Currently viewing the tag: "Mother Seton"

When the world shut down last year because of the pandemic, the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton decided it was time to reach outward.

The question was how, when for a time, people couldn’t even visit the Shrine in Emmitsburg. The answer was simple, profound, and one that Mother Seton, America’s first native-born saint, would have appreciated: Pray.

So, buoyed by dedicated staff members and seminarians from nearby Mount St. Mary’s, the Shrine created a prayer hotline last April that has proven so successful that it plans to continue well after COVID-19 has receded. More than 2,000 calls have been logged, and many of them have turned into relationships that have changed the lives of people on both ends of the line.

“We are sometimes the only ones they talk to; the only ones who say their name,” says Rebecca Corbell, evangelization programs manager at the Shrine. “Having that connection, having a person who knows your name, builds a relationship that is so powerful.”

And this effort isn’t limited to just calls. One of the staff members on this project writes to 12 death row inmates a week. The hotline team also proactively calls people in the Shrine’s vast database to see if they need prayers.

“It’s a way to do pastoral work and to be with people amid the pandemic,” says Christopher Feist, a seminarian from Leonardtown.

The prayer hotline is part of the extensive evangelization efforts of the Shrine, as it marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Mother Seton. In January, the Shrine released Seeker to Saint, a film on her life. Other short films on various aspects of her life and spirituality will be released later this year.

“The Shrine is a basilica, a museum and the real home of a saint, and we have a mission as a place of prayer and pilgrimage to draw people closer to our Lord,” says Rob Judge, executive director of the Shine. “Through programs like the prayer hotline, we connect people to Mother Seton and a life and legacy that is relatable and inspiring. She is a true saint for our times, and we increasingly find that her message resonates with people today.”

The seminarians who attend Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and hail from the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. said they jumped at the chance to participate in the program. “We wanted the experience of being with people and to bring their concerns to God and to show we care and to bring God’s love to them,” Feist said.

The idea of cold-calling people—not to sell them anything but to offer to pray with them—can be intimidating. But in the end, “you’re going to connect with people who Jesus wants you to and nobody else,” said Benedict Radich, from Rockville.

Sometimes the reaction is “are you sure you’re not asking me for money?” said Caleb Gaeng, another seminarian from Bowie. “But it’s beautiful to be with someone who God has put me with; someone who needs prayers at just that moment.”

Prayer requests deal with everything from loneliness and illnesses to issues with jobs, families and addiction, said Karen McGrath of Taneytown and the first person hired on the prayer team. “People need to tell their stories,” she said. “Part of this is just standing with them before God, asking for the things they need.”

She recalls how one man called in January and was distraught. She tried to express how he needed to see how God is with us and in each other.

Recently he called back to say that her advice helped and “that he was able to look at Jesus and say ‘thank you.’”

A prayer ministry comes easy to her, she says. She’s the mother of five sons and a daughter – “so I pray a lot.”

As for the future, the Shrine now sees the hotline – borne in the depths of the pandemic — as an essential part of its mission, Corbell says.

“These are our people,” she says. “We need to be doing this.”

To contact the prayer hotline, call 1-866-202-4934 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. EDT or visit the prayer request page of the Shrine website.

For more information about the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, please visit www.setonshrine.org.

It is time to recognize that special teacher who has made an impact on your child’s life and on your school community. Each year, the Thurmont Lions Club honors the teachers of the Catoctin High School and the feeder schools (Thurmont Primary, Thurmont Elementary, Thurmont Middle, Lewistown Elementary, Emmitsburg, Sabillasville, and Mother Seton). Anyone can nominate a teacher—parents, students, fellow teachers, and administrators. 

All nomination forms are due to Lion Gayle DiSalvo no later than Sunday, April 18, 2021. They can be emailed to Rogadodi@aol.com or mailed to Lion Gayle DiSalvo, 142 E. Hammaker Street, Thurmont, MD  21788. Please include “2021 Teacher of the Year” on the subject line if emailing. Forms are available online at www.thurmontlionsclub.com or by contacting Lion Gayle DiSalvo at Rogadodi@aol.com.

The Thurmont Lions Club 2021 Teacher of the Year will be selected from the eight finalists by a committee of community leaders and will be announced at the Thurmont Lions Club’s Education Night meeting on May 12, 2021. If you have any questions, please contact Lion Gayle DiSalvo at Rogadodi@aol.com or 301-271-5355.

The Year is…1877

The Archbishop Who Was Buried in Emmitsburg

by James Rada, Jr.

