Mother Seton Shrine Grounds 2025

While visiting the Basilica and Museum at The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, I explored the grounds a bit while my wife sensibly stayed indoors and toured the museum exhibits. Unfortunately we visited just after the snows of February 2026 so a lot of things were less accessible than they should have been.

The snowy basilica

When Elizabeth Seton and her companions came to Emmitsburg in 1809, they moved into the Stone House. This was the first home of her newly founded order, the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph's (also known as the Daughters of Charity). It was originally a farm house and the group rather quickly outgrew it. The building was not open to visitors on our visit.

The Stone House

A nearby fountain features a statue of Mother Seton with some children, along with quotes from her in the pavement. At least, I was told there were quotes by and about her in the pavement. Not much was visible. On the up side, I did walk on water to get there...frozen water.

The fountain

Several bells used in the area are on display. The Academy Bell was used by Saint Joseph's Academy to summon students (both boarding and day pupils) to classes, masses, and leisure activities all the way up to 1945. The "Dinky" Bell came from a train that brought students, sisters, visitors, livestock, and supplies to Emmitsburg for the congregation. The Seminary Bell was used by the Daughters of Charity for prayer time, meal time, and study time. The bells were all rung in 1963 for Mother Seton's beatification. 

Historic bells

The White House is the first school building set up in 1810 for Saint Joseph's Academy, where the sisters taught. The interior is still decorated with 19th century furnishings, though I was not able to go in. The building is quite large and in great shape.

The White House

The front door

Nearby is the entrance to Saint Joseph's Cemetery where many of the sisters were buried. Mother Seton herself was buried here before her remains were moved to the Basilica. When they selected the site, the area was heavily wooded. Seton's sister-in-law Harriett picked out an oak tree where she wanted to be buried. Sadly, she died four months later. Her wishes were followed. After Mother Seton's death, her son William authorized the building of the Mortuary Chapel in the heart of the cemetery.

Cemetery entrance

Mortuary Chapel

The graves of the sisters

I definitely want to go back at some point and see the insides of the various outer buildings.

Book Review: Eclipse of the Sun by Michael D. O'Brien

Eclipse of the Sun by Michael D. O'Brien

In a sprawling narrative, the lives of several Canadian conservative Catholics are thrown into chaos by government interference. The State has clamped down on education, news, and civil liberties. After lethal raids on a commune and a cloister, Father Andre (chaplain for the slaughtered nuns) is on the run with Arrow (son of a woman killed at the commune). Their efforts to avoid the authorities brings them into contact with a variety of friendly and hostile people. Father Andre realizes that Arrow is the great-grandson of Thaddaeus who lives way in the backcountry. The journey takes a while (850 pages!) and has lots of reverses, setbacks, and moments of grace along the way.

The core story is very interesting and moving emotionally. Arrow is a tough kid and a survivor, though he does not develop a whole lot as the story proceeds. The other characters around him, both immediately and tangentially, make a lot of difficult and impactful choices that move the story along and develop their characters a bit better than Arrow gets developed. 

The story moves very slowly and becomes a showcase for everything that could go wrong with a government that opposes committed Catholics. The government covers up their attacks at the beginning, blaming the violence on far-right conservative militants. The government actively undermines parents' rights over their children throughout the story. The one good representative in the central government is barely effective in trying to save a woman who intervened on Arrow's behalf and was subsequently captured, hidden, and tortured. This side narrative takes up a substantial part of the book, reinforcing how bad the government has gotten. The detail of this and other side narratives is unnecessary and slows down the story (though, the main narrative has the same problem with overdescription of moving from one place to the next).

While a lot of the political complaints are legitimate, everything is taken to an extreme that gets less plausible as the story goes on. The writing almost revels in the oppression imposed on the characters, intended as a prophecy about the real world. In an afterword, the author says he will be happy if it turns out wrong. This novel seems like the right-wing equivalent of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, another narrative that wallows in the victimhood of its protagonists. While I enjoy a good, paranoid thriller, getting too far into the weeds turns the work into a laundry list of complaints, almost like getting lectured. The narrative just goes on too long and down too many rabbit trails. O'Brien's earlier novel Plague Journal managed to get the paranoia and thrills of running from an oppressive government without getting mired in excessive descriptions or piling on other characters' stories. 

