Blessed Feast of St. Angela Merici

St. Angela Merici would agree with my spiritual advisor. When someone asks you to do a good work and you know it isn’t the work to which you were called, just say “That’s a very good work; it’s just not my good work.”

Pope Clement VII asked St. Angela Merici to become the head of a religious order. One problem with this great honor – the order was a nursing order. And Angela knew that God had called her to something else.

It is very appropriate to celebrate the Feast of St. Angela Merici during Catholic Schools Week, for this great saint was the first woman to teach girls outside of the walls of the cloister. She went into the community and gathered together girls from families who could not afford to send their daughters to the cloister for an education. By doing this, she changed the entire schema of Catholic education and opened the doors of literacy to impoverished girls. She didn’t merely say no to a good work. She said yes to the right work.

Go and do likewise.

(Eventually, she became the foundress of the Ursulines.)

Blessed Feast of St. Angela Merici

Elizabeth Bayley Seton - One Dynamic Convert

Yes, the answer to yesterday's question is St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Born to a physician and a pastor's daughter, this young lady would grow up to impact the educational system in our country dramatically - by providing an educational alternative for parents and their children. She is the Mother of the American Catholic School System.

Today, Catholic education is the first choice of many parents. It gives young people a spiritual and educational foundation that exceeds all other educational venues. It has set a standard of excellence that continues to challenge public schools (and other private institutions) and call them to reform, to improve, or to be rendered inviable.

It is amazing to think that this young widow (of 29 years) had the fortitude to raise five children on her own, give serious and sincere consideration to a faith which none of her family embraced, and willingly give up family and friends to claim the Catholic faith as her own. She would found the Sisters of Charity and and set a course for education in our country that would rival that of the nations of the world.

And many of her friends and family would eventually convert as well.

Her favorite prayer:

May the most just, the most high

and the most amiable will of God

Be in all things fulfilled, praised

and exalted above all forever.

Elizabeth Bayley Seton - One Dynamic Convert

Name That Saint

She was the first American saint born on American soil. She was a convert to the faith and the daughter of a doctor. Her mother's father was an Anglican minister.

And she is responsible for establishing Catholic education in our country.

Can you name this saint?

It's Catholic Schools Week. God Bless our young people and the men and women who teach them!

Name That Saint