A Mother's Prayer for the Conversion of Her Child

St. Monica, a model for mothers, who pray for the conversion of their sons.

Catholic Harbor Of faith and morals

A Mother's Prayers

by the Catholic Truth Society, 1899

"Cast thy bread upon the running waters; for after a long time thou shalt find it again." We read these words, yet we do not take heart. We pray and see no immediate answer to our prayers; and then we lose hope, we lose courage, we lose faith; and so we obtain nothing.

The following true story may perhaps help us to greater perseverance:-- It came to my knowledge that in a certain house not far from the church of the Servite Fathers, there was an old gentleman suffering from an incurable disease, who had been born and brought up a Catholic, but had become a Protestant to please his wife on the occasion of his marriage, and had, therefore, for a long time given up all practice of his religion. He had spent the greater part of his life in India, and had only been back in England a few years. His mother had been a most saintly person, the sister of a bishop; and her sorrow at the apostasy of her son, in spite of her careful training, had been lifelong and bitter. Still she never gave up hope, and never ceased praying for his return to the Faith of his childhood. At the time when I became acquainted with him, his wife was dead, and he was living in lodgings, where the landlady was covetous, suspicious, grasping, and believing that no one could be interested in her lodger save for his money. Alas! there are many such in London, and the suffering they are able to inflict on their victims, especially if of the kind called by the French les pauvres honteux--ladies and gentlemen who have seen better days--would fill a volume.

One of the Servite Fathers, who was the parish priest, heard of this case and went at once to see him. But the landlady was inexorable. First she asked what possible business he could have with this gentleman, who was a Protestant. Father S_ replied that he knew, as a fact, that he was a Catholic; and that, as one of his flock, it was a duty on his part to come and see him.

After a long debate on this point, the woman began to tell him a long story; how her lodger had run through all his money; how he had not a penny left of his own; and how she was keeping him entirely out of charity and on account of the intimate friendship she had formerly had with his wife. All this, I may remark in passing, was entirely false.

Father S_ replied that he had nothing whatever to say to his money; that the only object of his visit was to save his soul; and persisted in his request to be allowed to go upstairs.

Then the landlady tried another tack, and said he was such a violent man, and flew into such fearful passions, that she would not dare introduce a priest, as he would certainly insult him.

To which Father S_ replied, smiling, that he should not mind that, and that all he wanted to do was to satisfy his own conscience by seeing and speaking to him.

Then she said that he would not even see his own clergyman, and had dared him to come near him.

"You mean the Protestant clergyman?" continued the Father. "That I understand; and it is precisely for that reason that I wish to see him. Will you do me the favour of sending up my card to him?"

Then she had recourse to another stratagem. She said his disease was so far advanced that it was impossible for any one to endure the smell. He had already had ever so many nurses, and none of them would remain. The fact was that nurses were too expensive. She was anxious to get all his money, and would not have anything spent which she could avoid.

Father S_ replied that no bad smell or contagious disease would deter a Catholic priest from doing his duty to the dying; and that if she wished for a nurse for nothing, she could have one of the Sisters of La Misericorde de Seez, who would come at once.

He saw that she was taken aback at this, and that the idea of having a nurse for nothing rather pleased her. Finally, she told him she would think over it and ask her husband; on which the holy priest, finding he could do nothing more that day, went away, promising to call on the morrow.

In the meantime, however, he went to see a lady who knew the case and had some acquaintance with the landlady, and begged her to go and try to persuade her to engage one of the Sisters for the sick man. This lady went at once, and succeeded beyond her hopes; the idea of unpaid service evidently brought about the wished-for arrangement.

The Sister sent was a Frenchwoman, full of zeal, energy and piety; and she and another Sister, for three whole months, took it by turns, day and night, to nurse the poor man, remaining in that fetid atmosphere and never shrinking from any service, however loathsome. The French Sister at once won the sick gentleman's heart; she was so different from the nurses he had previously endured: the delicacy of her touch in dressing his wounds, and the heroic charity and patience which she showed, in spite of his occasional fits of irritability and temper, produced a marvellous effect upon him.

After a little time she began to say a few words on religious subjects; but when she suggested his seeing a priest, the sick man became furiously angry. The good Sister, however, bore all his reproaches with gentleness and in silence: she was determined that his soul should be saved, and never ceased to pray for that object all the time she was in his room, and to offer up everything for that intention.

Once, while she was talking to him on the subject, a terrific knocking was heard in the room, which seemed at the same time as if shaken by an earthquake. The Sister was startled, for there was no way of accounting for it; but the sick man was so extremely frightened that he began to tremble all over, declared it was the devil, and implored the Sister not to leave him and to put on him whatever holy thing she might have about her. She gave him a medal, which at once tranquillized him, and he became calm.

This fright, whatever may have occasioned it, had the good effect of making him consent to see Father S_, who called the following day and was most politely received, though the conversation was confined to general subjects and to inquiries as to his health. The sick man was very much pleased with his visitor, and entreated him to come again. On this second occasion, Father S_ began on the subject of religion, and found him imbued with all the most absurd prejudices which a Protestant could have against the Catholic Faith, especially against confession, infallibility, devotion to Our Lady, and the Blessed Sacrament. However, he was not averse from discussing these subjects. The good priest came every day, and with the greatest sweetness and patience answered all his objections. What he did not fully agree to or understand, he would talk over afterwards with the Sister, who generally succeeded in satisfying him.

