakwitha! I also update you all on my summer dancing nerves and foibles, planning for fall teaching, kid updates, and summer family fun. Join me!





**To subscribe to the audio version of Tea Time with Tiffany, just search for it in iTunes or use this link to subscribe via Feedburner in your podcatcher of choice. Intro music is "Feelin' Good" from http://www.purple-planet.com

Items mentioned in this episode:

What's on my Bookshelf - A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms

The Church Triumphant - Focus on St. Kateri Tekakwitha! 

• My family's St. Kateri faith story
• Tekakwitha Conference 
• Video of the St. Kateri chaplet. Audio is on my Chaplets page! 

How is your week wrapping up? Do you have a devotion to St. Kateri? I'd love to hear all about it! 

Fun times with St. Kateri & a lot of rain...

HELLO, you fabulous person, you! I am very glad to be with you again in our happy little life journal universe. My week is rather insanely busy, and thus I really wanted to carve out time to chat with you today. I'm on a search committee at work, and we have candidates coming in for interviews, so I have whole days blocked out with no writing opportunities. Hence, there will be no post tomorrow, I am certain that you are just devastated. ;-) But we have some time together today, and Tea Time on Thursday, so that's a yay, right?

I had a super exciting weekend filled with family and Catholic activities, so let's chronicle, shall we?

#CatholicFun!

This weekend we journeyed by car to the National St. Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine, and to Adirondack State Park. We don't take road trips very often, so the entire family was simmering with excitement. That is, until the kids got to the end of the movie they had packed to watch on the portable DVD player:

"MOOOOOMMMMMMM. Are we there yet?! We've been in the car for 500 hours!"

"Anne, it's been an hour and a half. Buck up."

"I feel car sick!"

"Henry, take a nap."

#exhausting

When we got to the shrine, everyone was anxious to stretch their legs. And the chapel was everything I dreamed it would be:

I love the earthy feel and the Native American art. And immediately to our right, was a stunning representation of the guest of honor:

St. Kateri is incredibly important to me for a number of reasons. She's part of the communion of saints, our family in the faith, and a woman, so I relate to her. But the fact that she was a Mohawk is so personally meaningful to me and my heritage. I felt very close to her, and to my Mohawk ancestry, this weekend. I procured a medal bearing her image and a third class relic from the gift shop, and I've barely taken it off since.

Also featured prominently at St. Kateri's shrine was our good friend, St. Maximilian Kolbe:

We came across him in the chapel, as you see above, but we encountered him again, I'll come back to that. He is Henry's favorite saint, so I was pleased to see him. :) The altar itself featured a gorgeous painting of St. Kateri in prayer:

I could have lingered in that chapel for hours, but I did have my less patient family with me ;-) and so after some exploring and a short spell of prayer, we headed outside:

We walked around and spotted some birds. Anne picked some weeds flowers for other saint statues that we encountered:

More St. Kateri. Hey, it's her shrine, right?

I also forced the kids to pose for a photo with yet another St. Kateri:

They look thrilled.

There was a beautiful outdoor scene of the Stations of the Cross up on a hillside behind the chapel, which the kids delighted in running on. We paused for a short spell in a gazebo at the top. Then we ventured down to the outdoor chapel, named for St. Maximilian Kolbe:

Henry took a vested interest out here, wanting to explore the St. Max literature and statues that abounded. Of course, St. Kateri cannot be left out:

And the kids were happy to cozy up with St. Max and actually look like they tolerate each other sometimes:

After some more exploring, it was time to head back to the car, much to the consternation of our offspring:

"MOOOOOOMMMMM. We've been in the car for DAYS AND DAYS!!"

We only had an hour to go to get to the little motel we booked in the Adirondacks, and I was all energized from my St. Kateri encounter. Mike and I happily chatted about dinner plans. We headed off, feeling sublime.

Then we got lost. :0

And we don't have GPS. But we have Mike, the Map Guy. He figured it out, but it took a little more time than we were originally planning. It didn't help that we were in the middle of the woods and signage was at a premium. We got to the motel, got into our cute little efficiency room (kitchenette!) and contemplated our dinner options. Let's just say that this was a very small town, and there weren't that many. ;-)

"Honey, remember when we were in Niagara-on-the-Lake for our anniversary, and we ate at that little pub? I loved that trip, it was so romantic."

We gazed at each other lovingly. Suddenly, from the bathroom comes a high pitched voice:

"COULD SOMEBODY COME WIPE ME?!?!"

See, this is the difference between the romantic interludes and the trips with kids. But oftentimes the romantic interludes *cause* the future trips with kids, so there you have it.

We found a small restaurant that night, and afterward enjoyed our view of the lake from the little back patio on our room:

The kids loved the lakefront. They could stay down there for hours, just playing at the water edge, trying to skip stones. We headed to bed, fairly exhausted.

