Power Behind!

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Feast of St. Monica!

2 Thess 2:1-3a, 14-17; Mt 23: 23-26

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Monica, the unparalleled example of a mother whose role is highly essential in planting the Christian faith in her children. 

Hence, it is with great significance and relevance that St. Monica’s feast is celebrated a day ahead of St. Augustine’s.

If not for Monica’s ceaseless intercessory prayers for thirty-three years, St. Augustine’s conversion would have been doubtful.

What equally moved Augustine’s heart, besides God’s grace, was his mother’s incessant prayers. 

Thus, St. Monica offers the example that a Christian mother bears the child not just in the womb but for the rest of her life. 

Though she became the symbol of motherly sacrifice, St. Monica still felt her inadequacy as a mother. 

St. Monica once said to Bishop Ambrose about her son Augustine, ‘I should have been a better mother.’ And the bishop responded, ‘If Augustine had been an easier child, God would not have given him a mother like you.’

Indeed, Augustine needed a mother like Monica. 

Only Monica’s faith and fidelity could achieve the miraculous conversion of a wayward son like Augustine. 

St. Monica exemplifies the power behind a mother’s prayers!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar