It is difficult not to see ourselves when we look at a mirror. Some get satisfaction at what they see, take delight in their beauty and lose sight of the mirror that brought them their delight.
St Kateri Tekakwitha lost her parents and brother to smallpox. She was left with poor eyesight and a face with pox marks. She was the daughter of a Mohawk warrior in upper New York.
She learned of God from the Jesuit missionaries, lived in a Christian community in what is now Quebec. Devoting herself to good works and intense prayer and mortification, she died at a young age of 24 and was canonized in 2012.
Fifteen minutes after her death, her pock marked face grew clear and luminous.
As the mirror reflects what is beautiful we can get so caught up with what we see and do. Same as our prayer life. We pray to God but we can get all caught up with the number of prayers, where and how we pray, the number of novenas, rosaries, sacrifices that we lose track of God whom we are to worship, adore and contemplate. We see our own efforts and lose focus on God.
Do we pray because of the joy we get or do we pray because our love and only love is God? Do we love the consolation of God or that God is the God of consolation?
Our beauty will be forever luminous once we come face to face with God.
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