Pray for us...

Saint Kateri statue outside the church

As you can imagine Little Flower Parish and De La Salle Blackfeet School have lots of religious images around their buildings, especially of Saint John Baptist de la Salle.  However the most common are those of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha and the Divine Mercy...they are everywhere and it's easy to understand why.

Statue of Divine Mercy outside the church

Our Lady of Guadalupe is very important to Mexicans but she is also a powerful symbol for anyone who feels oppressed or marginalized by the rich and powerful.  On December 9, 1531 Mary appeared to a peasant native named Juan Diego in modern day Mexico City and encouraged him to go to the bishop to ask for a church to be built on that site.  The bishop did not believe Juan Diego but Mary told him to go back a third time and when he arrived, he had a number of roses fall out of his hands and the image of Our Lady was on his tilma.  She is a symbol of the poor as she asked a peasant, an Indian to carry out her will, not a rich or powerful person.  God, as Mary said in Luke’s gospel, has lifted up the lowly and sent the rich away empty.  The bishop did build a shrine to Mary in what is now Mexico City and I believe it is the second most visited shrine in the world (next to Saint Peter’s in Rome).  

Our Lady of Guadulpe

Saint Kateri is significant because she is the first Native American saint (she was just canonized last fall by Pope Benedict XVI).  She died very young but she embraced Christ and the Catholic faith despite her family’s misgivings.  She is also called the Lily of the Mohawks (she was from what is now upstate New York).  As we were preparing for our trip this winter I asked the students to look to Saint Kateri as our patron saint on this trip.  I gave them all a Saint Kateri medal and prayer card and we invoked her intercession at the end of all of our meetings (in addition to Saint John Baptist de la Salle).

May Our Lady of Guadalupe, Saint Kateri, Saint John Baptist de la Salle, and Jesus Christ in His Divine Mercy continue intercede for the people of De La Salle Blackfeet School and bring them all closer to God the Father.