Happy Feast Day Elizabeth Ann Seton

Happy Feast Day to our Family Saint of the Year

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

 

 

I am so excited that we choose St Elizabeth Ann Seton as our family saint of the year!  I started off the morning with a great cup of coffee and beginning my new book The Soul of Elizabeth Ann Seton.  Only a few chapters in I can tell that I am going to learn a lot from studying her life and her reflections.  I pray that I can learn from her strength, grace and virtues to follow God in my vocation as a wife, mother and educator.  I also pray that she blesses our homeschool year and gives me the patience that I need to teach our children with love and our children the passion to learn!

 

We then went to mass, celebrating the Epiphany, although we are going to celebrate on the actual feast day January 6th in our home.  We came home and read our book Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton by Father Lovasik as one of our Read Alouds for the day.  We love Father Lovasik's books and found out a lot of interesting things about St Elizabeth in this book.  I love to hear what each of our children find most interesting when we read different books.  Our oldest son thought it was interesting that she was one of the first American citizens, having been born in New York in 1774 and living in the country during the time of the Declaration of Independence (he is really big into the United States right now and its history).  Our middle son thought it was really cool that her father was a doctor just like his Daddy! 

One thing that I think is interesting  about St Elizabeth's life and want to take time reflecting on is about her losing her mother when she was only three years old and her sister one year later.  She experienced great grief early in her life and she learned to rely on her own father growing up.  Then in her adult life, after she lost her husband to death she learned to trust and rely on her Holy Father as she converted to the Catholic faith in March of 1805. 

 

 Prayer in Honor of St Elizabeth Ann Seton

"Lord God, You blessed Elizabeth Ann Seton with gifts of grace as a wife and mother, educator and foundress, so that she might spend her life in service to Your people.  Through her example and prayers may we learn to express our love for You in love for our fellow men and women.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen."

 

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from

St Elizabeth Ann Seton:

"Cheerfulness prepares a glorious mind for all the noblest acts"

 

"In every disappointment, let you heart fly directly to your dear Savior.  Jesus will never leave you or forsake you."

 

"Disorder in the society is a result of disorder in the family"

 

"The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not despair.  God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other.  The more we are united to Him by love, the nearer we are to those who belong to Him."