All Saints Parish Homilies and News

Kateri Tekakwitha or Tekaouïta (baptised Catherine), known as the Lily of the Mohawks, first North American Aboriginal person elevated to sainthood (born in 1656 at Ossernenon in Iroquois country, now Auriesville, NY; died 17 April 1680 at the St. Francis Xavier Mission. Published in Columbia Magazine , by the Knights of Columbus: Celebrating Saint Kateri Tekakwitha In honor of the 10th anniversary of the canonization of St. Kateri Tek akwitha, Lily of the Mohawks, on October 21, the Knights of Columbus and the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions hosted a special Mass at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C. Bishop Chad W. Zielinski of New Ulm, Minnesota, and chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on Native American Affairs , was the principal celebrant, while Father Maurice Henry Sands, executive director of the Black and Indian Mission Office, delivered the homily. “I think it’s very appropriate that we are offering this special Mass to honor St. Kateri today...

Echo commentary published in The Catholic News  Herald : This essay reminds me about how the life of the Catholic social activist Dorothy Day (1897-1980) seemed to emulate the meaning of this Scripture .   Day was a champion of the poor and the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. The one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.” (Lk 9:48) God’s ways are not our ways. Whether we see this in the prophets like Isaiah or in Jesus’ words and actions, it comes to us as both helpful and a challenge. It is helpful because it calls on us to discern the trends and movements of our society and of our world. The challenge is one of conversion – to discern properly what is good and just, and then to act, putting Jesus’ values and actions first in the way that we live our lives. So often in the Gospels, we see the disciples arguing about who is the greatest. This happens in our culture and in most cultures and historical periods. Like young children, we li...