Seekers and Friends · Week 2 · Grades 6–8
Guided Notes: St. Kateri Tekakwitha
- Name
- Date
- Class
Follow along as your teacher presents. Fill in each section when its slide is on the screen.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha
A world under pressure
Tekakwitha was born in 1656 at blank 1, a Mohawk village in what is now New York State. The Mohawk are one of the nations of the Haudenosaunee, also called the Iroquois Confederacy.
Her father was a Mohawk chief. Her mother was an Algonquin Christian who had been brought into the village and adopted.
It was a hard century for her people. European traders and settlers brought new diseases and new wars. When Tekakwitha was about four, blank 2 killed her parents and her brother.
She survived with a scarred face and weak blank 3. Her uncle, also a chief, raised her.
Kateri’s life and legacy
Write what happened at each point.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1656 | Write your answer |
| c. 1660 | Write your answer |
| 1676 | Write your answer |
| 1677 | Write your answer |
| 1679 | Write your answer |
| 1680 | Write your answer |
| 1980 | Write your answer |
| 2012 | Write your answer |
Check the facts
What caused the scars on Tekakwitha’s face and her weak eyesight? Circle one.
- A A fire that burned her village
- B A fall during a long journey
- C A smallpox epidemic in her childhood
- D A wound from a battle nearby
Why is that the right answer?
Choices that cost her
As she grew up, Tekakwitha’s blank 4 expected her to marry. She refused, which was an unusual choice in her community.
Jesuit missionaries, priests of the Society of Jesus, were living among the blank 5. She asked one of them, Father Jacques de Lamberville, to teach her. He baptized her at Easter in 1676.
Some villagers mocked and threatened her for her new faith. In 1677 she left for the blank 6 of St. Francis Xavier near Montreal, where many Native Christians lived.
There she prayed for hours and cared for the sick and elderly. She also fasted and did hard blank 7, and a priest urged her to be gentler with herself.
Why did she go?
What best explains why Kateri left her village in 1677? Circle one.
- A She wanted to practice her faith freely
- B Her uncle sent her away to be married
- C The French army ordered her to move
- D She hoped to find a doctor for her eyes
Why is that the right answer?
Room for God?
Kateri protected time for silence and prayer. Sort each habit: does it make room for God, or crowd God out? Check one box for each.
| Item | Makes room | Crowds God out |
|---|---|---|
| Leaving your phone outside your bedroom at night | ||
| Checking notifications the second you wake up | ||
| Walking outside without earbuds once a week | ||
| Scrolling through every free minute of the day | ||
| Praying before you open any app in the morning | ||
| Letting autoplay pick the next three hours | ||
| Setting a timer to end a gaming session |
Virtues Kateri lived
For each virtue, write how the saint lived it.
| Virtue | How the saint lived it |
|---|---|
| Fortitude | Write your answer |
| Piety | Write your answer |
| Charity | Write your answer |
What it means
What does Kateri’s canonization in 2012 mean? Circle one.
- A Catholics now worship her alongside God
- B The Church declares she is in heaven with God
- C She never struggled or made any mistakes
- D Only Native American Catholics may honor her
Why is that the right answer?
Think, pair, share
Kateri held on to her faith when people around her mocked it. When is it hardest to be yourself, at school or online? What would courage like hers look like in a group chat or a comment section?
Think: my idea before we talk
Sentence starters: “It is hardest to be myself when ...”“Online, courage might look like ...”“Kateri’s choice to leave makes me think ...”
Pair: something my partner said
Let us pray
Lord God, you called Kateri to know you in silence and in your creation.
Give us courage to follow you when it is hard.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us.
Amen.
My own prayer or intention:
Well done!
Kateri is remembered as the Lily of the Mohawks and a patron of ecology. Her feast day in the United States is July 14.
One thing I learned today:
One question I still have:
How could the example of St. Kateri Tekakwitha shape the way I live, online and offline?
Challenge: Take a 15-minute walk outside this week with no phone and no earbuds. Afterward, write down one thing you noticed and one thing you prayed.