To those who knew Archbishop of Baltimore James Roosevelt Bayley, it didn’t come as a great surprise when he died on October 3. He had been in ill health for months. It was said he died from liver and kidney problems.

What was a surprise is where the current Archbishop of Baltimore and former Archbishop of Newark, Del., chose to be buried. 

“By request of his Grace, the most Rev. Archbishop of Baltimore, James Roosevelt Bayley, the Sisters of Charity of St. Josephs convent had prepared in the vault in the memorial Chapel erected over the remains of Mother Seton (sic) the Foundress of the order in the United States, a final resting place for all that was mortal of the distinguished divine,” the Catoctin Clarion reported.

Bayley wanted to be buried with Elizabeth Ann Seton because she was his aunt. His father, Dr. Richard Bayley, was Seton’s brother.

Bayley had originally been ordained a minister in the Episcopal Church and preached in Harlem and Hagerstown. However, like his aunt, Bayley converted to Catholicism. He was baptized in Rome and trained for the priesthood in Paris before being ordained in New York on March 2, 1842. Upon doing so, he gave up his family fortune because his maternal grandfather removed him from his will.

He taught at St. John’s College in Fordham, New Jersey, and served as the college president from 1845-1846. From 1846-1853, he worked as a secretary for Archbishop John Hughes, who had ordained him a priest.

On October 30, 1853, he became the first bishop of Newark, New Jersey, which “under his administration became one of the most prosperous in the United States,” according to the Richmond Daily Dispatch. The diocese comprised all of New Jersey. He had more than 40,000 Catholics, mainly of Irish and German extraction, with only 25 priests to minister to them. He founded Seton Hall College in Madison, New Jersey, as well as other schools, convents, and churches.

He became the Archbishop of Baltimore on July 31, 1872.

After a funeral Mass in Baltimore on October 9, Bayley’s casket was loaded onto a Western Maryland Railroad train at 2:00 p.m., and then onto the Emmitsburg Railroad train in Rocky Ridge. It arrived at the station in front of St. Joseph’s College at 4:20 p.m.

“Outside the depot building on the broad avenue leading to the institution, the Sisters of Charity and pupils of the school formed in line, on the south pavement. Opposite on the north pavement were the Professors and students of Mt. St. Mary’s,” the Clarion reported.

A seminarian with the cross and censer led the funeral procession from the train, which included friends, family, and Cardinal John McCloskey.

“The scene was one never to be forgotten, the Revs., Clergy in vestments of their several orders, the Seminarians with black cassocks and white surplices, with Sisters of Charity in their flowing white cornets, the pupils of St. Joseph’s in long white veils, the beautiful cemetery of the Sisters radient (sic) with the bloom of autumn flowers, the soft misty haze of an October sunset combined to make a picture rarely to be seen,” according to the Clarion.

They entered the cemetery and proceeded to the chapel behind the old White House, where Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton had lived more than a half century ago. The chapel was in a grove surrounded by oak trees.

“As you enter the chapel to the right of the altar, a Tablet with the proper inscription indicates the spot where all that is mortal life of the venerated Foundress. To the left, another table to mark the spot of her illustrious nephew,” the newspaper reported.

Cardinal McCloskey pronounced the last absolution, and the coffin was lowered into the ground.

Afterward, the crowd moved to the St. Joseph’s exhibition hall for a reception until the train whistle blew at 6:00 p.m. The group from Baltimore then headed back to the station to be aboard the train by the time it left for Baltimore at 6:30 p.m. Archbishop of Baltimore James Roosevelt Bayley

by Anita DiGregory

Tomorrow’s Heroes

What is a hero? The Webster Dictionary defines a hero as someone “of distinguished valor or enterprise in danger or fortitude in suffering; a prominent or central personage in any remarkable action or event; hence, a great or illustrious person.”

A hero is someone who sacrifices, and often suffers, for the welfare and well-being of another, often without any desire for repayment. With acts of altruism, courage, honor, and kindness, heroes inspire those around them.

So who are your heroes? Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Paul Rusesabagina, Mother Teresa, Harriet Tubman? Or maybe your parents, a teacher, a pastor, or a friend?

Our area is rich in its history of heroes. Mother Seton, a widow and mother to five, moved to Emmitsburg in 1809. Even after suffering the death of her husband, bankruptcy, and heart-wrenching public shunning due to her conversion, Mother Seton sojourned on. She founded the first American community for religious women, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, and she started the first Catholic girls school in the nation. Through harsh winters, the death of children, and continual hardships, she continued in faith and in service to others. In 1975, she became the first American-born saint.