Saturday morning, we made breakfast, excitedly rented a row boat, and got ready for our adventure. And then...it rained.

:0

As in, it poured. We had to wait it out for a few hours. Thankfully, I had packed Jiffy Pop, which I popped for the kids while they watched a movie. Nothing like being trapped in a tiny room to make everyone want to crawl out of their own skin. We had to be a little creative, but we managed.

Finally, it stopped raining, and we did get out on the boat, plus snuck in a short, albeit wet, hike. We also found the local Catholic parish, and attended the vigil Mass:

"Oh look, VISITORS!!"

In a town as small as this one, new people were definitely noticed.

When we got out of Mass, oh look, IT WAS RAINING AGAIN!! I heated up some soup for dinner and made sandwiches. This is about as Gung Ho About Camping/Roughing It as I like to get. ;-) When it stopped raining, we took the kids up to get ice cream at the restaurant that we had eaten at Friday night, given that there wasn't exactly another dining option. So we made it.

Sunday morning, Mike and I were DYING to get back home and to our usual routine. And to privacy. :0 Though the kids were sorry to see the adventure come to an end:

"MOOOOMMMMM!"

"Guys. If you want to go on more trips next summer, you're going to have to toughen up!"

:0

How was YOUR weekend, dear reader? Do I have any other St. Kateri fans here?!

My first ever piece at Catholic Mom commemorates the feast of St. Kateri, & the St. Anne novena approaches!

Happy Tuesday to all of you, and happy feast of St. Kateri! She's certainly a favorite of mine, and quite integral to my own Catholic identity. I wrote a post about this several years ago, and recently I pulled that post up, updated it a bit, tidied up the writing, and submitted it to Catholic Mom. And *happy dance* it was published yesterday, on the vigil of her feast day!

You should have heard me squeal when I saw it. Well, OK, maybe you wouldn't have liked that. ;-) But I was *excited* and the timing is perfect. I've even gotten a few comments over there, which made me all giddy anew. Of course, I responded to every single one personally. Don't you want to go read and leave a comment now? Hummmmmm? :0 I'm waiting for you over there, with much excited anticipation. If you enjoy conversion stories, you'll enjoy reading this one, I think. I hope! Come visit me over there. :)

In other saint news, the novena to St. Anne start date is rapidly approaching, and I created a page with all the details. We'll start praying along on Friday, leading to her feast day of July 26th. I have a St. Anne chaplet on it's happy way to me, so that I can pray that in tandem with the novena prayers:

Photo courtesy of Allison Kinyon, Rosaries by Allison

Allison, the dear soul that she is, whipped this up for me over the weekend at my request, and mailed it out on Monday. She's on the other side of the country from me, but it should be here tomorrow or Thursday. If I have time, I'll record a short video of me praying the chaplet and post it on that novena page so that we can pray together if you like. I don't have audio file capabilities just yet, that's coming, just not ready for prime time this week. Since you can't download it, I know it's not as helpful, but for anyone who wants to, it would be there. I'll let you know if that comes to pass!

But if you're a fan of St. Anne, definitely join the rest of the community in prayer! Who's planning to pray the novena? Do you have a devotion to St. Anne? Please leave a comment and let me know all the sainty details. And you can also leave me prayer intentions in the comments, as well!

Happy feast of St. Kateri!

Today is a big feast day, y'all. :0 St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the "Lily of the Mohawks," patron of the environment, first Native American consecrated virgin, and whose cause for canonization was championed by St. John Paul II as a source of inspiration for all Catholics of indigenous heritage. You can read her story many places on the web, including the link I provided above, but what I take most from it is the difficult life that she led, losing her parents at a young age and being physically scarred from her battle with smallpox. Also, how strong her young faith was when she encountered resistance from her people with regard to her conversion. I am so enamored with saints who were devoted to the Eucharist, and St. Kateri is well known for falling into this category. I love that she started a community for like-minded women before her death, and her influence spread far beyond the small areas of modern New York State and Quebec, Canada in which she lived.

From Magnificat for July 2014

St. Kateri has much personal meaning to me, as I noted in the post I wrote about my family's faith story. My paternal grandfather was Mohawk, and that angle of my family's genealogy has always been of great interest to me and my sisters. When my dad came into the Church back in the early 90's, I remember the Mass in which he was confirmed very well. My dad is a very reserved person, quiet and unassuming, and he didn't want to take part in a large Easter Vigil Mass. At the time, we were members of a small parish on the nearby Tuscarora reservation, and there was no Easter Vigil Mass scheduled there anyway, we would have to go to the large nearby Marian shrine whose religious order, the Barnabites, donated the time of one of their priests to say Mass on the reservation. So this would mean a *very* large Easter Vigil. Instead, the priest offered to say a private Mass during Easter season for us, during which my dad would be received into the Church. And that's what we did.

