Ordinariness, Eternity, A Woman of Insight: Mother Seton\u27s Spirituality from East-Asian Perspectives

Parallels among Elizabeth Seton’s spirituality and Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are explored. A central part of Elizabeth’s spirituality was her concept of “the grace of the moment,” the discernment of God’s will in all situations. This is compared with the Confucian Timely Mean, which guides people’s responses to all occasions and which allows people to fulfill the Mandate of Heaven in daily life and all human relationships. For Elizabeth, eternity began in the present because it was a way of seeing life with God’s vision. This is similar to the Taoist way of viewing everything in the light of Heaven. Elizabeth was intimately familiar with suffering and accepted what it had to teach her; her outlook relates well to the Buddhist goal of seeing reality as it is. Questions for reflections are provided