John the Baptist was a witness to the Gospel of Christ in so many ways. He baptized the people of Ancient Israel in the River Jordan, calling them to repent for their sins, preparing the way of the Lord. John also recognized Jesus as the Lamb of God, as the Messiah, before Jesus started his public ministry. In our own ways, through our words and our example, we also can prepare the way of Jesus in the world. This Thursday, we celebrate an American saint who came to the United States as an immigrant from Bohemia and who became the influential Bishop of Philadelphia, where he established the first diocesan school system in the US - St John Neumann. Today, we celebrate a saint who was born in America two years before the US colonies declared independence from England - St Elizabeth Ann Seton. Seton grew up in a prosperous Episcopalian family in New York. She traveled to Italy with her husband, where he died, staying there where the example and compassion of the Catholic faithful there inspired her to convert to Catholicism. Returning to the US, she found a lot of opposition to her Catholic faith in her family, her friends, and society in general. She was invited by a priest in Baltimore to start a parish school. She is the foundress of the first religious order formed in the US - the Sisters of Charity of St Joseph. She and her order ran many schools and orphanages. She became the first native born American saint when she was canonized in 1975. Elizabeth Ann Seton once said: “The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will.” The American Catholic Church has a lot of great examples of faith that we have given the world. We thank the Lord for saints such as St Elizabeth Ann Seton and St John Neumann, for the examples of faith that they give us, helping us to prepare the way for the Lord.
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