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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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St. Elizabeth of Hungary and Mother Seton both looked at life with wonder and a willingness to be surprised. These saints knew that nothing happens that is not part of God’s plan, and that His plan is utterly good.
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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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The courage and boldness of St. Therese and Mother Seton, especially in the face of great suffering and agony, flowed from their willingness to throw themselves completely into the arms of the Father.
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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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The lives of St. Hildegard of Bingen and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton show us the paradox of surrender—how fragile human vessels can become sudden and hopeful expressions of God’s own power.
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Elizabeth Ann Seton and Frederic Ozanam grounded their lives in the true freedom of Christ, who took what appeared on the outside to be lives of tragic brevity, and brought forth from them great works of charity that continue to flourish today.
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In their lives, Mother Teresa and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton experienced darkness that opened up the possibility of serving others in new ways, to bring the light of heaven to those in darkness on earth.
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Celebrating Mother Seton’s birthday on August 28th reminds us that 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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Mother Seton and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (also known as Edith Stein) witnessed to a way of living and dying modeled on the ultimate sacrifice Christ accomplished on the Cross.
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Like many other great religious founders, St. Dominic and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton had no master plan. They simply opened their hearts to the certainty of Christ’s call, revealing itself through the signs of their times.
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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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The great theologian St. Bonaventure understood, as Mother Seton did, that Christian faith is grounded in absolute trust in God’s love for us. And that it is the miraculous abundance of this assurance that spills over into our love of others.
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God does not call us to a life void of joy and light. God is found both when we pray and play. He makes His presence known in the daily tasks of ordinary life—something that both St. Josemaría Escrivá and Mother Seton understood.
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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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When we experience the anguish of violence in the world we can cry out to the Lord with Elizabeth and Ephrem, and let Him tenderly heal us.
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Saint Joan of Arc and Mother Seton are two fiery souls with one shared devotion to Christ. Both unwilling to back down, they each offered all “in the ambit of that one ‘everlasting’ sign, the cross.”
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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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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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When faced with adversity, saints don’t aim for heroism. They have only one goal: to follow and be transformed by Jesus. This is the radical way of holiness as gift that we see in the lives of Elizabeth Seton and the Nagasaki mystic Takashi Nagai.
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From our modern perspective, how St. Catherine of Siena and Mother Seton went to extremes for the sake of the Eucharist can seem absurd. But their devotion to the real presence of Christ was as essential to their lives as breathing is to ours.
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As the dawn of Easter approaches, let us follow Jesus, along with Benedict Joseph Labre and Elizabeth Ann Seton, as they enter into the freedom of the Resurrection.
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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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As we journey through the darkness of the Holy Triduum, to rise into the light of Easter, the example of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton shows us how to yield our lives to Christ, the Crucified One, that we might live.
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The lives of the saints, including Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, remind us that the sacrifices they made — and that we make — all point to the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for us. We are healed through the sacrifice already made by Jesus on the Cross.
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In their lives, Servant of God Thea Bowman and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton were content to do their “little bit,” to plant the seeds of God’s love that would bring forth a bountiful harvest in heaven and on earth.
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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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It’s no wonder that Mother Seton and Fra Angelico experienced God so intensely in Italy, a land of splendid Catholic art and liturgy. They weren’t satisfied with a God who was merely transcendent, but yearned for the One who gave His life for the world and became our living bread.
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As Lent approaches, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Scholastica remind us to examine our hearts and prioritize and cultivate a fervent desire for God.
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St. John Bosco and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton presented lessons of love and gentleness to the most vulnerable of children. Their gentle instruction inspired their respective countries through the many thousands of pupils who would be taught by the communities they founded.
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Angela Merici and Elizabeth Ann Seton both suffered deeply. But because these saints allowed Christ into the deepest, darkest places of their hearts, their losses and pain became for them and for us almost unthinkable graces.
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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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The lives of St. Lucy and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton show us how in the Church’s tradition, marriage and virginity illumine each other. Every single soul is called to an espousal with Christ, the Divine Bridegroom. And in the love of a man and a woman, Christ’s own love for the Church shines forth.