Do you have someone, some friend or relative, who has wandered away from the Church? They don’t attend Mass; probably never pray. Our Lord Jesus is just not a part of their thinking, of their lives? 

I have such a friend. And I’m worried about him. Talking to him is out of the question. But I can pray and I do. 

I think of St. Monica and pray to her. As you know, for years she prayed for the conversion of her son, Augustine. But he was smothered by the things of the world, by its many alluring prizes. He records his waywardness in his "Confessions." 

Augustine and Monica. Son and mother. Two names bound together in the history of prayers and holiness. Through the persistent prayers of his mother and the gift of God’s Grace, Augustine freed himself from the mire in which he lived to become a priceless gift to the Church. 

Please read the following prayer or poem by St. Augustine. Perhaps our wandering ones, if they search for Christ at all, they search in the world of things. They have forgotten that they will find Him not in the many beautiful things He has made, but in their own hearts. 

Wouldn’t that be a Christmas present! To have my friend and yours come across a creche somewhere in this pagan world of ours, to look for a moment at the Christ child, Mary and Joseph and remember a time years ago when that little family meant all the world to him. 

Fr. Robert McQueeney, 1919 - 2002
Spiritual Director
The Padre Pio Foundation of America, 1982-2002