The saints of our time

Today's gospel talked about us being ready for the coming of our Savior. An old proverb says, "do not put off until tomorrow what can be done today." There are many times in my life, in my day, that I will say..."I can get that done tomorrow" and I'll spend my extra five, ten or fifteen minutes checking facebook or my email, or the score of the Steelers game on nfl.com. :) But today's gospel speaks to me especially, maybe to you too, about the need to be diligent in our work and in our faith. We don't know the hour that Christ is coming...and there have been times when I certainly would not have been ready to meet Jesus face to face if He would have come down. So hopefully, we can truly say at the end of each day I did everything I did today for the greater glory of God.

Today we also hear about St Monica, the mother of St Augustine...and man, to be the mother of St Augustine, you would HAVE to have been a saint! St Augustine was a bit of a party animal...he had mistresses and even had a child outside of marriage. But his mother, Monica, knew her son had the potential to be great. Yep, GREAT! And she prayed and she prayed and God worked in her son's life helping Augustine become not only a saint but a doctor of the Church! But as I listened to the gospel and heard about St. Monica, I found myself thinking about St Monica's fear as a mother for her child. Did she wonder if he would make it to heaven? Did she fear that Christ would come and her son wouldn't be ready? And as those thoughts crossed my mind and found myself thinking of my mom and all the grey hairs I probably gave her when I was going through "the world is against me" stage. Mom's have a special place in today's feast of St Monica. Mom's pray hard for their children to turn out well, and not just that, but they pray that their kids make it to heaven. Today's feast of St. Monica is really a feast for all mothers and for their strength to keep on praying even when their kids are making poor choices. What a gift to have St Monica and her intercessions for mothers today!