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St. Elizabeth Ann’s greeting “The sunbeams are not more welcome through my windows than your well-known step at my door,” shows us how dear visitors were to her. After 9/11/01 there was a drop in the number of pilgrims visiting St Elizabeth Ann’s shrine. I am happy to report that the number has begun to go back up and I am confident our saint welcomes them. The following is a ten month comparison: July 2000 – April 2001, 48,450 visitors; July 2001 – April 2002, 45,264. One of our recent visitors was the Rev. Robert P. Maloney, C.M., the superior general of the Vincentian Fathers and the Daughters of Charity. Father offered Mass in the basilica and toured the museum. In the course of his tour, Father Maloney admired the sculpture of St. Elizabeth Ann by Sister Margaret Beaudette in 1987. It is a sculpture that is admired by so many of the pilgrims, portraying Elizabeth Ann as it does as loving mother, a dedicated teacher, and a friend of the young. It is providential that the number of volunteer docents has increased as our number of pilgrims has risen. These docents are dedicated women and men from Emmitsburg, Blue Ridge Summit, Thurmont, Waynesboro, Fairfield, and Frederick. How blessed we are to have them share the life and spirituality of St. Elizabeth Ann with the pilgrims who visit her national shrine!. Sister Mary Clare Hughes The Seton Way E-Mail: office@setonshrine.org Editorial Board: Typing & Layout |
To address the needs for additional space and to better serve our students in the new millennium, our expansion includes: two age-appropriate kindergarten classrooms, an age-appropriate classroom for a future pre-kindergarten, a new science lab, a large multipurpose room for music, band, chorus, and art; a health room, a larger staff room, centralized office space, a variety of storage space, a new central front entrance, an extended driveway in front of the school, and an outdoor kindergarten area . Each day the
excitement and enthusiasm rises in our spirits, as we see our new addition rising before us. Looking forward to completion on July 31, the day we
celebrate Mother Seton's journey from Baltimore to Emmitsburg, on July 31, 1809, we are ever mindful that it is not the bricks and mortar, the beautiful
building, but what happens within the walls of Mother Seton School that truly makes the difference in the lives of our children.
Teaching our children God's Word: "Let not your hands be open when it is time to receive and closed when it is time to give," we
involve our school community in giving to others. Our Seton Service Club engages our students in reaching out to the residents of St. Catherine's, our
villa sisters, the children at Mt. Manor Rehabilitation Center, Seton Outreach Center, the lonely folks in their mountain homes, and others. In the spirit of St. Elizabeth Ann our children stock the local food pantry, raise funds for our Daughters of
Charity missions in Haiti, Taiwan, and Africa, and raise funds in our annual walk-a-thons for children suffering from cancer, cystic fibrosis, and
juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The presence of St. Elizabeth Ann is very real to me. She is my daily prayer partner and my companion on the
journey as principal of her school. One of my dreams in planning our new addition was to have a meditation garden with a statue of St. Elizabeth Ann
Seton portraying her vibrant warmth and love for children. That dream is in place to become a reality in early November. When dreaming and planning, St. Elizabeth Ann wrote: "God will direct it-and that is enough…I look neither behind
nor before but straight upwards, without thinking of human calculations…it all belongs to God." We invite all friends of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to visit her school and experience her spirit…her mission…alive
and well in 2002. Come see what great things God is directing and accomplishing for our children! Or check our website at
www.mothersetonschool.org. Sister Mary Catherine Conway, D.C. |
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