ST. KATERI TEKAKWITHA

Today is the Feast of St. Kateri Tekakwitha! (in Canada).


To mark St. Kateri's feast day I am sharing a poem I wrote inspired while on Indigenous land.  It captures a dark season in my life.  But one I got through.  I'm sharing it today on St. Kateri's feast because I want you to know that if you are going through a really dark time now, or if you have gone through one, do not lose hope.  Things will get better.  God will use those dark times to help you help others like he did St. Kateri.  Like he did me.  Hang on.  Better yet-- let GOD hang on to YOU.

 

I wrote Depot Harbour in my twenties when I was struggling with big problems at work, home, and with my boyfriend.  I felt abandoned by everyone, overwhelmed, haunted by some bad decisions, and basically at the end of my rope.  I didn't know what to do?  

 

Fortunately, I had an angel Aboriginal friend who sensed this and took me to what she called her "secret spot" on Parry Island.  It was early summer.  Sunny, warm.  I remember we could only go so far by jeep and then we had to walk in the rest of the way.  When we finally got to my friend's secret spot it took my breath away!  Then it filled me with peace.  

 

There was this amazing beautiful powdery white sand beach and shallow harbour.  There were pine trees that seemed to wrap their arms around the place.  We just sat and talked and swam until the sun went down (I'm pretty sure we had wine coolers!).  It all helped. Nature, the wine coolers. My friend.  It was a very spiritual day.

 

I wasn't Catholic then so I didn't know about saints and God wasn't on my radar at the time.  But I know God was THERE that day with me-- in my friend, in nature, in the poem I would write later.  A poem inspired by the ruins of an old church on the island and remnants of past parties.  God was with me all through that difficult time in my life. Thanks be to God. 


Now I wonder if St. Kateri was there too! 


Depot Harbour Poem

Can words describe this sacred place?  

So much history  

So much sadness  

So much destruction  

So much madness  

Beauty clings in careless waste  

Time rests briefly  

Despite the haste  

The church is gone  

Only steps are left  

The song is wrong  

The words bereft  

The voice of hope is growing faint  

Ghosts of elders cry in vain  

Ancient souls woven in this land  

Watch the powerful  

Watch the damned  

A dream can survive  

Only so many blows  

The most determined heart  

Will eventually let go  

The selfish and ignorant  

Will have their way  

Destroying everything in the way  

The birds and water, sky and sand  

Struggle for life in a dying land  

Another time beyond my reach-- 

I felt it's hand... it touched me.


(Cb Parry Island, June 1990).

 

St. Kateri Pray for us!

 

  Attributes:  Lily; Turtle; Rosary

 

 



 




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