These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

TUESDAY, WEEK XV, ORDINARY TIME—Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin

Responsorial Psalm

R. God upholds his city for ever. 
Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised 
in the city of our God.
 His holy mountain, fairest of heights, 
is the joy of all the earth. 
R. God upholds his city for ever. (Psalm 48)

God’s holy mountain . . . mountains have always captured the religious imagination. Humanity has always chosen mountains to build shrines and temples and houses of prayer. Native Americans as well knew the sacredness of mountains. Today we celebrate Saint Kateri Tekawitha, the first Native American to be canonized. She is known as the “Lily of the Mohawks.”

The picture today is the Mountain of the Six Grandfathers in the Black Hills of South Dakota which is sacred to the Lakota people. The land was stolen from Native Americans when gold was discovered there, and it was later turned into Mount Rushmore.