Glowing in the Warmth of a Sacred Fire

The Story of St. Kateri Tekakwitha

By: Ann Bottenhorn

In the frigid predawn darkness, a lone figure stood immobile in the snow: a young woman, oblivious to the cold, oblivious to the hour, alone with her God. She was just twenty-four years old, and her fragile health was failing. But her health had never been good, so why mind that now? What were these present sufferings compared to the life that awaited her?

All was preparation, training. All was taking her where she longed to go— to heaven, the home where she would dwell eternally with God, whose Son had suffered so terribly for her.

“All” was two-and-a-half years of voluntary penances and “mortifica­tions of the flesh.” Long, cold hours in prayer. Long, tedious hours tend­ing the sick and elderly. A solemn promise of perpetual virginity and the hardship that followed. This young woman considered it a joy, for such things tested her faith and developed the steadfastness she was sure would make her perfect and complete, lack­ing in nothing.

She had almost no one to teach her or guide her in her own language. It seems impossible that a saint should arise from such circumstances! And yet what is impossible for men is pos­sible for God.

The Seed Grows…