Mother Seton

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Catholic Church, education, example, faith, ordinary life, religious community, sanctity, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (1774-1821) was the first American-born saint canonized in the Roman Catholic Church. We celebrate her today as a woman who, it is often said, “lived an ordinary life in an extraordinary way.” Her life was a bit like a seesaw with serious ups and downs by turns. She was born into a solid, well-to-do family in the high society of New York but her mother died when she was 3 years old. She was married at age 19 to a wealthy businessman and had 5 children, but his business failed and he died of tuberculosis when Elizabeth was 30 years old. Necessity led her to open a school in Baltimore in order to support her children and grace moved her to found a religious community which grew out of the spiritual nature of how she ran her school. She died at age 46. Franciscan Media says the following about the woman who has become an example of faith to generations of Catholics and is revered as “Mother Seton.”

Elizabeth Seton had no extraordinary gifts. She was not a mystic or stigmatic. She did not prophesy or speak in tongues…The thousand or more letters of Mother Seton reveal the development of her spiritual life from ordinary goodness to heroic sanctity. She suffered great trials of sickness, misunderstanding, the death of loved ones (her husband and two young daughters) and the heartache of a wayward son…She wrote to a friend that she would prefer to exchange the world for a “cave or a desert. But God has given me a great deal to do, and I have always and hope always to prefer his will to every wish of my own.” Her brand of sanctity is open to everyone…(www.franciscanmedia.org)

How can we refuse the offer?

 

 

 

 

 

 

One More Wake Up Call

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charity, contemplation, corruption, divisions, mystic, news, Peace, prophets, saints, sanctity, solace, spiritual maturity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, violence

It is sometimes counter-productive to read the news in the morning. I don’t often do so before taking up this writing task. I should always move toward what I know to be my priorities. After twenty minutes or so this morning of breaking my own rule and falling deeper into distress, I moved away from stories of corruption, violence and division in the world and turned to Thomas Merton for solace. Here is what he gave me as a motivational word for today:

If the salvation of society depends, in the long run, on the moral and spiritual health of individuals, the subject of contemplation becomes a vastly important one, since contemplation is one of the indications of spiritual maturity. It is closely allied to sanctity. You cannot save the world merely with a system. You cannot have peace without charity. You cannot have social order without saints, mystics and prophets. (A Thomas Merton Reader, p. 375)

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of Creation Sings!

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Book of Hours, creation, diversity, holiness, inscape, nature, New Seeds of Contemplation, saints, sanctity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, wonder of creation

Today is my last day in California. The work of our committee is complete for now; today I will be at the beach with my brother and sister-in-law – a rare blessing! Tomorrow I will repeat my airy trek across the country, but in reverse, and I presume I will again marvel at God’s grandeur. Everywhere I look, here or from the plane or upon my return to New York State I am aware of the diversity and wonder of creation. As I opened my computer this morning there was an image of Pope Francis and an advertisement for his encyclical, On Care for Our Common Home, about the environment. All of the above prompts me to quote in its entirety a piece from Thomas Merton’s book, New Seeds of Contemplation, that just happens to appear as a Monday morning reflection in his Book of Hours.

The forms and individual characters of living and growing things, of inanimate beings, of animals and flowers and all nature, constitute their holiness in the sight of God. Their inscape is their sanctity. It is the imprint of His wisdom and His reality in them. The special clumsy beauty of this particular colt on this day in this field under these clouds is a holiness consecrated to God by His own creative wisdom and it declares the glory of God. The pale flowers of the dogwood outside this window are saints. The little yellow flowers that nobody notices on the edge of the road are saints looking up into the face of God. This leaf has its own texture and its own pattern of veins and its own holy shape, and the bass and trout hiding in the deep pools of the river are canonized by their beauty and their strength. The lakes hidden among the hills are saints, and the sea too is a saint who praises God without interruption in her majestic dance. The great, gashed, half-naked mountain is another of God’s saints. There is no other like him. He is alone in his own character; nothing else in the world ever did or ever will imitate God in quite the same way. That is his sanctity. But what about you? What about me?

(I will not have an opportunity to post tomorrow but, God willing, will be back to it on Wednesday.)

A Cheerful Giver

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catholic, cheerful giver, generous, giving, laughter, lightness of life, pay homage, piety, sanctity, singing, Sirach, smiling, St. Philip Neri, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning’s first reading from the Book of Sirach (35:1-12) sounds like an ad for “sacrificial giving” in church. It is talking about paying homage to the Lord but goes beyond tithing, which ought to be accomplished in a spirit of joy. Expansion of the theme of actual donation is also implied in such language as: in generous spirit…be not sparing of freewill gifts and Give to the Most High as he has given to you, generously, according to your means. Upon reading this I was thrown back to a song that we used to sing during our novitiate days that began: God loves a cheerful giver; give it all you’ve got! (great emphasis on the second part – sort of like a football fight song, gestures and all). Certainly, we were not singing about monetary contributions to the Church but rather the attitude with which we lived our lives.

Serendipitously, today is the feast of St. Philip Neri who lived in the 1500’s, a tumultuous time for the Christian Church. A summary comment from the website http://www.americancatholic.org offers the following:

Many people feel that such an attractive and jocular personality as Philip’s cannot be combined with intense spirituality. Philip’s life melts our rigid, narrow views of piety. His approach to sanctity was truly catholic, all-embracing and accompanied by a good laugh. Philip always wanted his followers to become not less but more human through their striving for holiness.

So, if they’re not already part of your spiritual backpack, it sounds like a good idea today to add smiling, singing and considering those you meet as friends just waiting to be found, with whom the lightness of life can dispel some of the heaviness of the world.

 

 

The Mind of Christ

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Christ, God is everywhere, joy, kenosis, Paul, Philippians, saint, sanctity, self-emptying, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

As I reflect on the Scriptures here and elsewhere I’ve often come around to the theme of kenosis, (self-emptying), because it seems to me that filling up with God necessitates this action in our lives. I do not speak of beating ego out of ourselves to achieve sainthood. That flies in the face of half of the Great Commandment, the part that tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. But this morning we have the text again in which Paul speaks of the example of Christ who “emptied himself of godliness” in a willingness to come and teach us how to live. (PHIL 2:5-11) He says that we are to have that same mind, that willingness. I read something earlier (while waiting for the internet to come back to me…) that seems to fit how this process of emptying to be filled can work in our lives. I offer it today for our reflection.

Be content that you are not yet a saint, even though you realize that the only thing worth living for is sanctity. Then you will be satisfied to let God lead you to sanctity by paths that you cannot understand. You will travel in darkness in which you will no longer be concerned with yourself and no longer compare yourself to others. Those who have gone by that way have finally found out that sanctity is in everything and that God is all around them. They suddenly wake up and find that the joy of God is everywhere.                              (Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation)