Novena Blessed
Kateri Tekakwitha

First Day - Union with God

"The Prayer" was the Mohawk name for religion; "praying Indian" the name for a Christian Indian. All was open in an Indian Village, and the priests had to pray publicly. Their converts assembled in the chapel for prayer. Prayer is union with God, and what else is religion? When Tekakwitha saw the missionaries at prayer in her uncle's cabin, the sight irresistibly attracted her. It helped to unite her with God, until her life became an act of prayer, of union with God.

Second Day - Grace - A Child of God

Grace is the thought that comes with mention of Tekakwitha. Unbaptized until her twentieth year, through no fault of her parents or her own, she still was a child of grace, which means that she grew up in God's favor. She did all the good she could to retain God's favor. Kateri was a child of grace. May we, like Our Lord, grow in wisdom, age and grace!

Third Day - Holiness - Heroic Virtues

Holy are those whose faith, hope and charity are extraordinary, who cultivate the virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, and the good habits which grow out of these: prayer, humility, obedience, patience, resignation, penance. In all these Tekakwitha excelled.

Fourth Day - Names of Kateri

All her names inspire admiration and affection. Kateri, Iroquois form of Catherine, her baptismal name, means pure, and she was purity itself. "Lily of the Mohawks." Lily is the emblem of purity. She is known as "The Good Catherine", because so many have received favors by invoking her. St. Genevieve had saved Paris of Old France; Kateri was named Genevieve of New France after she had saved the mission and the missionaries. Tekakwitha means "putting things in order", or "moving before her". She put order among her people, and moves all by answers to prayer. This flower of our American wildwood is already Blessed; may she soon be named Saint!

Fifth Day - Innocence

One who is innocent will harm nobody, nor see evil in others; will not shock, scandalize or grieve them, but give them edification, pleasure, and win their admiration and affection. She remained innocent: thought no evil, harbored no suspicion, entertained no ill-will, as if she were not of this world.

Sixth Day - The Blessed Sacrament

Out from her Caughnawaga cabin at dawn and straight-way to chapel to adore the Blessed Sacrament, hear every Mass; back again during the day to hear instruction, and at night for a last prayer or Benediction. Her neighbors sought to be near her when she received Holy Communion, as her manner excited devotion.

Seventh Day - The Cross

Tekakwitha loved the image of the Cross. During the hunt she made an oratory in the woods by cutting a cross in the bark of a tree. The first picture of her, the only portrait of an Indian of that long ago, represents her venerating a small cross. It moved her to do penance in order to imitate Our Lord in His Passion.

Eighth Day - The Blessed Virgin

The faithful Indian convert women would tell her how affectionate her mother was. That would help her to know how affectionate the Mother of Christ was and still is in heaven. The rosary and the Litany were favorite prayers of hers. More than once she walked or canoed ten miles from her Mohawk village, Caughnawaga, to Tionontoguen, where the statue of Our Lady was venerated under the title, Virgin Most Faithful.

Ninth Day - Invocation

Although we are not yet permitted to express publicly the belief that Tekakwitha is among the Saints in Heaven, it is our private belief and we pray that the Church may soon declare it. While awaiting this, we invoke her aid. Wonderful are the favors attributed to her. While praying for our own needs, we should pray for her canonization.