Becoming Extraordinary is available to the Ordinary: Spend 5 with Jesus: January 4, 2023

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was a wife and a mother, a convert, a founder of a religious community and a saint. What most impressed me however, was how Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton took the ordinary events of her life and saw in them an invitation to become extraordinary.

Readings for Today

Becoming Extraordinary is available to the Ordinary

“Where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”

One of the shrines I remain most impressed with is the shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. She was a wife and a mother, a convert, a founder of a religious community and a saint. What most impressed me however, was how Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton took the ordinary events of her life, and saw in them an invitation to become extraordinary.

Like so many, the great moment of conversion for Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton involved the Eucharist. In a church, she recognized in whose presence she was. And like so many, once she realized she was in the presence of Jesus, her whole life changed. She could face being a widow, she could hear the call to found a religious community of teaching sisters, and ultimately she could become holy.

I cannot imagine she could see any of this in her life before it happened. She, like many, probably saw herself as an ordinary person. And yet, in her attentiveness to God in her life, she became extraordinary in holiness.

The same is possible for each one of us, too. If we continue to shape our focus upon the great God, Jesus Christ, then indeed we too can see the ordinary in our lives become extraordinary. Look to find Jesus in your life. Because it is true, as Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton discovered, that Jesus is relentless in pursuing a relationship with each one of us.

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