You are a Saint

   I ran into an old friend today, whom I had not seen in 4 years.  It was lovely to catch up.  I asked her about her 24 year old son.
    "Oh, please!  Are you kidding?  He is a complete disaster.  I raised him better, but he is a louse.  He does not have a good job.  He is not making anything of himself.  Maybe it is the media culture--I don't know.  He is with a woman who has a one year old child.  He could do so much better.  But at least he loves that little girl.  I did raise him right, and that much, at least, shows.  But no, I am sobbing every day that he is not yet whom I know he can be."
    Immediately I thought, "You, my friend, are St. Monica."
    Today, Catholics and other Westerners revere St. Monica as a great mother saint.  We think of her with a halo.  But until the last months of her life, her son was as my friend described: not headed in the right direction, with the wrong lady, not becoming the man she knows he could be.
     Augustine received baptism on the 24th of April, 387.  Augustine and Monica had a vision of heaven together, and she died about five days later.  She was buried on Nov. 13th, 387.  So, for almost seven whole months, Monica's great life ambition, to see her son a faithful Catholic in an intimate, loving relationship with Christ, was fulfilled.
     But for her whole motherly life save those seven months, she was a failure.  She was disappointed.  She would have told any woman, such as me, what my friend told me today.  Monica would have sounded just like her.
     We are saints.  You are a saint.  If your child is a catastrophe, well, join the heavenly hosts.  If your child is a wreck, here is your halo.
     Pray for your child!  Influence your child every way that you can. Never give up.  Be persistent.  The faith of the one who has hope even when there is no hope is grounds for canonization.