St. Monica
So, you think you have to wait a long time before your prayers are answered? St. Monica prayed for seventeen years for the soul of her son, Augustine. She followed him from country to country. She asked priests to pray for him. She was so persistent that priests began to avoid her.
In the 4th century, there were no daily masses, so Monica attended funerals of people she didn’t know, just so she could pray for Augustine. As Paul Harvey would say, we know the “rest of the story.”
Augustine was baptized in the year 387 by St. Ambrose. Monica died later that same year.
A lot of parents and grandparents today are faced with the same that Monica faced over 1,600 years ago. A lot of our young people today don’t feel they need the church. My own kids attend mass only occasionally. What are we to do? Like Monica we continue to pray that they will return to the faith. God gave all of us free will and it’s normal for all of us, especially young people, to want to use it.
It’s up to us to pray for them and to set a good example.
What I think is sad is that so many older people that I visit at the hospital don’t go to church. Some of them have been regular church-goers all their lives but can’t go now because of their health. That’s understandable. In that case, it’s a good thing for the rest of us to consider helping them attend once in a while, or taking them communion. The ones I feel for are the ones who just don’t go. Whatever their particular faith is, somewhere along the line, they just quit coming to church. Those are the folks we should be praying for.
The story of Monica and Augustine shows that nothing is impossible with God. Sometimes, He doesn’t answer our prayers in what we see as a reasonable time. Sometimes He doesn’t give us the answer we think is best. But, sooner or later, He always answers.
So, when we think we’ve been praying for something for a long time, we should remember Monica. Without her prayers, we would have lost one of the most brilliant minds in the history of the Catholic Church. A lot of Augustine’s writings are still in use today. Imagine how many millions of people have benefited from Monica’s persistent prayer.
In the 4th century, there were no daily masses, so Monica attended funerals of people she didn’t know, just so she could pray for Augustine. As Paul Harvey would say, we know the “rest of the story.”
Augustine was baptized in the year 387 by St. Ambrose. Monica died later that same year.
A lot of parents and grandparents today are faced with the same that Monica faced over 1,600 years ago. A lot of our young people today don’t feel they need the church. My own kids attend mass only occasionally. What are we to do? Like Monica we continue to pray that they will return to the faith. God gave all of us free will and it’s normal for all of us, especially young people, to want to use it.
It’s up to us to pray for them and to set a good example.
What I think is sad is that so many older people that I visit at the hospital don’t go to church. Some of them have been regular church-goers all their lives but can’t go now because of their health. That’s understandable. In that case, it’s a good thing for the rest of us to consider helping them attend once in a while, or taking them communion. The ones I feel for are the ones who just don’t go. Whatever their particular faith is, somewhere along the line, they just quit coming to church. Those are the folks we should be praying for.
The story of Monica and Augustine shows that nothing is impossible with God. Sometimes, He doesn’t answer our prayers in what we see as a reasonable time. Sometimes He doesn’t give us the answer we think is best. But, sooner or later, He always answers.
So, when we think we’ve been praying for something for a long time, we should remember Monica. Without her prayers, we would have lost one of the most brilliant minds in the history of the Catholic Church. A lot of Augustine’s writings are still in use today. Imagine how many millions of people have benefited from Monica’s persistent prayer.
posted by Mike at 12:22 PM
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