When a new year begins, we know it’s a good practice to take stock of the successes and failures of the previous twelve months and resolve to do better, but it’s also a good time to examine what sort of thinking we have engaged in – whether it’s been unproductive and negative “stinking thinking,” or reality-grounded yet determinedly positive. Our thinking, after all, deeply impacts the way we move about in life, for better or worse, “in all we have done, in all we have failed to do.”
It’s also a good time to consider who we have been keeping company with, both physically, mentally, and spiritually – and whether those associations have been beneficial or harmful to us, and which ones we should try to pursue more fully or engage with less frequently, if at all.
Podemos darnos cuenta de que algunos de nuestros conocidos nos han arrastrado hacia hábitos negativos fáciles (como el cotilleo o el cinismo), mientras que otros nos han animado hacia los hábitos más difíciles de la caridad. Quizás algunas personas a las que seguimos en las redes sociales han sido una fuente fiable de inspiración, mientras que otras parecen sacar lo peor de nosotros. Si nuestro objetivo es mejorar, haríamos bien en dedicar menos tiempo y atención a los primeros y más a los segundos.
This doesn’t necessarily mean “giving up” on those who may sometimes lead us astray; it means giving more time and attention to the positive influencers, and using what they can bring us to expand our own spiritual and personal growth, to the point where we may become good, inspiring influences on others – even to those we’ve had to pull back from in order to work on ourselves.
A la luz de todo esto, parece especialmente fortuito que la fiesta de Santa Isabel Ana Seton se celebre el 4 de enero, cuando todavía estamos reflexionando sobre estas cosas, y buscando modos de mejorarnos a nosotros mismos, porque muchos aspectos de su vida se identifican fácilmente con los nuestros, y un amigo con el que podemos identificarnos es uno del que estaremos más dispuestos a aprender y emular.
How relatable is St. Elizabeth Ann to our lives and our times? Well, she’s a woman whose life pitched her from wealth to poverty, from a deliriously happy marriage to young widowhood. From a world full of social connections — she would have been a huge draw on Facebook and Twitter — to a social reject. As a child she lived uneasily in a troubled “blended family” before such things were common and she suffered there enough to contemplate overdosing on an opiate (laudanum) to escape.
Antes de que Isabel se convirtiera en la madre espiritual de muchos, era una madre soltera que criaba a cinco hijos y luchaba por encontrar un trabajo respetable para mantenerlos. Crió a sus hijos con gran alegría, pero se afligió por los dos pequeños a los que tuvo que enterrar.
Baptized into the Anglican tradition, Elizabeth’s relationship with God was forged in her youth, her prayers informed by Scripture and her instinct for lectio divina. Sus encuentros con la Palabra crearon un hambre por la Palabra hecha carne, y el fervor por la Presencia Real la llevó a la plena comunión con la Iglesia católica.
Her habit of seeing the hand of Providence in all things made the subsequent rejection by her family seem a bearable turn within the trustworthy plans of God. “If [something] succeeds, I bless God, if it does not succeed …I bless God, because then it will be right that things should not succeed.”
On top of all of that, St. Elizabeth Ann was an educational innovator who, through the founding of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph in 1808, deeply influenced Catholic elementary education in America at a time when Catholics were not always looked upon with kindness. Her religious community, founded upon the spiritual teachings of Sts. Vincent de Paul and Louis de Marillac, created schools, colleges, hospitals, and orphanages, always giving preference to the poor and disadvantaged. Her life and her work brought endless obstacles but Mother Seton’s intimacy with Providence gave her the spiritual strength to overcome them. “But my God knows best,” she would say.
En enero, la mayoría de nosotros nos propondremos hacer algo parecido:
- Confía en Dios con mayor fe y encuentra a Dios en todas las cosas.
- Profundizar en nuestros hábitos de oración
- Actively discern God’s promptings and respond without fear
It’s a spiritually ambitious agenda, but one that we can make real headway with, if we have the right companion providing us good example and praying for our intentions. St. Elizabeth Ann has something to teach us on all of these fronts, beginning with this almost perfect prayer:
¡Oh Dios mío! Perdona lo que he sido, corrige lo que soy y dirige lo que seré.
En cuanto a cómo puede ayudar con el resto de nuestra agenda:
- “All is solitary where you are not, and where you are is fullness of joy.”
- “God is everywhere — on the throne of his glory and among the blessed, but also throughout the whole Universe which he fills, governs and preserves, ruling it with his wisdom and power… so infinitely present to us that he is in every part of our life and being.”
- “God has given me a great deal to do, and I have always, and hope always, to prefer his Will to every wish of my own.”
- “As birds in changing their places find the air wherever they fly, and fish who live in the water are surrounded by their element wherever they swim, so wherever we go, we must find God everywhere.”
- “We must pray without ceasing, in every occurrence and employment of our lives – that prayer which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him.”
La mayoría de los católicos saben poco de la Madre Seton más allá de su papel como fundadora de una orden religiosa y educadora, pero las circunstancias de su propia vida la convierten en una compañera espiritual con cuyo ejemplo podemos identificarnos en muchos niveles diferentes; ella puede entender nuestros gritos de oración de intercesión de un modo único dentro de la Comunión de los Santos.
Whoever you are and whatever you’re currently experiencing in life — a joyful marriage, a blended family, the temptation to self-medicate (or the addiction of a loved one), an incomplete sense of faith, or grief, or financial social problems or challenges at work and at home — St. Elizabeth Ann Seton has been there, done that, has the halo. As we embark on the adventure of a new year, may she be our companion.
Este artículo se publicó anteriormente. Haga clic aquí para leer todas las Reflexiones de Seton.
ELIZABETH SCALIA es el galardonado autor de Dioses extraños, desenmascarar a los ídolos de la vida cotidiana y Little Sins Mean a Lot: Kicking Our Bad Habits Before They Kick You.