It's a shame because O'Brien manages to weave in a lot of solid theology and beautiful moments, but then we get stuff like the politician going from his office to the parliamentary chamber to a pub where he meets with a journalist to an office meeting with other opposition party members and back to the chamber to make a speech. O'Brien needed some heavy editing for this book. Or maybe splitting it into two or three separate novels.

Not recommended--the good stuff gets buried in a lot of other stuff.

Mother Seton Shrine Basilica 2025

In commemoration of our son's death a year ago, my wife and I made a mini-pilgrimage to The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland. It was early February so we still had snow from the earlier storm.

Shrine Entrance

The shrine has a book shop and museum about Elizabeth Ann Seton. She was born Elizabeth Ann Bayley in New York City in 1774. She grew up Episcopalian, marrying William Magee Seton in 1794. They had five children together but he died in 1803. They had gone to Italy for his convalescence and she discovered Catholicism there. Returning to New York, she converted in 1805. She moved to Emmitsburg in 1809, where she founded an order of nuns and started a school for Catholic girls, founding what would inspire the parochial school system in the United States. She died in 1821 and was canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI. She is the first US citizen to be declared a saint.

The star of the shrine is the basilica where she is buried. 

Basilica exterior

That dome is over the congregation, making a very spacious and open nave.

The nave

From the inside, visitors can see that the dome has a walkway that I would love to walk around.

Dome interior

The main altar also has plenty of space and light, with mosaics of saints watching over things.

Mosaics at the main altar

Front view of the main altar

Mother Seton's remains are at the Altar of Relics on the right side of the basilica. The statue was made in Italy and depicts her in the habit that her order, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's. 

Altar of Relics

Her devotion to Saint Joseph is seen in the side altar to the Foster-father of Jesus.

Saint Joseph Altar

Another altar features Saint Vincent de Paul.

Saint Vincent de Paul

The Marian altar is also the tabernacle, where the consecrated hosts are kept after Mass.

Mary's altar

Another altar with relics is dedicated to Saint Louise de Marillac. She lived in 1600s France and was friends with Saint Vincent de Paul after she became a widow in 1625. She formed the Community of the Daughters of Charity. They worked with the Paulists to serve the poor. She was canonized in 1934 and proclaimed patron of all Christian social workers in 1960.

Saint Luoise de Marillac

The organ over the entrance

The stained glass windows are numerous and large, featuring things like the seven corporal acts of mercy and various nuns doing such good deeds.

Stained glass

A meditation chapel just outside the doors of the nave features a statue of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The mosaic behind the statue shows Jerusalem in the near distance and the apostle not being able to keep watch for one hour.

Jesus in Gethsemane

Slacking apostles

On the way outside, we saw another image of Mother Seton, this one was originally in the foyer of the motherhouse of her order. The bas relief was placed in 1909 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her arrival in the valley. 

Mother Seton in bas relief

Book Review: Absolute Green Lantern Vol. 1 by A. Ewing et al.

Absolute Green Lantern Volume 1: Without Fear written by Al Ewing and art by Jahnoy Lindsay

In yet another reboot of the DC Comics universe, the Green Lantern mythos is completely reimagined as Abin Sur comes crashing down on Evergreen, a small town just outside of California. The town is caught in a bubble and the townsfolk disappear except for a handful, including Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and other recognized names in the Green Lantern tradition. They are regular townfolk trying to figure out what Abin Sur is up to. About halfway through this volume some explanation is made but it is not very coherent and not at all intriguing. The story reads like they are trying to come up with something new but haven't thought it out and are just winging it. As a Green Lantern fan, I found this very disappointing and won't be coming back to it.

Not recommended.

