Novena to St. Monica starts today!

If you are like me, then there's someone you care about who has left the Catholic church--and you really, really, really want them to come home!    Or there's someone you love who hasn't converted yet.  Who can understand your pain and longing better than St. Monica, who spent 18 years praying for the conversion of her son!  It took quite a while, but look at how she was rewarded for her faithfulness!

Today is the first day of the Novena to St. Monica, and thanks to the lovely young couple at PRAY MORE NOVENAS we have the novena prayers.  If you haven't visited PRAY MORE NOVENAS and signed up to be notified of the monthly novena, please hurry over there and get signed up!

Here are the prayers for today:

Dear Saint Monica, you were once the mournful mother of a prodigal son. Your faithfulness to prayer brought you and your son so close to God that you are now with him in eternity. By your intercession and God’s grace, your son St. Augustine became a great and venerable Saint of the Church. Please take my request to God with the same fervor and persistence with which you prayed for your own son.

(Mention your intentions here)

With your needs, worries and anxieties, you threw yourself on the mercy and providence of God. Through sorrow and pain, you constantly devoted yourself to God. Pray for me that I might join you in such a deep faith in God’s goodness and mercy.

Above all, dear Saint Monica, pray for me that I may, like your son, turn from my sin and become a great saint for the glory of God.

First day of school!

Here's our theme for the year.  

God still answers prayers!

And sometimes you get the answer as a complete surprise!  Today was one of those days.

Several years ago I managed a child care center.  One day I overheard a conversation between one of the mothers and the owner.  The mother had just had another miscarriage.  It seemed that she didn't have trouble getting pregnant, she just had trouble staying pregnant.

When I left that job I never thought I would see her again, but periodically I would think of her and pray that wherever she was, she had managed to get pregnant again and that she had managed to carry the baby to term.

In my new job as a 1st grade teacher's assistant I was pleasantly surprised to see the name of her son on my class roster.  At the open house this afternoon I saw her, and she told me that she now has a daughter who is a year old!

I couldn't help but start to cry, and then I confided in her how I had been praying for her over these years, even though I never expected to see her again.  And how happy I was to know that those prayers had been answered!

God is good.