Kids Got You Down? I've Got a Saint for You!

Today would have been my mother's 85th birthday.  She shares this day with St. Monica, a saint she definitely admired.  You see, St. Monica is the patron saint of mothers.  (No, not the mother of all patron saints!)

She lived in the 3rd Century and married a man who wasn't exactly the nicest guy.  He didn't beat her, but he was loud and mean and a womanizer.  What was her response to the verbal and psychological abuse?  She prayed.  Yep, that's it.  She prayed and he converted.  Her cranky mother-in-law was converted too!

Monica also had three children.  Her oldest son was a brilliant thinker, but a pagan with a bad temper and a wandering eye just like his father.  He lived with a mistress and fathered a child out of wedlock.  Monica and her tears followed him from Africa through Italy, much to his chagrin.  More important than her tears and her tailing him was her prayers.  She constantly prayed for her son and his conversion.  Finally, he relented, converted and was baptized.

Her son was St. Augustine of Hippo, one of most greatest thinkers and theologians of the Church.

Her life wasn't easy and her patience was sorely tested during all those years of praying without an answer, but she persevered.  She is a model for mothers.  You don't need "bad" kids to know that being a good mother always involves patience, doggedness and prayer.

St. Monica, pray for us.

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9 Days for Life - Day Five

Today is Day Five for me, but there is a bit of a disconnect because if you're following along on the USCCB website you know that Day Five was actually yesterday, January 22.  The reflections and reparations are geared toward the actual anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the March for Life.  That's not going to stop me from moving forward; everyday is a great day to pray and make reparations to end abortion.  If you are interested in seeing Day Five prayers, go HERE

As part of the March for Life events, a Vigil Mass held on Tuesday night included a homily from Cardinal Sean O'Malley.  It was very moving and maybe not in the way you might think:

"The Pro-Life Movement needs to be the merciful face of God to women facing a difficult pregnancy.  Being judgmental or condemnatory is not part of the Gospel of Life."

Wow.  But there's more

"We are all here because we want to save the thousands of innocent children who are being executed by the very people whose mission should be to heal and protect life.  The truth is that we can save those babies only by saving the mothers.  When they experience God's loving mercy then they will become capable of showing mercy to their children.  The Pro Life Movement has to be about saving mothers.  We need to focus on the women to try to understand what they are suffering."

The entire homily is well worth your time to watch or read.  You can do both at Salt and Light.

Mother and Child by Pablo Picasso

Personally, I would love to see more adoption to take the place of abortion.  I'm really not sure why, but adoption has become a dirty word in American society.  The idea that a mother could give up her baby to strangers seems cruel to many.  Is that worse than if she had never given that child an opportunity to be born?

Mothers who carry their babies to term despite the obstacles - poverty, shame, rejection or lost opportunities - they are the heroes.  We need to celebrate them.  We need to find ways to help them, whether their choice is to raise the child or their choice is to give the child an opportunity to be loved by another family.  Those are the real choices.

Tomorrow I want to tell a few stories about adoption.

CC