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More and more I am encountering elderly parents who carry the great burden of grief. It is hard to lose a child to sickness or accidental death. That pain, that grief is gradually lessened with the passage of time. But other kinds of grief and pain never go away.
How much harder it is for Catholic parents who have made every sacrifice required of them to give their children everything they need (not want) as they grow up to enable them to be the ideal Christian man or woman Jesus Christ had in mind when he formed them in the womb of their mother, see them abandon the faith. Not the least of the sacrifices many parents make for the sake of their children is providing them with education in faith accompanied by good example as the parents themselves struggle to live in accordance with the prescriptions of the the Gospel.
More and more I find myself giving spiritual direction and counsel to elderly Catholic parents who have had one or more ( in some cases all) of their children abandon the practice of the faith so carefully nurtured over so many years. Truly, the pain, the mental and spiritual anguish those parents feel year after year as they watch their child (children) fall victim to the attractions of our materialistic hedonistic world is sharper than a serpent’s tooth.
ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT / DEEP CALLS TO DEEP 
There are so many good strong Catholic parents I know whose children have abandoned the faith. Certainly the secular school systems play a large role in influencing impressionable, immature minds and the oh so sophisticated PhDs in most American universities really are not honestly teaching critical thinking objectively. Factor in filthy Hollywood scriptwriters who would make Lady Chatterley’s Lover readers blush and glorifying immoral behavior of celebrities by the media, timid shepherds, parents who either break the reed or are fearful to bruise it at all, there’s the recipe for disaster.
The good news is the school of hard knocks … experience … maturity … whatever you call it not to mention St. Monica’s example, bring some prodigal children back. I keep a picture of Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son in my bedroom to remind myself that only by the grace of God go I. Yes, tough love is always relevant but every child is different. Thanks to the Church we now have the model of parenting in Saints Louis and Zelie Martin. Read their stories. Zelie spent much of her time to deeply understand her daughters’ personalities, virtues, and weaknesses and hone and chisel away and help transform them like Michaelangelo creating his masterpieces. Yes, hard work but worth it. Phil Sevilla
Biggest heartache I harbor. We’re talking eternity!!!!
I have adhered to The Faith, at least that taught me in the 1940s & 50s. My elder by 8 years brother, stopped going to Mass when he was circa 17. Yet, overall, he has been a far better person than myself and I have had to live with that knowledge. Mera Culpa.