Set me as a seal on your heart; as a seal on your arm. The Church honors today the memory of St. Scholastica, twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia. Following the Rule of her brother, she founded the Order of Benedictine nuns. When she died, she was interred in the same grave as her brother. St. Scholastica is invoked against storms, and is the patroness of Benedictine (women) convents. The Gospel passage chosen for today’s memorial recounts Jesus’ visit to the home of the sisters Martha and Mary. Martha, seemingly the older of the two, busied herself with offering hospitality to Jesus and his entourage. Her sister Mary, meanwhile, took a seat at the feet of Jesus listening to him speak. It was something that did not sit well with Martha, prompting her to seek Jesus’ intervention. However, Jesus appears not to have seen things from Martha’s perspective, and he ended up “commending” Mary for choosing the better part while reprimanding Martha. While it would be presumptuous of us to say that Jesus reprimanded Martha for her desire for Mary to help her with the house chores, what we can say with certainty is that Jesus presented Mary’s disposition as that required of a disciple. By keeping at the feet of Jesus, Mary was able to focus all her attention on Jesus even as she took to heart what Jesus was saying. Whereas St. Scholastica was not at the house of Mary and Martha on the day of Jesus’ visit, she certainly heard Jesus’ message and decided that like Mary, she too was going to take her place at the feet of Jesus in order to listen attentively to him. For it was while at the feet of Jesus that St. Scholastica heard Jesus espousing her to himself. The passage from the Song of Songs which constitutes the First Reading celebrates the power of love, the kind of love which must bond a disciple (the bride) to Jesus (the groom). St. Scholastica, as a consecrated virgin, sought this union with Jesus. As a virgin religious, she was able to live to the full her baptismal consecration. Whereas not everybody will feel called to consecrate the self as a religious virgin, by virtue of baptismal consecration, all the baptized are called to unite themselves to Jesus. May we who are celebrating the life of St. Scholastica be inspired to seek to spend some time at the feet of Jesus in order to listen to what he has to tell us.