April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
Albany native who knew her to speak on Drexel
They will also learn a lot from an Albany native who knew the saint-to-be and who will speak at the parish next week.
To help local Catholics learn more about Mother Katharine's life and work, St. Bonaventure is hosting Sister Marguerite Lewis, a member of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the order founded by Mother Katharine.
Inspired
Sister Marguerite, an Albany native who attended St. James Institute and the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany, told The Evangelist this week that "I desired to live my life as a vowed religious and to serve the black people of the United States. I inquired and discovered the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and Mother Katharine."As a novice, Sister Marguerite saw and touched Mother Katharine, who at that time was elderly and infirm.
"She had a tremendous desire to practice poverty," Sister Marguerite said. Mother Katharine would write with pencils that were mere stubs that others would have thrown out. She mended her own shoes until they could be mended no more and darned her own stockings.
Mother Katharine, Sister Marguerite said, did not want any kind of preferential treatment. "When her nurse brought her strawberries and cream, she would ask, 'Did all of the sisters have strawberries and cream?' If the answer was no, she wouldn't have them either," Sister Marguerite said.
From affluence
Mother Katharine grew up in an affluent home where the seeds of faith were planted. She was one of three daughters of wealthy railroad entrepreneurs and philanthropists Francis Anthony and Emma Bouvier Drexel.At an early age, Katharine and her two sisters were taught to use their wealth to benefit others. Several days each week, her parents opened their home to the poor. As the girls grew up, they assisted their parents in distributing clothes, food and rent money to those in need.
The family also prayed together in the chapel in their home, and saying the Rosary was a part of each day. When their father came home from work, he spent 30 minutes in prayer.
Care for poor
When the girls grew up, one sister founded a trade school for orphans while Katharine founded a liberal arts and vocational school for poor blacks. Mother Katharine's order has continued to assist Native Americans and Blacks through parishes, schools and social outreach.As a member of the order, Sister Marguerite has had the opportunity to minister to Blacks in Philadelphia, Harlem, New Orleans, Indiana and Virginia, and to Native Americans in Arizona in California.
One of the major tenets of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament is to empower people. "Whenever possible, we serve in supportive positions rather than as direct leaders," Sister Marguerite said. "We build up and let go."
Many of the institutions founded by Mother Katharine are now run by the people they serve, including Xavier University in New Orleans, the first university for Blacks in America. Sister Marguerite said the order met with success by involving the people they serve.
"We listen to what the people are asking us and pay attention to the culture," she said.
Ahead of time
While using her wealth to benefit the poor and living in voluntary poverty were counter-cultural for her era, Mother Katharine was also ahead of her time in other ways."She predated the nation's civil rights struggle by 70 years," Sister Marguerite said. "She extended a preferential love and saw the face of Jesus in those oppressed by racism. In her day, people suffered great injustices as a result of prejudices."
The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament are looking forward to October when Mother Katharine is made a saint. "There's tremendous excitement," Sister Marguerite said.
(Sister Marguerite Lewis will speak at St. Bonaventure's Church in Speigletown on April 25 at 7 p.m. For more information, call 235-0337.)
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