Living for the Unseen Bridegroom
Moved by the Holy Spirit, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha consecrated her virginity to Christ. The strangeness of this new way of life — fidelity to an unseen Bridegroom — flew in the face of her native culture. The Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary was always in Kateri's hand. She spent long hours in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.
Kateri sought solitude with the Bridegroom Christ in the forest she loved and knew well. She fashioned small crosses of wood and set them up in the woods, making little shrines to the saving Cross of her Beloved Jesus. Like the desert mothers of old, graced with compunction, she wept bitterly over her sins and over the sins of her people.
Transfiguring Grace
It was by the transfiguring grace of Christ that Kateri, disfigured by smallpox and nearly blind, became beautiful and fragrant. Saint Paul speaks of being “the aroma of Christ to God” (2 Cor 2:15). Kateri was the pure fragrance of holiness in the midst of her own people. In death, Kateri’s scarred face became beautiful, causing her spiritual father to cry out in astonishment. Christ is faithful to his promises and the saints are witnesses to that fidelity.
His Excellency, Bishop Edward J. Slattery of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma has given
Father Mark a special mandate to live under the Rule of Saint Benedict in adoration before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, offering thanksgiving, intercession, and reparation for all his
brothers in Holy Orders. In this way, Father is preparing the foundation of the new Diocesan Benedictine Monastery of Our Lady of the Cenacle. Father Mark is available to the
priests and deacons of the Diocese for spiritual and sacramental support in their pursuit of holiness. He is also charged with the spiritual formation of women who desire to dedicate themselves to spiritual motherhood in favour of priests.
Kateri's life is such an inspiration, and what you write, Father, about transfiguring grace - as witnessed in both her life and death, affirms the goodness of God in and around us all.