By Rob Judge
Good evening, everyone.
It’s such a gift to be here with you tonight—thank you for welcoming us as we journey in the footsteps of Mother Seton, retracing the path she once took from Baltimore to Emmitsburg over 200 years ago.
Before we enter into this beautiful time of adoration of Our Lord under the stars, I’d like to take a few moments to reflect on the amazing love God has for us, His promise of eternal happiness, and the powerful way St. Elizabeth Ann Seton shows us how to receive that love—especially through the Eucharist.
Tonight’s reflection is called “The Eucharist: A Foretaste of Heaven.”
There are two truths I want to share with you:
- The Eucharist gives us a very real taste of heaven—right here in this life and second,
- When we receive the Eucharist regularly, worthily, and with devotion, Jesus transforms us, and as we begin to participate in his divine life here on this earth, he will lead us to eternal life with Him in heaven.
… to explore these truths, we only have to look at the life of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton—the first native-born American saint, who lived just 40 miles from here in Emmitsburg.
While she lived 200 years ago – her joys, her struggles and her faith experiences are not that different than our own. God gives us the saints to show us the way…so tonight I hope to share a bit of her life with you.
God loves us and desires Our Eternal Happiness
Let’s begin with this beautiful truth: God loves us and he desires our happiness. He created each one of us in love, and He desires our happiness – not just in this life, but most especially he desires us to be happy with him forever in the next life – heaven.
God’s deepest desire is for us to be in communion with Him.
Our culture of course doesn’t get this loving image of God. Much of the world sees God as distant or as a harsh judge; a being who is waiting for us to mess up so he can punish us. …… This, however, is not the God that is described throughout salvation history as laid out in the sacred scriptures.
From the beginning scriptures record that, God made us in His image and likeness and set us over all the rest of creation. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve lived in harmony with God. God’s initial plan for man was paradise, harmony and happiness.
It was our disobedience, our sin that changed this reality and broke our relationship with God…. However, God didn’t give up on us – in fact he immediately set about a plan for our redemption.
Through all the prophets of the old testament God prepared his people and enacted his plan for our redemption. This of course came to fruition as God sent his only begotten Son Jesus, who took on our sin, suffered, died and rose from the dead, opening the gates to heaven so that we might be restored to a right relationship with God.
Then, before Jesus ascended to the Father; to prepare a place for us, he established the sacraments and the Church to give us grace for our journey. Finally, God sent his holy Spirit to guide his Church as we all make our way to heaven – promising to be with us until the end of time.
Our God is a loving God. He is the Father in the Prodigal Son story—watching, waiting and running to embrace us if only we return to him – no matter how many times we go astray.
He’s the Good Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one.
He is the one who sent his only begotten son to take on our sin, suffer, die – in order that we may be saved.
God’s message is VERY clear: He loves us, and He wants us with Him—forever in heaven.
But what is heaven….?
In John 14, Jesus describes heaven as he says:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms… I am going there to prepare a place for you… and I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes heaven as it says:
“Those who die in God’s grace and friendship live forever with Christ… they see him as he is, face to face” (1 Jn 3:2). Heaven is “the fulfillment of the deepest human longings—the state of supreme, definitive happiness.”
Think of that for a moment – “the fulfillment of the deepest human longings – the state of supreme, definitive happiness” ….
Saint Faustina, who received the Divine Mercy Image …. had a vision of heaven and wrote:
“I saw its inconceivable beauties… the happiness in God that spreads to all creatures… they enter into the depths of God, contemplating the inner life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
She then quoted St. Paul in Corinthians:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard… what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor 2:9).
So, God loves us and he has gone to great lengths to invite us to follow Him, which will lead to our happiness here and in heaven.
And…..Jesus didn’t just promise heaven and leave us alone to find the way. Before returning to the Father, He gave us the Eucharist—the way to stay united with Him now, and to be prepared for eternal life.
At the Last Supper, Jesus gave Himself to us as he said:
“Take, eat; this is my body… Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:26–28).
And this wasn’t symbolic. It was real. Earlier in John 6, in what is referred to as the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus said:
“I am the bread of life… If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever… My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed… He who eats this bread will live forever” (Jn 6:35, 51, 53–58).
In the Eucharist, we are united with Christ—now—and by receiving him he prepares us to be with Him in heaven.
The Catechism affirms this when it says:
“By the Eucharistic celebration, we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life” (CCC 1326).
And Jesus told Saint Faustina:
“Eternal life must begin already here on earth through Holy Communion… Each Holy Communion makes you more capable of communing with God through eternity.”
The Life and Witness of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
These truths are beautifully embodied in the life of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Born in 1774, Elizabeth grew up in New York in a prominent Episcopalian family. Her mother died when she was just four years old, and though her father loved her deeply, he traveled often. So from an early age, Elizabeth knew both affection and loneliness.
At 19, she married William Seton and entered a joyful period of life. They had five children and shared a deep love. But trials came quickly. Will’s business collapsed, they took in extended family, and his health failed.
Hoping for healing, Elizabeth and Will sailed to Italy. After 30 days in quarantine, Will died. At just 29, Elizabeth was a widow with five children and no means of support.
She stayed with her late husband’s business partners—the deeply Catholic Filicchi family. It was there that she first encountered the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
She wrote to her sister:
“How happy would we be if we believed what these dear souls believe—that they possess God in the Sacrament, and that He remains in their churches and is carried to them when they are sick.”
She realized she was beginning to connect happiness with presence—Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.
In a moment of deep sorrow, she wrote:
“The other day, in a moment of excessive distress, I fell on my knees without thinking when the Blessed Sacrament passed by and cried in agony to God to bless me if You were there.”
When she returned to New York, Elizabeth felt torn. All her friends and family were Protestant. But she couldn’t forget the Eucharist. At one Sunday service, she found herself facing a nearby Catholic church and wrote:
“I found myself twenty times speaking to the Blessed Sacrament there instead of looking at the naked altar where I was.”
Eventually, she followed the call of her heart and became Catholic.
After receiving the Eucharist for the first time, she wrote:
“At last, God is mine and I am His!”
Even then, her path wasn’t clear. She had no money and no job. But an invitation came to open a school in Baltimore, and later she moved to Emmitsburg. There, she formed a religious community—the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s—the first of its kind in America.
She and her sisters educated children, served the poor, and cared for orphans. She buried two of her own children there, lived simply, and centered her life completely on Jesus in the Eucharist.
When she died at 46, there were just 80 sisters. Today, her spiritual daughters number in the thousands, serving in schools, hospitals, and missions around the world.
Elizabeth didn’t plan any of that. She simply trusted God, received the Eucharist, loved those around her, and let grace do the rest.
The Eucharist transformed her. It sustained her. And it led her to heaven.
And Jesus will do the same in us.
Every time we come to Mass, we receive not a symbol but the real presence of Christ—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. As we adore him in the Blessed Sacrament and visit him in our chapels – He strengthens us. He transforms us. He prepares us for eternal joy.
We know from Exodus 33 that in our sinful state, we cannot behold the face of God and live. But in His mercy, God veils His glory in the Eucharist so that even now, we can be united with Him.
This is not just part of our faith, it is the source and summit of our faith.
The Eucharist is a foretaste of heaven, and the beginning of eternal happiness.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton believed this with her whole heart. She shows us the way.
She believed what we are invited to believe tonight: that the longing for happiness deep in our hearts is fulfilled in Jesus, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.
So now, as we begin this time of adoration, let’s open our hearts to that truth.
Let’s ask Mother Seton to intercede for us—that we may see how deeply we are loved… and how close heaven really is…every time we come to the altar of the Lord.