"We Have Found the Messiah": The Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Saturday, January 4th Readings Reflection: Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious
Today is the feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American citizen to be canonized. Raised an Anglican, St. Elizabeth converted to Catholicism out of a deep love for Our Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament. Four years later, she founded the Sisters of Charity, a Catholic religious order of women dedicated to caring for children by founding and running schools and orphanages.
St. Elizabeth’s conversion to Catholicism was not easy, and many of her family and friends abandoned her for this decision. However, the saintly widow clung to her faith in Christ and His Mother, in Whose hearts Mother Seton found refuge amidst the many trials and sorrows she endured.
In today’s Gospel, St. Andrew told his brother St. Peter, “We have found the Messiah.” This aptly summarizes Mother Seton’s conversion story and the way in which she lived the rest of her life. She lived the last sixteen years of her life in communion with the Catholic Church, fully convinced that she had at last found the one true faith founded by Christ. Mother Seton had searched for God in the symbolic bread and wine of the Anglicans, but her desire to find God was ultimately only satisfied in the Holy Eucharist. By the grace of God, Mother Seton came to recognize that the Eucharist consecrated by an ordained Catholic priest is no mere symbol; It is truly and substantially Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity, by virtue of the ordination and Apostolic succession of the clergy.
While her unbelieving friends and family members thought she was worshipping mere bread, Mother Seton’s faith saw beyond the mere physical appearances to recognize the God Whom she so deeply loved. This deep love for the Eucharist inspired Mother Seton to practice great works of charity so that the divine Love she received might bear fruit through her efforts. May Mother Seton pray for all of us, that we may always recognize Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and that we may spend our lives in communion with the infinite Love that we receive in this Sacrament.