At last his eyes were opened, and then his only anxiety was to be prepared for Confession and Holy Communion, which again the Sister undertook to do. She found that the one soft place in his heart was his love for his pious mother, who had always prayed so earnestly for him. Amidst all his wanderings he had carefully kept one little thing which she had given him as a boy. It was a small cardboard shape of the foot of St. Rose of Viterbo, and a piece of the veil which had covered her body on the shrine, with its authentication. Who knows what grace he obtained by his fidelity to this one recollection of his holier days? Anyhow, Sister C_ never alluded to his mother without the tears coming into his eyes. "Would that she could see the answer to her prayers!" he would exclaim: "but doubtless she is still watching over and helping me from heaven."

At last the day came when he was to make his confession and be reconciled to God. Scarcely had Father S_ sat down by his bedside, when that appalling knock was again heard in the room. It sounded like a most furious blow on a large copper cauldron, and shook the whole room, as the Sister had before experienced. The sick man was most violently agitated, clasped the priest's hand tightly, and implored him not to leave him.

Father S_ told him to be calm and not to mind the wiles of his spiritual enemy. His penitent then said that he belonged to one of the worst lodges of Freemasonry, and that he was sure the noise was diabolical.

The priest sprinkled him with holy water, when he became suddenly quiet, and made a full and general confession; after which he was reconciled to God and to the Church, and received the Blessed Sacrament with the deepest penitence and joy. The consolation he then experienced continued to the end of his life, although his landlady did her very best to embitter it by her unfounded jealousy and avarice. She took it into her head that the priest and the Sister were trying to get all the old gentleman's money--"or else," she was overheard saying, "that nurse, who is quite a lady toe, would never endure that smell for so many days and nights; and that young clergyman would not come to see him so frequently and remain with him so long!" She became as disagreeable to them both as possible, and there was no spite or ill-nature that she did not vent upon the poor Sister, who was naturally more in her power than the priest.

At last, in a rage, she told Father S_ that she knew the Sister had got a lot of money out of the patient, whereas it had all been promised to her; that the sick man paid nothing for his board and lodging or medicines, and that it was all at her expense; and a great deal more in the same strain.

Father S_ found out that the whole of this statement was absolutely false; but she made the poor invalid so miserable by her abuse and continual suspicion, that he implored the priest to take him to another lodging. However, when it came to the time, he was too ill to be moved, so that things were obliged to go on as before.

The poor sufferer himself seemed willing to accept everything in a spirit of penitence for the past. His patience was wonderful, in spite of the most terrible sufferings. Towards the end of his illness, his feet mortified and bred worms, causing him excessive pain; but the only remark he made about this was that Almighty God was punishing him in that way, because he had formerly been so vain about his feet. In fact, his dispositions were most edifying. He received the Sacrament frequently, and always with the greatest fervour and contrition. His death was calm and free from all terrors. To both the Sister and Father S_ it was the source of unmixed consolation--how much more to the poor mother who would meet him in heaven her ransomed child--the object of so many apparently hopeless tears and prayers!

The landlady's astonishment was very great when, on opening his desk, she found all and more than all the money she expected. She owned to the priest that she was ashamed of her unjust suspicions: but that she had never seen so much patience and charity as was shown to that poor man by the Sisters; and that she could not believe, till now, that any one living would have made such sacrifices for a stranger, without any gain or profit! Certainly, if example and teaching could have made her a Catholic, she had both. But her covetousness and love of money were, like Judas's, too strong impediments to her conversion. Her feelings, however, are greatly softened towards those "nurses," as she persists in calling the Sisters, who are so willing to "spend and be spent" for the sake of the suffering members of their Lord. May their great work for the bodies and souls of men obtain a glorious place for them in heaven!

Prayer for the Conversion of a Child To the Heart of Jesus

O Heart of Jesus, I humbly prostrate myself before You, adoring You as the Heart of my Lord and my God! Pardon the sins by which I have offended You and rendered myself unworthy of Your mercies. For Your own sake, O Lord, for the honor and glory of Your infinite mercy, have pity on me! Hearken to my supplications for grace and salvation for my strayed child. From all eternity You have loved it and borne it in Your Heart. Have mercy on it. You will that it should be converted and live. Effect in it what You have decreed. You can do all that You will! You do not will the perdition of my child. Draw him (her) from the deep abyss into which he (she) has sunk. From Your cross You drew all to Yourself--loosen the bonds in which he (she) lies chained. You have bought him (her) at a great price --take possession of Your property. He (she) was once dedicated to You in holy Baptism--let not Your enemies rejoice longer over him (her.) You have opened in Your Church a fountain of pardon and grace--lead him (her) to where he (she) may imbibe new life. O give me back the child that hell has torn from my embrace! You, O Heart of Jesus, can do this! Hearken to the prayers of Your Blessed Mother, of Your saints, and of all the elect for this my child, that once belonged to their society, but now is so far astray, Listen to my prayers, the prayers of a mother, O You Who cannot hear unmoved a mothers supplication for her child! Grant me what is dearest to me on earth, the salvation of my child, and I will eternally praise Your holy name! Amen.

_____________________________

Prayer to St. Monica

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, comforter of the sorrowful and salvation of them that put their trust in Him, mercifully regarded thy tears, Blessed Monica, sainted mother of Augustine the sinner. His conversion and heroic sanctification were the fruit of thy prayers. From the heights of thy heavenly home, happy mother of thy saintly son, pray for those who wander afar from God, and add thy prayers to those of all mothers who sorrow over the straying souls of their sons or daughters. Pray for us, that following thy example and that of all God's children, we may at length enjoy the eternal vision of our Father in heaven. Amen.