Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
Mt 11: 28-30
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Rest Easy in Jesus
Reading about the life of St. Kateri raises doubt that “my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” But I’m too quick to equate the hard challenges of life with the yoke of Jesus. St. Kateri lived in a time of violent displacement for Native Americans and her life would have been difficult with or without Christ. It was her faith, her trust that Jesus was with her even in the worst things, that revealed the beauty in life and made her a saintly inspiration to others, including the French Jesuits who knew her.
If we don’t take the yoke of faith Jesus offers, we will put on others: yokes of power, anger, wealth, fear, victimhood–all ultimately focused on ourselves. Those can become heavy yokes.
All who labor and are burdened, let’s pray today to joyfully rest in the easy yoke of Jesus.
—Allain Andry is the Charlotte regional coordinator for Contemplative Leaders in Action, an Ignatian spirituality and leadership program for young adults that is a program of the Office of Ignatian Spirituality. He is also a spiritual director at St. Peter Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC, the Jesuit parish in the Diocese of Charlotte.
Prayer
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
—St. Augustine