Feast Day for Faithful Mothers

Today is St. Monica's feast day. St. Augustine's mom had plenty to pray for as she sought the conversion of her rebellious son. She constantly exhorted him to change his way of life. What a challenge to parents today who often prefer silence lest they anger their sinful children. And then they wonder why their children persist in mortal sin.

St. Monica offers both hope and a challenge to parents who see their children wandering far from the altar of the Lord. They need to first imitate her in prayer and then constantly challenge their children in love. One might describe Monica as a "holy nag." Augustine ran away and she followed him, even across the sea. But it all began with prayer, fasting, and suffering.

Here's what St. Augustine says about his faithful mother in his Confessions:

O God, my hope from my youth, where were You all this time, where had You gone? ... I walked thorugh dark and slippery places, and I went out of myself in the search for You and did not find the God of my heart. I had come into the depths of the sea and I had lost faith and all hope of discovering the truth. By this time my mother had come to me, following me over the sea and land with the courage of piety and relying upon You in all perils.... She found me in a perilous state through my deep despair of ever discovering the truth. But even when I told her that if I was not yet a Catholic Christian, I was no longer a Manichean, she was not greatly exultant as at some unlooked-for good news, because she had already received assurance upon that part of my misery; she bewailed me as one dead certainly, but certainly to be raised again by You.... So her heart was not shaken with any tumult of exultation at hearing that what daily she had begged of You with tears had in so large part happened: for I was at least rescued from heresy, even if I had not yet attained the truth. In fact, because she was certain that You would give her what remained since You had promised her all, she answered me serenely and with a heart full of confidence that in Christ she believed that she would see me a faithful Catholic before she died. So much she said to me. But to You, O fount of mercy, she multiplied her prayers and her tears that You should hasten Your help and enlighten my darkness: and she hasted to churh more zelously than ever.

Oh, that all those in deadly sin should have such a mother to zealously pursue them for the Lord!

St. Monica, pray for us and for our family and friends who wander from the fold. Ask the Lord to give us wisdom and zeal to pursue our children with love and never rest in silent acceptance of their grievous sins. Lord Jesus, bring us all to the eternal bliss of your heavenly kingdom. Amen.