Inspiring Greatness: La Jetee (1963) & 12 Monkeys (1995)

You can see farther if you stand on the shoulders of giants. People don't do this enough, building upon past achievements to get even greater achievements. This series will look at some works that inspired other, subsequent works, for the better. Be warned, spoilers are ahead.... 

A while back, I watched a bunch of short films. Looking at lists of popular shorts (under 60 minutes), many recommended La Jetee, which was not readily available when I did the series. I found a copy at a nearby county library that lets outsiders borrow stuff and was able to watch this film that inspired a favorite film of mine...

La Jetee (1963) written and directed by Chris Marker

A young boy visits the Paris airport on a Sunday with his family, because it's fun to watch the planes. He sees a beautiful woman at the end of the observation deck. He also sees something he doesn't quite understand though the voiceover tells us it is the death of a man. Several days later, Paris is wiped out at the beginning of World War III. The surviving Parisians flee to underground tunnels where society morphs. Without resources to survive, some scientist find a way to send people into the past and the future, hoping to get food and energy needed for survival. The boy has grown by now and his strong attachment to the image of the airport woman makes him a good candidate to endure the displacement of being sent back in time. They hook him up to their equipment and he travels back, meeting the woman and building a relationship. With many successful trips, the scientists send him to the future to beg for help. His interactions bring the needed help and the future scientists want to help the man. He wants only one thing, to go back to the woman in the past. They grant that, sending him back to the airport. Another agent is sent back and kills the man after he gets to see the woman one last time. His death is the one witnessed by his younger self, a jarring parallel that ends the film.

The movie is striking in its style. The images are almost entirely still photos, with some panning and some fade-ins and -outs providing a small amount of activity. The story is told in voiceover by a narrator who is not a character in the story, just the omniscient filmmaker telling viewers what they need to know as the story proceeds. The only other voices are the scientists, who are heard whispering in German, as if they were mad scientists or Nazi horror mongers. My description might make it sound amateurish or cheap, but the style is beguiling and easily holds viewers' attention. Ken Burns achieves a similar effect in his documentaries like The Civil War, using still images with voiceovers to convey the narrative.

But Burns is not the one who stood on the shoulders of this work. The great innovation comes from Terry Gilliam, who used this short black and white film (27 minute run time) as inspiration for...

12 Monkeys (1995) directed by Terry Gilliam

James Cole (Bruce Willis) is haunted by dreams of his youth visiting an airport and seeing a man gunned down and a woman running after him. His waking life is also a nightmare. He lives in an underground, grubby prison because a virus killed five billion people in 1997, forcing the survivors to live underground until a vaccine can be developed. The scientists who are part of the society send prisoners (they call them "volunteers" but the prisoners are definitely "voluntold") into the past. They hope to discover the initial strain of the virus before it mutated so they can craft a vaccine, allowing humanity to return to the surface world. Cole is a good candidate because he is smart and resilient. He has gone out many times in a protective suit in their present time to collect animals (mostly bugs) so the scientists can study their immunity to the virus.

Unfortunately, the first time the scientists send him back, he winds up in 1990 (they were hoping to land him in 1996). Worse, he's had a fight with police and winds up in a mental hospital where he is cared for by Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), a compassionate psychiatrist. But the mental ward is hardly any better than the future prison. One thing that might make it worse is the heavy use of drugs to pacify the patients, which makes it much harder for Cole to communicate rationally. Cole meets Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), a truly insane person who rants and raves about a lot of things and tries to help Cole escape. Cole attempts to explain his mission to Goines and to the psychiatrists but no one believes him, partly because it is outlandish and partly because Cole is impaired by his treatment. Cole winds up in solitary confinement but he vanishes into the future where the scientists plan to use him again, hoping to land him in the right time and location. He goes through a lot of cycles of time travel, changing his relationships with Goines and Railly in intriguing ways, and getting him closer to the group suspected of spreading the virus...the Army of the 12 Monkeys.

