Saint of the Year - St Elizabeth Ann Seton

We love following the liturgical year of the Catholic Church and also learning about the saints feast day each day.  One tradition that we also started last year for our family was to choose A SAINT OF THE YEAR!  This particular person we wanted to study and learn more about throughout the year.  Last year we choose St Luke after our son Luke was born and as my husband was completing his medical fellowship training (as Luke is the patron saint of Physicians). 

 

This year we have started formally homeschooling our children with Seton Home Study School, as we completed the Pre-Kindergarten program this past fall with our oldest son, and will be starting Kindergarten very soon!  Also, I have started my journey with blogging this year and part of my inspiration for this blog came from St Elizabeth Ann Seton, including the name of the blog "Children of the Church"!  It seemed only fitting to choose St Elizabeth Ann Seton as our family Saint to get to know better this year!  We also are excited to celebrate her feast day as a part of the 12 days of Christmas.

 

 

We were able to go to St Elizabeth Ann Seton's shrine when my husband and I went on a trip this past fall.  It was so fascinating to see the shrine and learn more about her life and history.  I got the book The Soul of Elizabeth Ann Seton which I am excited to dive into soon!  I know she will be a great role model as a wife, mother, educator and wonderful woman of God.

 

My husband and I are also going to go through A Year with the Saints meditations together this year.  I think it will be a great way to bring us together during our couples prayer time and for us to learn something new together.

 

For my own personal reflection and growth I plan on reading and following A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms.  I love that this book focuses on a saint per week with only a few pages to read per week!  It makes it very achievable to read and follow, even for busy moms! 

 

Learning about the saints is also something that we do daily with our Homeschooling!  It is the one constant that we have throughout the different liturgical seasons and makes Ordinary time lots of fun!  We have a lot of materials that we use and our favorite are the Saints for Young Readers (Volume 1 and 2).  They are fantastic books that have 1-2 pages per day that give a brief history and reflection on the saint of the day!  Our oldest son also loves the Can you Find Saints book, which is like a Where's Waldo book, except with the Saints!  We also LOVE to play with our peg doll saints to learn about and identify new saints!

 

 

 

 

If you want to pick a SAINT OF THE YEAR for yourself or your family, but are not sure where to start head over to Jen Fulwiler's site and use her Saint Name Generator!  This is a fun and easy way to pick a new saint to learn about and pray to for the year!  Happy New Year!