Much of the Catholic Church in the United States has grown through the faith of thousands of immigrants who came here over the centuries. Many of them arrived in the second half of the nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth century.
Among them was Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, who came from Italy at the direction of Pope Leo XIII. Although she had wished to become a missionary to China, she readily embraced the call to serve her fellow immigrants, beginning in New York City. Over thirty-five years, she oversaw the establishment of sixty-seven institutions to care for those who were poor, outcast, sick, orphaned, or in need of education. Mother Cabrini bore many of the same hardships as her fellow immigrants. Like many of them, she embraced her new homeland and became a citizen—and its first canonized saint.
May we be as welcoming as our God to those who are strangers or in need during this holy season—and beyond.
—adapted from the book Advent with the Saints: Daily Reflections
by Greg Friedman, OFM
