by Zoe Romanowsky
Aleteia.org
Feeling like 2016 wasn’t a stellar year for you? You may want to begin 2017 by reading a biography of Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton — America’s first native-born canonized saint — for a little perspective. After all, she herself said in the midst of one of her many trials, “It sometimes lessens personal sorrow to compare our condition with the case of others.”
The wife, mother, widow, socialite, convert, loyal friend, educator, musician, caregiver, volunteer, religious founder of the Sisters of Charity was fortunate when any year of her life didn’t involve loss, death, illness, financial stress or ruin, heartbreak, moving and all manner of hardships, including the trials she faced when she converted to the Catholic faith. There is a lot this homegrown saint can teach us, but here are three lessons from her life that can help make your new year a little happier and holier…