St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, was born in 332 of a Christian family of the ancient city of Tagasta in northern Africa. After a girlhood of singular innocence and piety, she was given in marriage to Patricius, a pagan. She at once devoted herself to his conversion, praying for him always and winning his reverence and love by the holiness of her life and her affectionate forbearance. She was rewarded by seeing him baptized a year before his death.
When her son Augustine went astray in faith and habits, her prayers and tears were incessant. She once begged a learned bishop that he would talk to her son, in order to bring him to a better disposition, but he declined, despairing of success with a young man at once so gifted and so headstrong. At the sight of her prayers and tears, he nonetheless bade her be of good courage, for it could not happen that the child of those tears should perish.
Augustine, by going to Italy, was able for a time to free himself from his mother's importunities, but he could not escape from her prayers, which encompassed him like the providence of God. She followed him to Italy; and there, by his marvelous conversion, her sorrow was turned into joy. Here, in Milan, she had befriended the Great St. Ambrose, who was the instrument for the conversion of her son.
At Ostia, shortly before they were to re-embark for Africa, Augustine and his mother sat at a window conversing on the life of the blessed. She turned to him and said, "My son, there is nothing now I care for in this life. What I shall now do, or why I remain on this earth, I know not. The one reason I had for wishing to linger in this life a little longer was that I might see you a Catholic Christian before I died. This grace God has granted me superabundantly, seeing you reject earthly happiness to become His servant." A few days afterwards she had an attack of fever and died at the age of fifty-six, in the year 388.
It is impossible to set any bounds to what persevering prayer may do. It gives man a share in the Divine Omnipotence. St. Augustine's soul lay bound in the chains of heresy and an illegitimate union, both of which had by long habit grown inveterate. They were broken by his mother's prayers.
St. Augustine himself says: She had a very great affection for Ambrose, because of what he had done for my soul; and he too loved her, because of her extraordinary piety, which led her to the performance of good works, and to fervent assiduity in frequenting the Church. Hence, when he saw me, he would frequently break out in her praise, and congratulate me on having such a mother.
The saintly mother had fulfilled her mission: her son was regenerated to Truth and virtue, and she had given to the Church the greatest of her Doctors.
St. Monica is the patron of 'burdened parents', so, if you have kids that have strayed, pray to her. She had to wait 30+ years for her prayers to be answered, so DON'T GIVE UP! We haven't. 'It's hard to kick against the goad.' (Acts) This phrase was used to Saul before his conversion. Apparently, "to kick against the goads" was a common expression found in both Greek and Latin literature—a rural image, which rose from the practice of farmers goading their oxen in the fields with a big pointed stick. Though unfamiliar to us, everyone in that day understood its meaning.
Goads were typically made from slender pieces of timber, blunt on one end and pointed on the other. Farmers used the pointed end to urge a stubborn ox into motion. Occasionally, the beast would kick at the goad. The more the ox kicked, the more likely the goad would stab into the flesh of its leg, causing greater pain. Even these beasts can learn.
Saul’s conversion could appear to us as having been a sudden encounter with Christ. But based on the Lord's expression regarding his kicking back, I believe He’d been working on him for years, prodding and goading him.
Stubborn people, like some of our children, needed to be goaded, sometimes for years before they submit to the Truth. All we can do is keep trying.
Let us end with the sequence for this day concerning St. Monica:
Let us sing the praises of the great Father Augustine and of his holy mother. Let us devoutly celebrate the beloved solemnity of this.
The blessed Monica was a virtuous mother, well instructed in the Faith, edifying in her conduct, and dear to Christ. Her son was born of a pagan father; but she gave him a second birth---she brought him to the Catholic Faith.
O happy shower of tears, through which shone forth so bright a light within the Church! Monica sowed in much weeping, but she reaped her fruit in joy.
She received more than she asked: Oh! how grand was the gladness that filled her soul, when she saw her son staunch in Faith, yea, and devoted with his whole heart to Christ!
She was called the mother of the poor, for she ministered to them in their necessities, and gave to Christ the food she gave to them. She took care of the sick, washed them, nursed them, and dressed their wounds.
O saintly matron, whose soul was pierced with compassion for the dear Wounds of her crucified Lord! She wept for love when she thought upon them, and her tears bedewed the spot on which she prayed.
When she received the Bread of Heaven, she was raised from the ground and in her rapture exclaimed with joy: "Let us fly to heaven above!"
O mother and matron! be to us thy children an advocate and patroness, that so, when we quit the flesh, we may be united to Augustine, thy son, in the joys of paradise. Amen.
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