Feast of St. Monica, Who Was Certainly Not a Sociopath

Hi! 

We are digging out from our week at the beach -- pictures to follow. But I wanted to write a couple things down before I forget. Today is the Feast of St. Monica; tomorrow the Feast of St. Augustine. So this morning, I told the kids about Monica and her son, trying to explain it in a way that they could relate to. So: St. Augustine because a really, really naughty boy (and then man) who just did not listen to his mother or to God, and made really wrong choices. But his mother loved him no matter what, and prayed so hard that he would turn to God and choose to be good and do good. And how God heard her prayer and they both became great saints of the Church. 

They wanted to hear this over and over, but with specific examples of St. Augustine's naughtiness. I did my best. Then Cody asked how we become saints. I explained that it's not easy, but that we should all strive to be good, to do good, to look for and listen to God, to be kind, and to pray that we become holy. But that most of the time, we will really mess up. So we just try to do our best each day and ask the saints to pray for us.

Then, Cody asked if they could pretend the St. Monica/St. Augustine story. Cordelia chimes in with, "Yeah! Let's pretend we are St. Augustine! But not when he is a grown-up. When he is still naughty!"

And yesterday, the little Miss reached out and pinched Cody--hard--as she was walking by. Just because. I had had it with her by then--this was not the first act of aggression (nor, it turns out, the last) in the day. I sent her to her room. When she came down to (insincerely) apologize, I got right down at her level and said very sternly, "That is enough. There will be no more violence from you."

She straightened her shoulders, glared at me, then narrowed her eyes and muttered darkly, "Someday there will be violence from me."

Someday this'll either be a great anecdote in the toast at her wedding, or a sad recounting at her sentencing hearing.