# Seeking God, finding God: The feast of St. Katharine Drexel
*2009-03-02*

> Bill Young reflects on the Lord's Prayer and the life of St. Katharine Drexel, exploring the connection between praying for daily bread and enabling others to earn their own.

## The Lord's Prayer and Daily Bread

Today is Tuesday of the first week of Lent, and we are reflecting on Matthew 6:11: 'Give us today our daily bread.' This simple request in the Lord's Prayer is a reminder of our total dependence on God for our sustenance.

## The Legacy of St. Katharine Drexel

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. Katharine Drexel. Born into a wealthy Philadelphia family in 1858, she dedicated her entire life and her fortune to educating African and Native Americans. She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to serve these populations and established schools across the country. There is a well-known saying that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. This philosophy defined St. Katharine's mission.

## Empowerment and Self-Respect

For St. Katharine Drexel, the Lord's Prayer was not just about asking for our own daily bread, but about preparing and enabling others to earn their own. While we all owe our substance to God, we also need the opportunity to earn that substance in ways that foster our self-respect. We cannot truly pray for our own bread without respecting the needs of others to work toward earning theirs.

## Putting Faith into Practice

Each time you say the Lord's Prayer, ask yourself how you are enabling others to earn their bread. Today is a good day to examine the charities you support with your income. Consider whether they enable people to become educated, self-sufficient, and productive citizens, and see if there is additional support you can provide to make that happen.

*True charity involves not only providing for immediate needs but empowering others to achieve self-sufficiency and dignity.*