March 14, 2025
—Albus Dumbledore, in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”
It took Frank a lifetime to realize one of the greatest gifts his mother gave him was his faith. Throughout his childhood, she took him to church every Sunday … by herself. She taught him his prayers, and she told him to turn to God when things got bad. But he forgot all those valuable lessons as a young man. He took it all for granted until his life took a turn for the worse, and he had no one to turn to, except God. His mother wasn’t around anymore, but he remembered what she said all those years ago.
He returned to God and he returned to church and now in his 60s, he would occasionally look around church during Mass and see a mother with her child, and all those memories were revived.
Looking back, they must have been quite a pair in the back pew, just the two of them. At the time, it never seemed odd to be there with just her, while his friends were accompanied by both parents.
His father never went to church. To his thinking, there were more important things to do. He went to work, he ran errands, he puttered around the yard, he did a lot of things, except go to Mass. So Frank’s mother picked up the slack and did what she had to.
Only after she died did he realize she gave him the greatest gift possible, something money can’t buy, something all the intelligence in the world can’t ensure — faith. Fortunately, faith is readily available to anyone who wants it and anyone who asks for it. But it always helps to have a mother there to help you.
©J Pisani
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