{"id":138172,"date":"2025-09-18T00:05:43","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T04:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setonshrine.org\/?p=138172"},"modified":"2025-09-18T06:33:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:33:47","slug":"joseph-of-cupertino-and-elizabeth-seton-inspire-us-toward-heavenly-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setonshrine.org\/es\/joseph-of-cupertino-and-elizabeth-seton-inspire-us-toward-heavenly-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph of Cupertino and Elizabeth Seton Inspire us Toward Heavenly Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I had one of those days where 24 hours just did not seem like enough.<\/p>\n

Between work obligations, phone calls, meetings, dinner plans, and my sons\u2019 varsity soccer game, I felt pulled in multiple directions. I made a quick stop at the post office in the midst of it all, and when I hopped back in the car to drive home, I turned the key in the ignition and \u2026 nothing. Not a beep. Not a click. I would have settled for a hum. But no, the car was completely dead.<\/p>\n

When you’re running around like you’re out of control, nothing brings you back to your senses quite like being forced to stop abruptly in the middle of it all and just sit, alone in a lifeless vehicle, waiting for a tow truck.<\/p>\n

I took a breath. Before my car broke down, I hadn\u2019t paused to realize just how packed my schedule was. The back-to-school season can be like that for families. Everything seems to start up at once and making the adjustment to new routines can be a real challenge.<\/p>\n

One saint I pray to during this season each year is St. Joseph of Cupertino, patron saint of students and of studying, whose feast day we celebrate on September 18.<\/p>\n

I used to pray to St. Joseph of Cupertino when I was studying for exams in college, and I assumed he got the \u201cjob\u201d as patron saint of students because he was a star student himself. When we read his life\u2019s story, however, we find out that just the opposite was true.<\/p>\n

St. Joseph of Cupertino was born in 1603 in Cupertino, which is now the Italian province of Lecce. As a child, he was a poor student, slow to learn and easily distracted. Modern educators might diagnose him with a learning disability, but during his lifetime, he was simply dismissed as slow and lazy. His mother especially grew frustrated with him and treated him harshly. Perhaps out of unhappiness with himself or as a response to his mother\u2019s harshness, Joseph developed a bad temper. In his early years he certainly didn\u2019t show the makings of a saint.<\/p>\n

Joseph\u2019s parents grew tired of having him at home, and so when he was about 18, they arranged for him to leave home and become a servant in a Franciscan monastery. It was there that his life began to change.<\/p>\n

Joseph\u2019s work consisted of menial tasks such as caring for the horses, and he adopted a life of simplicity, humility, and sacrifice. Eventually, he was able to enter the Franciscan order and become a priest. After ordination, he continued to grow in holiness and he experienced miraculous visions and was even reported to levitate and \u201cfly\u201d sometimes when in prayer or while offering Mass.<\/p>\n

As fascinating\u2014or incredible\u2014as levitation might be, I find it most helpful to reflect on the ways that St. Joseph of Cupertino struggled as a student, and his tendency toward angry outbursts. Yet he overcame these flaws in the end. That\u2019s where most of us find ourselves, after all, in the struggles of everyday life.<\/p>\n

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is another saint who understood the limitations and challenges of life here on earth. In her lifetime, she experienced not only physical limitations as she, her husband, and their children suffered serious illness and even early death, but also financial setbacks and emotional trials as she navigated life as a widow, and as a newly converted Catholic with few social options outside of the circles of her Protestant upbringing.<\/p>\n

As an innovator in Catholic education in the United States, St. Elizabeth Ann would have understood the pressures and challenges of modern families who struggle with back-to-school adjustments. She faced many obstacles in building the St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School, which served poor, young girls who needed education and practical skills in order to grow in their faith and find employment in the world.<\/p>\n

Wherever this back-to-school season finds us this year\u2014running carpool or adjusting to new daily routines\u2014we can look to the examples of St. Joseph Cupertino and St. Elizabeth Seton. Even in the midst of earthly limitations, in these two great saints we find inspiration in holiness and encouragement toward the challenge every one of us faces\u2014overcoming obstacles and weaknesses in this world as we make our way toward the next.<\/p>\n

DANIELLE BEAN<\/strong> es escritora y popular conferenciante sobre la vida familiar cat\u00f3lica, la paternidad, el matrimonio y la espiritualidad de la maternidad. Fue editora y redactora jefe de Catholic Digest, y es autora de muchos libros para mujeres, entre ellos <\/em>Momnipotente<\/a>, You\u2019re Worth It!<\/a>\u00a0y <\/em>T\u00fa eres suficiente<\/a>. Tambi\u00e9n es creadora y presentadora del podcast Girlfriends. M\u00e1s informaci\u00f3n en <\/em>DanielleBean.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Esta reflexi\u00f3n se public\u00f3 anteriormente. Haga clic en aqu\u00ed<\/a> para ver todas las Reflexiones Seton.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Imagen: Dominio p\u00fablico\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through their lives of humility and service, Mother Seton and St. Joseph Cupertino encourage us as we face the day-to-day obstacles and trials of this world, on our way toward the next.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":138177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1187],"tags":[3666,4256],"class_list":["post-138172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seton-reflections","tag-mother-seton","tag-st-joseph-cupertino"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJoseph of Cupertino and Elizabeth Seton Inspire us Toward Heavenly Goals - Seton Shrine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In their lives of humility and service, Mother Seton and St. Joseph Cupertino encourage us as we face the day-to-day obstacles and trials of this world, on our way toward the next.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/setonshrine.org\/es\/joseph-of-cupertino-and-elizabeth-seton-inspire-us-toward-heavenly-goals\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Joseph of Cupertino and Elizabeth Seton Inspire us Toward Heavenly Goals - 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