I remember being at the shrine and thinking how different it felt from when I was usually there, because the church was devoid of all people aside from us, and usually it is bustling with visitors. When we got to the Rite of the Sacraments of Initiation, the priest paused to say a few words about how he had come to know my dad, and how he had enjoyed the instruction classes they had journeyed through together. Then he said that he loved the saint my dad had chosen as his confirmation patron, and in my mind I thought: "Oh yes, he chose St. Andrew," because that was my great-grandfather's name, and I knew that my dad had been planning to use it in honor of him.

But then Father said: "He chose [at that time] Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha..."

And I remember being surprised that he had changed his mind, but then thinking "Oh, of course. That makes perfect sense."

And it does. If you read my link to our faith story, you'll see why. ;-)

St. Kateri is so special to me. I have a saint peg doll bearing her likeness on my desk at work, on a key chain for my house key, and on multiple rosary centerpieces. I use the images to call to mind her life and faith while recollecting in prayer or going about my daily tasks, so that I can better try to emulate her strong faith and courage.

St. Kateri, pray for us!

The Catholic Nook: Kateri Indian Rosary

St. Kateri Tekakwitha was patron of this blog for 2012, and is a key instrument in my family's faith story, and so I thought it would be nice to feature the sacramental devoted to her. It's a favorite of mine, and as we near the conclusion of a very emotional week, I could use an opportunity to focus even more on prayer and devotions. I'm planning a fairly detailed action-packed edition of 7 Quick Takes for tomorrow, so stay tuned for the promised anecdotes on adventures in belly dance costuming, and updates on the kids, Halloween preparations (I'm lifting my eyebrows in a frowny fashion at some of the costume catalogs I've seen), my new Nook tablet (oy, it's not going so well :)) and my emotional roller coaster surrounding the long awaited conclusion of Breaking Bad.

But first, let us focus on precious Kateri. Known as the "Lily of the Mohawks" Kateri Tekakwitha grew up in the latter part of the seventeenth century not too far from where I live in upstate New York. Her mother was Algonquin, and a Christian, her father a Mohawk. My dad is Mohawk, and St. Kateri is his confirmation saint (he is a convert). Her family died of smallpox when she was a small child, and the disease also left Kateri with scars and weakened eyesight. When she was 18, she requested to be baptized (I'm certain it was her mother's prayers that yielded this result :)), and received a lot of sass from her tribal community as a result. Catholicism was not looked upon highly by her people because of the heavy handed (and worse) tactics of some missionaries. Kateri eventually left her hometown for Caughnawaga, in modern day Quebec, Canada. She received her First Communion there, and took a vow of perpetual virginity, dedicating her life to Christ. She wanted to form a community of consecrated Iroquois women, but never got the opportunity. She died quite young, in 1680, and is known for the fact that her face cleared of the significant scarring she bore throughout her life as she lay in repose in death. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980, and canonized in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. She is the first indigenous person from North America to be declared a saint.

Before I talk about her chaplet, let me just interject a personal anecdote. Kateri Tekakwitha means a LOT to the Native people who have chosen to become Catholic. I live near a fairly high concentration of people of Iroquois descent, and for a time my family attended a parish (the only one in New York) that is on reservation land. Although the parish wasn't officially named after her, she WAS the community's patron and the congregation prayed for her canonization after every Mass. I think we can all understand that it's important to have someone with a similar background as a role model, and Kateri is that for the Native Catholic people in this area. As you might presume, there is not exactly a high percentage of Catholics amongst the Native population. And Kateri is controversial for many Native people who practice the traditional religion, rather than Christianity. But for those that are devoted to her and share her heritage, she is incredibly special.

I just love her chaplet, which is called the Kateri Indian Rosary. I own the one that is featured at the top of this post. You can see her image on the medal at the center, which is just lovely. So, when asking for the intercession of St. Kateri, you begin with the sign of the cross at the crucifix. There are 24 beads, one for each year of Kateri's life, separated into units of 8. The colors are significant and specific to this chaplet. The crystal clear beads represent water, and on each you pray a Glory Be. The brown are for the earth, and on each you pray an Our Father. These two colors are in tribute to Kateri's Native heritage. The red beads represent blood/love, and on each you pray a Hail Mary. Kateri suffered for and devoted her life to her Catholic faith, so the conclusion with the red beads, symbolizing a martyrdom of sorts, is just perfect.

I love my chaplet. The beads are smooth and heavy and it feels so good in your hand, a perfect reminder for a call to prayer.

St. Kateri, pray for all us that we discern and do God's will always, just as you did.

