Another Canadian Blessed, ignored by the American sites so the formatting is a little different! . This one would have been a contemporary of Bishop de Laval, and is nicknamed '"co-foundress of the Catholic Church in Canada." I also liked the color of they used to highlight certain sections, and have incorporated it here!
Marie Catherine of Saint Augustine (Catherine of Longpré) was an Augustinian Hospitaller Sister of the Mercy of Jesus of the "Hotel Dieu" in Quebec City.
Born on May 3, 1632, at St. Sauveur le Vicomte in Normandy, France.
Barely three and a half years of age, the child already burned with an ardent desire to accomplish the Will of God in all things. She did nothing without asking permission from a picture of the Blessed Virgin and she reveals in her journal that this Good Mother answered her prayers, and that she played with the Child Jesus.
On October 24, 1646, she took the religious habit, at the same time as her grandmother who, having been widowed, went to join her in the monastery. She took the name of Sister Marie Catherine of St. Augustine. Mesmerized by the same accounts that had inspired Blessed Francois de Laval, She signs her engagement to go to Canada on April 12, 1648. The crossing to the new world is dangerous and long, it lasted 3 months. Illness causes many deaths. Sister Marie Catherine herself falls ill to the incurable disease. She was going to die;However, God wants her in Canada, He watches over her and the Blessed Virgin cures her.
Having arrived in Quebec, Sister Marie Catherine courageously goes to work, sharing the hard work of the forefathers and learning the Indian languages and coping with the elements.
Because of her grace and charity, our young hospitaller nun swiftly wins the friendship of the Indians.
Bishop de Laval already understands the holy treasure that the "Hotel Dieu" has in the person of Sister Marie Catherine; he consults her often and recommends to her prayers the most important affairs of the diocese. Unfortunately her life was cut short, and she dies at the age of 36 in 1668, on May 8th
Reflections on Readings:
There’s a story by a French author named Emanuel
Scmidt that explores the presence of the divine in human history. He tries to
look at it from God’s perspective: In the early days after all of creation had
been set in motion, there was still so much of himself that God wanted to give
to creation, but this was a sacred, and holy part of himself that he knew was
so beautiful, that he wanted it to be kept secret. He wanted humanity to have
to seek and to discover this in order to understand it’s true beauty. But where
to put it? God sought high and low. It didn’t make sense for him to put it in a
cave that no one would ever visit, or a high mountain that only few would ever
climb. He wanted this to be a secret, but to be accessible to all. After a few
days of reflections, and of searching, God decide, I will place it in one of
the most unexplored, yet easily accessible places in the world: The heart of
the human being. That way, when humanity is ready to uncover this secret, it
will be there for them to uncover.
With
this statement, Schmit is really saying that the potential for a religious
experience lies in ALL PEOPLE. Perhaps, without even knowing it, some of our
brothers and sisters in the world are already experiencing God, but are
uncomfortable with this traditional ‘label of God’. This is all too often one
of the many challenges to evangelization that we face today, which is very
different from the challenges Paul and the Early Christians faced. We’ve seen that some of the Gentiles were more
receptive to the Good news than many of their own Jewish brethren, but it was
still an uphill battle for this early Christian community. First off, as we
know, the Gentiles already had Gods. Paul wasn’t going to just be able to waltz
in there and say ‘forget your statues, I have something way more interesting
for you’ and expect that to work. As we’ve experience in the history of the
world, you don’t just throw away centuries of tradition just because some guy
has a few compelling arguments or some neat tricks up his sleeves. Another challenge faced was quite simply that
the Greeks and Romans did not believe in the resurrection of the Body. So for
Paul to come along and speak of Jesus’ resurrection, this was something people
would have scoffed at.
Thankfully, this early community seemed to be
rather gifted at communicating the Gospel. This came to me as a bit of a
surprise to tell you the truth. Paul usually comes off as someone that can be a
bit standoffish, and I’ll say it, a bit of a jerk…as much as having so much
confidence that you’re right and the other guy is wrong can make one a jerk! But
as we see in today’s first reading, Paul was actually much more complex,
subtle, and clever than that. In speaking to the Greeks, he recognizes their ‘spirituality’
their propensity for faith and builds up on it ( what you worship as unknown, I
proclaim to you). He’s not intimidated by their unbelief in the resurrection of
the body, instead he focuses on the faith they have in Common, (i.e. this belief that it is God who created
the world). So rather than seeing them
as Pagans, he sees them as seekers of God’s divine presence, people groping in
the darkness of the world to try to understand God. Furthermore, at least in
this passage, this suggestion that there can only be one truth, and all who
reject are condemned, is not present. It’s as if Paul understood this is not
the time to simplify our complex faith to a mere act of judgement. And he does
in verse 31 mention the judgement of the world, but this is not accusatory, but
simply an invitation to contemplate the possibility of the existence of a God
that interacts with us, not a God who is unknown and distant, but one who is
close…in fact, he’s so close, he lies within all of us.
This
is a lot to process, and I’m sure that
the early Greek Converts were not convinced of the entire doctrine of the
Church after one single speech. Jesus himself acknowledged that it was all too
much. This to me has been the most
moving theme of the week: Christ carries the message to us, but he knows we can’t
wrap our heads around it so quickly, and that in fact, we too would be groping
around in the dark for a few centuries until we would fully comprehend the
depth of the truth he was proposing to us. THIS IS WHY the Spirit must be sent among us.
Christ h as shown us the way, but the Spirit will be our Guide. And while our
eyes are often set on the road ahead, the spirit will be there to remind us
that the journey is also to that road within, the one that leads us to that
seed that God planted so long ago in our hearts.
| Acts 17: 15, 22 - 34 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15 | Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 22 | So Paul, standing in the middle of the Are-op'agus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 23 | For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, `To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 24 | The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 25 | nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 26 | And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 27 | that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 28 | for `In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your poets have said, `For we are indeed his offspring.' | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 29 | Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 30 | The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 31 | because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 32 | Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, "We will hear you again about this." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 33 | So Paul went out from among them. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 34 | But some men joined him and believed, among them Dionys'ius the Are-op'agite and a woman named Dam'aris and others with them
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