October 2025 Season

 

I am Stephanie Morris, formerly the Director of Archives of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and an Associate of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (ASBS). Sister Annette Marie O’Donnell had begun this blog as “Companions on the Journey” but has retired from actively writing. St. Katharine said we are all typewriters in the hands of the Lord; it has been a pleasure and privilege for me to serve as St. Katharine’s typist for many years.

We start the month with the 25^th anniversary of St. Katharine’s canonization and the feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Therese visited Pope Leo XIII to request permission to enter the Carmelites at fifteen. He said if God wants it, it will happen. This was during the same year when Katharine Drexel asked Pope Leo XIII for missionaries for the United States and he suggested that she become a missionary herself.

October is the beginning of the fall season. Schools are in full swing. Trees are changing colors; the squirrels are gathering and burying nuts and the deer are showing their winter coats. Saint Katharine’s father, Francis A. Drexel, called the beauty of nature “God’s picture gallery.” Do you see the beauty of God’s creation in the changing scenery?

We also celebrate the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. Do you think of your guardian angel? When I merge into traffic, I say “thank you.”  I don’t specify who I am thanking but my guardian angel is my first choice.

We also celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Saint Katharine and Louise Drexel Morrell were secular Franciscans. Saint Katharine requested the privilege of wearing the Franciscan cord with its indulgences. Louise was buried wearing her Franciscan habit.

The month of October is the month of the Holy Rosary. Saint Katharine called the Rosary the “symbol of love.” If you look at all of the mysteries, you see the life of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Mother’s role in our salvation. May your meditation on each mystery deepen your faith, hope and love.

May appreciating the beauty of God’s creation bring you to a re-creation of your sense of beauty and of God’s graces.

Stephanie Morris, Ph.D., ASBS

September 23, 2025

Saint Katharine and Our Pilgrimage of Hope

I am Stephanie Morris, formerly the Director of Archives of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and an Associate of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (ASBS). Sister Annette Marie O’Donnell had begun this blog as “Companions on the Journey” but has retired from actively writing. St. Katharine said we are all typewriters in the hands of the Lord; it has been a pleasure and privilege for me to serve as St. Katharine’s typist for many years.

In this Jubilee Year of 2025, we are invited to be Pilgrims of Hope. Pilgrims are people on a journey to a sacred place. For us, our journey leads us to eternity, to union with God.

How can we define “a sacred place”? Many shrines or cathedrals have been designated “sacred places” for the Jubilee Year. But anywhere God is, is sacred. After receiving God in Holy Communion, you are united uniquely with God, you are in a sacred place. Yes, we could travel to Rome or to a closer shrine, but we can focus on the presence of God within us anywhere.

In 1915, Saint Katharine noted that “God has helped all who hope in Him.  God does not expect us to be absolutely perfect. It is a great thing to have faults if you only make use of them, God expects us to try day after day in spite of failure.” No one likes to admit to have faults but trying to overcome weaknesses or faults can make us a better, more Christ-like person. Actors with stage fright discipline themselves to quiet the fears and give the best performance they can. We don’t expect baseball pitchers to pitch a perfect game EVERY time but we can hope that they try to do so. We can also try to be the best we can each day.

On October 1, 1918, Saint Katharine wrote: “Be saints for God’s greater glory, every one of you. You are called to it.” How can we become saints? By doing what God asks of us, to be the best Christ-like person we can be. Jesus is God which makes Him a saint and then some, and He “did all things well, little ordinary actions well done.” We can do ordinary actions well; big things may never be asked of us.

Monsignor Alexander Palmieri, Vice-Postulator for the Cause of Saint Katharine, asked: “What makes an ordinary woman of man like us a saint?” Internal focus. “From Mary, Queen of Saints, to the most recently canonized Servant of God – every Saint in his or her life always directed the attention of people to one other than themselves… to Jesus Christ.”

So, there is hope for us, to strive to be the saint God created us to be. Saint Katharine reassures us that “God does not require of us a perfect work,” but that we keep trying. We can honor the anniversary of Saint Katharine’s canonization by doing ordinary things well as we strive to become saints.

Stephanie Morris, Ph.D., A.S.B.S.

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