St. Elizabeth Ann Seton 

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Community is a welcoming and active, Roman Catholic parish serving the community of Mill Creek / Bothell, Washington. Our parish is served by the Religious Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit under the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. We are a diverse community of believers, guided by the Holy Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are a community that welcomes all people, inviting them into our spiritual home as we deepen our relationship with God. We are one faith family, united by our Lord and Savior,  Jesus Christ. Welcome to our faith community. I invite you to join us for liturgy and fellowship. 

Join our faith family on Dec 7 for the parish Christmas Celebration Concert and Sing-a-long.  Free-will donation or canned goods to benefit the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is requested.  Enjoy the solemnity of the Christmas season with heavenly music and Christmas carols.

"As the Advent season begins, it is a good time to reflect on the Christian call to joyful expectancy, finding hope and consolation in waiting for Christ" - Pope Francis

During the season of Advent, we long for joy, harmony, peace and generosity in our lives.  Join our faith family as we celebrate the Simbang Gabi Mass (Filipino Advent Novena Mass) as we wait for the birth of our Lord Jesus.

A cultural presentation and reception will follow the mass celebration.

Dear brothers and sisters, today's readings teach us the importance of perseverance. In the first reading we heard about the need to withstand justice. In the Second Reading, we hear the need to strive to imitate the saints. And in the Gospel Reading, we hear about the need to persevere in our living faith. In short, we must persevere in our living faith through justice and imitation of the saints.

In the first reading from the book of Malachi, we hear the Lord say: “the day is coming, blazing like an oven,  when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,  and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch.” In other words, the wicked will be erased from the face of the earth. When they die, there will be no tombstones to mark their graves. Over time, their existence will vanish from the memories of the generations that come and go until the moment when no one will remember that they ever existed. But for those who worship the Name of Jesus, God will resurrect them, sanctify them and take them to a safe place where they will never be harmed. This place is Heaven, the safe place where the Lord rules forever as King and Lord.

In the second reading from Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, we hear the harsh words of St. Paul for those who fail to imitate the saints. St. Paul warns those who do not want to work by telling them that if they are not willing to work, they are not to eat. But why were some not willing to work? Because some believed that Jesus was about to return, at any moment he would return to establish His Kingdom. Therefore, why work? It was much easier to wait for Jesus to arrive and then all the problems in the world will be solved. According to St. Paul, they were living in idleness, because they were bored with themselves and had become lazy. They occupied their time with small conversations, rumors, slander, all of which led to the lack of harmony and to division. Because of their disorderly lives that disturbed others, they neglected the fruitful work for the glory of the Lord.

For this reason, Saint Paul orders and exhorts in the Lord Jesus that each person makes a living by doing his work in silence. Every Christian, when he can do it, must support himself and not live on the income or wealth of others. St. Paul in his exhortation was not trying to be mean to his brothers and sisters. Rather, as an authority of the Church, he was simply restoring order in the Christian community where disorder had infiltrated.

In the Gospel of Luke, we hear Jesus' speech about the fall of Jerusalem. While Jesus spoke of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple that occurred in the year 70 after Christ, those who were present associated this event with the arrival of the Kingdom of God on earth. Many of Jesus' followers recognized him as the Messiah and wanted to crown him as their King. Then, when Jesus spoke of destruction or anything that could be associated with war, his followers assumed that the day when Jesus would rule them was near. In other words, what Jesus was talking about around the year 30 were events that took place in the days of Jesus’ generation. Forty years later, those who still lived around 70 A.D., saw the fulfillment of these prophecies. As St. Paul said in the previous reading, we should not be idle, waiting for things that may not happen. We must move forward with our lives, be fruitful in the work of the Holy Spirit, while we await the final return of Christ that will precede the day of Judgment and resurrection. While today's Gospel reading was prophetic in nature and applied to the days of Jesus, if we set aside the prophecies, the remaining words of Jesus still apply to us today. We are still called to persevere in our living faith. This teaching of Jesus has never changed. It is repeated again and again throughout the New Testament. Some of us do not have very heavy crosses to bear. Our lives have been quite good, full of blessings from the Lord. But some of our brothers and sisters have very heavy crosses to bear, we must pray for them, to persevere until the end, so that they are not counted among those who have renounced their faith and lost their salvation in Jesus Christ.

Walking together as brothers and sisters

We are St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish.  A diverse Catholic family guided by the Holy Spirit, committed to serve others and deepen our relationship with the Heart of Jesus. 

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church is served by the Religious Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit from
Christ the Priest Province under the
Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle.

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(United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) 

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