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Saints aren’t people who are in control. When faced with suffering, St. Vincent of Saragossa and Mother Seton responded by letting themselves be loved. They gave everything over to the One who loves us, who wants us unconditionally. And the fruit of such love is Ecstasy.
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St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Peter Canisius witnessed to the faith through their charitable actions and works of kindness—a strength they received from relying on the loving heart of Mary.
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St. John of the Cross and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton teach us how to empty ourselves before God as we journey towards Christmas. Elizabeth’s barren womb, John the Baptist’s desert cry, the shepherd’s confusion, and Mary and Joseph in that cold stable—all of them point to the truth of Advent: the whole, poor world is waiting for Jesus to come.
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As Americans, we instinctively resist any sort of absolute authority. How fitting then that it was by letting herself be ruled by Christ, the King, that Elizabeth Ann Seton—the first American-born saint—showed her fellow Americans where liberation must begin: in Him.
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Our Lord, the supernatural architect of our lives, builds with blocks of grace.
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What binds Saints Simon and Jude together, aside from their common feast day, is the zealous abandonment embraced by every saint, including Elizabeth Ann Seton, who recognized that each of us is an “impossible cause” searching for God’s mercy.
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In situations of explosive uncertainty, we need to cling to the single thread that is God.
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St. Vincent de Paul and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton weren’t holy card or fairy-tale figures, but flesh and blood human beings who struggled with earthly dreams. Their lives suggest a way forward for all of us who suffer the tension between a comfortable life in the world and a life thrown open to Christ.
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In Padre Pio and Elizabeth Ann Seton, we see the diversity of the saints, and how the drama of the human soul is expressed in many different ways. But what unites them is their “yes” to God, which unlocks the power of a true disciple of Christ.
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God calls forth new saints in every place and in every age. He needs only what he needed at Nazareth, when Mary first said “yes”—a willing heart. For the United States, he found such a heart in Elizabeth Ann Seton.
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Even in seasons of loneliness, we were made to live with and for others. God provides the means to serve him through a community.
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The example of Peter during the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor warns us against taking easy roads to holiness, a lesson that Mother Seton embodied in her life. She always stayed on the narrow path, walking alongside Christ, all the way to heaven.
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Devotion to the Sacred Heart teaches us that the way of the saints is not about an abstract ideal or rules for life, but about the unfathomable love of God, who we embrace—blood, sweat and all.
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Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we can rest in the community of love that is the Triune God. Mother Seton shows us how to immerse ourselves in the life of the Blessed Trinity as God’s beloved sons and daughters.
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Meditating on the trials and struggles of St. Louise de Marillac and Mother Seton gives us hope in these uncertain times. We learn that holiness is found not in flashes of glory, but in the messy spaces where one watches, prays, and waits.
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This Easter, as our churches stand empty, let us not despair. With St. Mary Magdalene, let us accept Christ’s ‘Do not touch me’ with the certainty that His words give us a new mission, and a new way to be with Him, just as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton met the hardships of her life with renewed faith and strength.
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Mother Seton didn’t walk the Way of the Cross alone during her life, but rather she surrounded herself with a community, with whom she journeyed in mutual dependence, step by step, along the path Christ set for them. During Lent, together with the Church, we are all invited to do the same.
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When my fears threaten to overtake me, I look for courage to the lives of the saints, who embraced the certainty of new life in the risen Christ, who lives among us still in the Eucharist, and in the Church.
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As we enter the darkness of the Holy Triduum, looking with hope to Easter, the example of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton shows us how to yield our lives to Christ, the Crucified One, that we might live.