My family's faith story

I've been meaning to post on this for some time. I absolutely love reading about others' faith stories, and how they came to hold their faith. I'm a big fan of "conversion stories." I own a solid handful of books of such stories, and I reread them often. I have blogged about how I came back to the adult practice of my faith when I attended law school, but I never really went into how I originally inherited my faith. So I thought I'd share. :)

My mom is of Italian descent (she's only in the second or third generation born in America, depending on the side of the family) and her immediate and extended family were all Catholic. This area, in fact, is full of the descendants of Italian and Polish immigrants. And we have many beautiful, old churches to show for it.

On my dad's side, my grandmother was of German descent. My grandfather's family is of indigenous descent, specifically, Six Nations Mohawk. Growing up, my dad was raised nominally Protestant. He was baptized in a Lutheran church, but the family never regularly attended. Through the years, he recalls belonging to a slew of different churches, Church of the Nazarene, Methodist, etc., usually based on baseball team membership. :)

When I was growing up, my dad did not attend Mass with us. Now, here is the thing. My mom received all her sacraments, and my parents were married in the Church. However, even though we were dutifully signed up for CCD (religious education classes) each year, and were receiving our sacraments of initiation, my mom, sisters and I rarely attended Mass ourselves. We were the penultimate Christmas and Easter Catholics. Consequently, I disliked CCD, and could not see the relevance it had to anything in my life. I always believed in God, but CCD seemed far removed from the way I thought about God.

I am grateful though that my mom's early attempts to raise us in the faith did instill in me a strong sense of God. I never doubted Him, and that He was there, I just wished that I didn't have to sit through those boring classes every week. They were on Tuesday afternoons, too. Sundays were no different than any other day to me, and we didn't practice any Catholic traditions in our home. I didn't really understand that being Catholic was any different from being any other kind of Christian. I didn't even know what a Protestant was. The Catholic faith didn't seem profound or meaningful in any way to me. I figured all belief in God was similar, and that it didn't matter.

As a very little girl, maybe 3 or 4, I remember being in bed one night, and I had a "vision" (or something) of Jesus coming to comfort me. I don't remember why, but I was upset or worried about something, and He sat on the corner of my bed and stroked my hair and told me it would be ok. Was it a dream? Maybe. But it is a memory that is extremely vivid, and I've always wondered. In any case, it gave me comfort and solidified my belief that God was real.

Anyway, where was I? CCD = Disaster, right. This continued until nearly my confirmation in early high school. Then, something changed. One of my aunts joined a prayer group devoted to our Blessed Mother and invited us to come. For whatever reason, this struck my mom's fancy, and we went. From that point forward, the fellowship, the prayers, and the support system moved my mom back to her Catholic faith. We started going to Mass every Sunday and praying the rosary. Even I enjoyed the prayer group. The ladies were fun! And my cousins were often there too.

Interestingly, by this point, my mom's immediate family had all left the Catholic Church. They all remain devoted Christians (mostly Assemblies of God), but none remained Catholic. The temptation for us to fall away was right there, very strong, but I'm so, so grateful that we remained.

With our renewed Mass and prayer group attendance, my dad started to see how important this had become to us. One day, something extremely fortuitous happened: while reading the newspaper, he saw an article about a brand new parish. One completely unique in our state, in that it is housed on a Native American reservation. He showed the article to my mom, and they agreed to go to Mass there.

This church is so adorable and quaint. Very intimate, and decorated in indigenous art, it is a beacon of the faith amongst people who may not have otherwise set foot in a Catholic Church. Based on my impression and experience, this is a very sensitive issue amongst indigenous people, and understandably so. The past is rife with heavy handed (and worse) tactics to mold Native Americans into what the larger society would rather have them do (including their religious beliefs), and as you can imagine, this type of persuasion is not very effective. Generally speaking, Native people have a strong sense of God, but Christianity of any kind is not usually their chosen path.

So this parish is just a wonder, and especially meaningful in an area with such a large (relatively speaking) contingent of Native Americans. My dad is a very quiet guy, a man of few words. I get my introverted personality from him. :) He didn't say much, but he wanted to keep going, and this spoke volumes. So we did.

In the mean time, his parents found out about this parish, and they started attending too. A year or two later, my dad confided that he'd like to take classes to become a Catholic. So, after nearly 25 years of marriage, my dad entered the Church at the Easter Vigil. :) His confirmation saint is Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, known as the Lily of the Mohawks. I've been to her shrine, which is within driving distance of where I live. She was a young Mohawk woman living in the late seventeenth century who took a lot of heat from family and friends for becoming a devoted Catholic. She had a particular devotion to the Mass, and the Eucharist. Her mother died of smallpox, which she also contracted, and it disfigured her face. When she died at age 24, her face was miraculously healed and serene. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in the 1980's, and is revered at the little Native American parish that my dad converted at.

My grandparents converted as well. When they each passed away, both received a full Mass of Christian Burial.

So there you have it. I love my heritage, and my faith. I inherited that as well, but I made it my own as an adult, and I wouldn't change it for the world.