Daybreak

Eleventh Day of Christmas Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1774-1821; raised Episcopalian, but knew the value of prayer, scripture, and a nightly examination of conscience; married William Magee Seton when she was 19, and bore him five children before he died of tuberculosis; while in Italy with her dying husband, she saw Catholicity in action through friends; she became Catholic because of belief in the Real Presence, devotion to the Blessed mother, and her conviction that the Catholic Church led back to the apostles and to Christ; she opened a school in Baltimore to support her children; over the years, she grew from ordinary goodness to heroic sanctity; she was the first American-born citizen to be canonized a saint Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 1/4/25 Gospel: John 1:35-42