We are in a season of waiting. Yes, in this season of Advent we are waiting for Christmas, but maybe you are also waiting for the coronavirus pandemic to end, waiting for your kids to be able to go back to school, waiting to find a spouse, or waiting to hear back from a job opportunity.

When it comes to waiting, you are not alone. And Catholic writer Laura DeMaria stopped by Morning Air® to share some saints we can turn to when we are in a season of waiting.

DeMaria pointed out that when it comes to Advent, “There’s this double-sense of waiting. Both the immediate, where we know in four weeks it will be Christmas and Jesus will be here. But then there’s also the sense of just the life of a Catholic, in the life of the Catholic faith we are waiting for His return. So we’ve got to get used to waiting.”

Oftentimes when we are forced to wait it seems as though our plans are on hold. But DeMaria explained that sometimes the waiting itself is part of the plan.

“As Christians, we’re called to wait in many ways,” she said. “And that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a plan, it means we have an opportunity to really practice patience as a virtue.”

For many of our listeners, waiting for their children to return to the Catholic Church is a source of great pain. But DeMaria suggested turning to the saints as an example of how waiting (even if it’s for something very good) need not be wasted.

“The very first saint that comes to mind when I think about waiting is St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine,” she said. “St. Monica was a holy and devout woman long before her son Augustine was. And for decades she was praying for him to come back to the Church. He lived a very sinful life, he had a child out of wedlock, and was very into the sensual pleasures of the world.”

“She prayed and prayed and prayed. Waited and waited and waited. And finally he came around and now we know him as one of the greatest saints of the Church.”

Although Monica’s desire for her son’s holiness took decades to realize, she was driven to prayer and grew in holiness during this process. In the end, God’s plan was fulfilled that both St. Monica and St. Augustine be saints together in heaven.

“There are lots of examples like that in our faith to help us more deeply understand what it means to wait, and to pray, and to wait on God’s will and see what He wants to do,” DeMaria said.

So what should you do during a season of waiting in your own life? We can look to the example of St. Monica and so many other saints for the answer.

“The first answer is always prayer,” DeMaria emphasized. “Praying for your desire and what is on your heart is always a good thing.”

Listen to the full conversation with Laura DeMaria below:

Morning Air can be heard weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. Central on Relevant Radio® and the Relevant Radio App.