Today, we celebrate the feast-day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, wife, mother, educator, foundress of the Sisters of Charity, and initiator of the parochial school system in the United States, the system whereby a parish provides total education for its children. Although St. Elizabeth Ann Seton worked relentlessly establishing Catholic schools throughout the United States, her main focus and that of her congregation was the interior life. She took seriously the message of the Lord in today's Gospel: “Mary has chosen the better part” (Lk 10:42).

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton encouraged the Sisters of Charity to treasure the interior life. She wrote, “An interior life means the continuation of the Savior's life within us”, and is “the sweet land of promise”.

—This nun of the first days of the American Republic teaches modern, overly busy man that nothing worthwhile can be accomplished unless it is done in union with the Lord.