Another hero with local ties is Stanley Rother. Rother attended and graduated from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. At his request, Father Rother was assigned to a parish in Guatemala. He studied Spanish and Tz’utujil (the indigenous language of the area) to better serve his community. He ministered to the people for 13 years. As violence surged there, faith-filled individuals within the community were tortured and murdered. Rother knew his life was in danger. He wrote, “This is one of the reasons I have for staying in the face of physical harm.  The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.” On July 28, 1981, Father Rother was murdered, one of ten priests slayed there that year.

These are just some of the hero stories we know; think of all those we don’t know. I think of those moms sacrificing 24/7 for their children, those dads who rise to that alarm clock each morning to head to a job that may not be what they had always envisioned (but it pays the bills or provides the insurance for their family), and those single parents who struggle to be all things for their children.

I asked my eight-year-old what a hero was to him. He replied, “Some person who helps a person a lot…like police officers, men and women in the military, firefighters, people working in a hospital. There are comic book heroes like Superman, Iron Man, and Hulk. And, our parents can be our heroes and so can members of our families…like siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins…and friends. Many people who wrote schoolbooks are heroes ‘cause they are helping us learn. But, the most important hero of all is God because He made everything and everyone.”

The truth is heroes are different for all of us because the qualities that define heroism are as diverse as we are. The importance of heroes, however, is unquestionable, especially for our children. This importance comes not just in the physical act of heroism, but also in the role that heroes play in society and especially in the formation of our youth.

According to University of Richmond Professor of Psychology and author of Heroes: What They Do and Why We Need Them, Scott Allison, Ph.D., “Heroes elevate us emotionally; they heal our psychological ills; they build connections between people; they encourage us to transform ourselves for the better; and they call us to become heroes and help others.” 

Heroism is not to be confused with celebrity. In today’s world, with cheating sports team scandals, political leaders’ hostile public declarations, and singers and actors proselytizing their opinions or their hedonistic beliefs, celebrity is often the opposite of heroism, and instead is harmful to children.

Perhaps this is why now more than ever, it is so important to surround our children with true stories of heroism, to cultivate their souls with truth, goodness, and beauty.

Laura Berquist, author of Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum and founder of Mother of Divine Grace School, states, “As a parent and teacher, the time spent with your child is valuable. If he does not learn to read in kindergarten or first grade, it won’t finally make much difference in his life. But you should spend time reading to him during these formative years. The saint stories, the tales of noble actions performed by noble people, and the fairy tales, with their clear divisions between good and bad, will make a lifelong difference.” Berquist adds, “…stories often move the heart toward the good in a way the direct teaching of the truth, especially initially, and especially in the young, does not.  Since these truths are encountered in a concrete, incarnational format that engages both mind and heart, there is less inclination to reject the teaching. The reader is participating in the journey and learning with the characters, so he’s learning the lessons that life teaches.”

William Bennett, author of the bestseller, The Children’s Book of Virtues, writes, “[Heroes] come from every walk of life…They win our admiration by committing the sort of acts every one of us might be called upon to perform—by offering some unseen gesture of compassion, by taking a quiet stand for what is right, by managing to hang on just one minute longer, or perhaps by persevering through a lifetime of struggle and toil…believing in the heroic can help make each and every one of us a little bit better…If our children are to reach for the best, they need to have a picture of the best.”

So, let’s challenge ourselves to read stories of true heroism to our children. Let’s give them the knowledge and tools to become tomorrow’s heroes.

It is time to recognize that special teacher who has made an impact on your child’s life and on your school community. Do you know a teacher who goes beyond what is expected? You can let this teacher know how important he/she has been to you by nominating him/her for the Thurmont Lions Club Teacher of the Year Award. Anyone can nominate a teacher: parents, students, fellow teachers, and administrators.

This award is open to pre-k through grade 12, full-time teachers, in the Catoctin feeder school system: Catoctin High, Thurmont Middle, Thurmont Elementary, Thurmont Primary, Lewistown Elementary, Sabillasville Elementary, and Mother Seton. 

All nominations will be recognized at a reception to be held on April 2, 2019, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Thurmont Regional Library. The Teacher of the Year for each school will be announced at the reception. The overall Teacher of the Year will be announced at the Thurmont Lions Club’s Education Night held in May 2019.

Nomination forms are available at www.thurmontlionsclub.com and at the principal’s office at each school. Nomination forms are due no later than March 15, 2019.

If you have any questions, please contact Lion Susan Favorite at skfavorite@comcast.net  or 240-409-1747 or Lion Joyce Anthony at jananny@comcast.net or 240-288-8748.