The script is so well written that the time travel element works seamlessly and helps to build on the themes of paranoia, despair, hope, and dealing with mental health crises. Cole tries to keep himself together mentally even though his situation is very perilous and complicated. His breakdown is very sympathetic. Pitt gives a great performance as the unstable Goines, with physical and verbal ticks that sell his madness without making him cartoonish. 

A good deal of the plot from La Jetee is used but it is expanded upon in very interesting ways. Dealing with the mental health problems of time travel creates a lot of sympathy for the characters and makes dramatic problems more intense. Ironically, Railly gets enough evidence to convince her Cole is a time traveler just at the point when Cole gives in and assumes he is "mentally divergent" and hopes that his post-virus present is a figment of his imagination. Like the main character in the first film, all he really wants is to be with Railly. The ending is devastatingly tragic even as a coda shows a sign of hope for the future people. 

The movie gets extra points from me for being a consistent time travel movie. Everything we see makes a coherent whole without resorting to alternate time lines or disappearing people/things/actions. Cole insists that he's not been sent back to save the world, just to gather information to help the scientists in the present find a cure. The movie sticks to that because it is more interested in Cole's personal drama than in pulling off some cool twist that doesn't withstand scrutiny. The whole package is so satisfying.

Highly recommended!

I hope you enjoyed this and let me know if you have any recommendations to fit this category. I am thinking about the two movie versions of The Fly and of The Thing as future posts.

Cute Kid Pix January 2026

Some more pictures that didn't make their own post...

While visiting the Oakley Cabin Museum and Park we hiked the trails and crossed a bridge. We noticed the river had a slim layer of ice and tried to break it, only our stone bounced when it broke the ice and stayed up top!

On the bridge

Breaking the frozen river

Closeup of above

I went to Ellicott City and saw the full-size (except for the inside) TARDIS little free library. I had a Geocaching travel bug that was a TARDIS too, so I snapped them together. In hindsight, I should have put the TARDIS inside the TARDIS to create a spatial paradox. Maybe next time!

What's the plural of TARDIS?

Books are bigger on the inside!

The big snow storm at the end of the month dumped a good deal of snow, meaning we had to shovel.

The view out the back porch

Shoveling out the front porch

We eventually made it out. It wasn't the most fun snow because sleet came during the storm transforming it into concrete-hard surfaces--not good for sledding, snowball fights, or making snowmen. Oh well!

Lent Plans for 2026

It's Ash Wednesday again, a day "of fasting and abstinence," as described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2043. Fasting is eating much less food than you normally would; abstinence in this context is not eating meat. The point of this penance is not to punish yourself. It's to "acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart." Rather than being led around by our appetites, we practice saying "no" to them so that we are free to focus on other, more important things. Eating food is important but not the most important thing in our lives. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the two prescribed days for fast and abstinence in America, with the Fridays in Lent only requiring abstinence from meat. The obligation is not so great. Often, people add other days for themselves or make other sacrifices, the classical "giving up something for Lent." As a family, we are going vegetarian for Lent, which will be a big challenge for all of us except for the one who is already mostly vegetarian. The thought crossed my mind to give up alcohol for Lent as well. Since the thought stuck around, I'll be doing that too!

The other traditional practices in Lent (in addition to fasting) are prayer and almsgiving. For prayer, I am again joining a Bible draft league. Last Sunday, I and a bunch of other guys drafted sections of the Bible (either whole books or parts of longer books--Genesis is divided into five sections and the Gospel of Luke into six sections, for example). I have eight passages that I will read and then write a small reflection on, sharing it with the other guys from the draft. Collectively, we are reading the whole Bible over Lent. I chose as my team name "Apocalypso Dancer" so I chose the books of Revelation and Daniel, among other cheery stuff. It should be a good read.

For almsgiving, we will be donating to local pregnancy centers. And all my beer money will go to a much better cause than my own happiness!

For spiritual reading, in addition to the Bible reading for the Bible draft, I will read Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament XIIL Revelation, among other religious books. 

I hope you have a fruitful Lent!