The holiest person

If I want my oldest son to be passionate about something I know I need to make it feel like a competition. It’s just in him to strive to be better than someone, something or himself. This could lead to becoming vain for sure but if guided by the Lord it could be a very fruitful thing. 

So the day he asked me, “Mom, who is the holiest person on earth?” I knew where he was going with this. “Is it the pope?” he asked. Not sure how to respond, I said, “Possibly dude, or it could be some little old lady in Poland on her knees in her closet. I have no way to know that.” 

With confidence he replied, “It’s the pope. I’ll have to be the pope then.”  “Kaw, beb, then we better get to praying,” I suggested.  

He questioned if that’s how you get chosen to be the pope so I explained, “That’s how you become more holy. It’s a good place to start.” Then this dirty-faced child says, “Please wake me up early so I can pray the Divine Mercy (cause it’s short, Mom) Chaplet and then that prayer to set 10,000 souls free from purgatory.” 

 I did not take him to be very serious about this so I failed to wake him up the next morning, and y’all he was MAD. “Mom, I asked you to wake me up to pray and you did not …” followed by many other things that made me feel as if I had missed an opportunity to sanctify this boy’s soul. Dang it, Ellen. Really?  You wake up to pray. Wake the boy up too. Part of it was I didn’t want him in my “quiet” because this little man is miles away from silent from the moment his feet hit the floor but also I was just lazy and didn’t want to go upstairs. 

The next morning I climbed up the stairs and woke his cute, shirtless self up. He came down and we prayed the chaplet together in my tiny prayer chair. Every “Have Mercy on us ...” was right in my face and that hot breath made me ask for it doubly but what was most warm was my heart. He thought he was making himself more holy but he was making us BOTH more holy. 

We prayed the St. Gertrude prayer three times and he fist bumped me and said, “60,000 souls, Mom!” 

Can y’all believe I didn’t wake him up the first time he asked? I can hear a collective, very loud “no” from all the holy souls in purgatory on that one.   

He has woken up (early) each morning for a while now and just last week an old friend dropped off 10 bags of hand-me-downs and tucked inside one was an old alarm clock. It’s now set by his bed, and I haven’t had to make the climb lately. What a Lord we serve! 

All this got me thinking.  My husband and I revisit our decision to send the kids to public school occasionally. Nearly every friend we have chooses for their children to attend private school, or they homeschool, and their babies are wonderful. I mean these children glow with goodness. (My husband and I) both went to Catholic school, too.  Are we making the right choice? We will keep praying that this is the decision that is pleasing to the Lord. 

At the moment, we feel at peace with the choice. I’m so grateful for signal graces like my #3’s “Operation Pope” that allows us to see we are still on track. 

My children most certainly come home with all the things that are present in a building intentionally void of God, for the most part. I know there are angels planted everywhere if you look. They can spew some pretty funky stuff to each other and me. They also share things they have heard that I didn’t learn about until much later in life or didn’t even know and needed to research. They pick up rude habits and little inappropriate mannerisms but that is not unique to public school. 

“Ugly” creeps into all places. We try our hardest to talk about whatever it is and try to explain everything in the light of Christ.  This parenting thing ain’t for the weak. This is why we must continue our nightly family rosaries, and I also must not deny a child’s Holy Spirit inspiration just because I don’t feel like putting my coffee down to go upstairs.  

We also have to continue to walk the faith outside of the house so they can see it in all things. We try to be involved in our church community as much as possible. We have to be deliberate in our journey or the world will snatch us up. We are weak so showing them where to find Jesus is important to us. 

We all need to keep praying so we can be the holiest people on earth like my dude’s goal.  I also highly recommend clothing them with six saint medals (your choice of course), a scapular, a miraculous medal pinned to the inside of their backpack and a heavy dousing of holy water on their head before they get on the bus. Just drown them in it. You know, just for safekeeping!  

Eldridge is a Catholic mom living in the Diocese of Baton Rouge facing the same challenges all families face.