Spiritual Gems of Elizabeth Ann Seton: Charity
Sisters of Charity! Your admirable name must excite in you every preparation to do justice to your vocation.
To speak the joy of my soul at the prespect of being asked to assist the poor, visit the sick, comfort the afflicted, clothe little innocents and teach them to love God! There I must stop.
Religion does not limit the powers of the affections, for our Blessed Savior sanctifies and approves in us all the endearing ties and connections of our existence. Religion alone cna bind that cord over which neither circumstances, time, nor death have any power.
Suffer all from others without giving them anything to suffer; bear with their defects as we wish them to bear with us.
When you are excited to impatience, think for a moment how much more reason Giod has to be angry with you than you have for anger against any human being; and yet how constant is His patience and forbearance.
Through divine love and grace, not to speak of anyone unless to their advantage, nor of myself unless of God's goodness. To avoid all curiosity. Not to express discontent.... Not to be angry with anything but what displeases God. To be gentle to the children and humble to all. To life up my heart on all occasions, great and small, to Him.
To do violence to self on a thousand occasions. Renounce all satisfactions in particular, endure the weakness of some, the murmurings of others, the delicacy of a third, yet forgetting no one.
The Judge will show mercy in proportion as we show it.
Human passions and weaknesses, to be sure, are never extinct, but they cannot triumph in a heart possessed by peace.
Blessed Guardians... be watchful. Help us to use well the grace of the moment in the care and instruction of the little ones under our charge. Watch over them with us.
When you ask too much as first you often gain nothing at last, and if the heart is lost, all is lost.... The faults of young people must be moved by prayers and tears, because they are constitutional and cannot be frightened out.
Be to them as our guardian angels are to us.
Now, this beautiful season of Advent, do try to take its spirit, my friend; to think of it as the last. You have so many opportunities to love our Jesus in His poor, to make the little Babe so many presents before Christmas comes. You know, in our sweet meditation it says now He is our tender Babe, stretching His arms and offering His tears for us, by and by He will be our awful Judge.
It is a sweet thought to dwell on, that those I most tenderly love, love God, and if we do not meet again here, in heaven we shall be separated no more.
