It has been said that behind every great man there is a great woman, and surely this is true of the saint we honor today, St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church. Their feast days even coincide, as we will remember Augustine tomorrow.
We know that Augustine did not always lead a saintly life. In his early years, he sought love in all the wrong places. Monica, on the other hand, was an ardent Christian who spent her life as a devoted mother and wife, constantly giving her family an example of what it means to be a faithful follower of Jesus.
She spent years anguishing over her son’s wayward life. Augustine caused her years of grief, breaking her heart again and again. Yet Monica never gave up praying for him. She was a great believer in Jesus’ words: “Ask and you will receive; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
She would often cry herself to sleep, begging God for the miracle of her son’s conversion. Later in life, Augustine wrote in his Confessions about the sorrow he had caused his mother. He remembered how she “prayed for me constantly,” following him from city to city and trusting the assurance of a bishop who told her that “the child of such tears shall never perish.”
As we know, Augustine eventually converted. Afterward, Monica told him that she was now ready to go to God. Three months later, she died.
Monica’s story gives us a powerful lesson about never failing to knock on the door of God’s heart. All of us have had moments when we have questioned why our prayers seem to go unanswered, especially when what we are asking for seems so worthy of God’s attention.
In my own life, I too have had those moments when I hoped and prayed for a particular outcome for people who were very dear to me. My tears flowed over time, and so I can identify with Monica, as I am sure many of us can.
Even when our prayers seem unanswered for many years, we can find consolation in the words of Scripture: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. Whose plans are better—ours or God’s? I think we already know the answer.
We must also remember that God never abandons His children. He gave His only Son for us and remains with us even when we cannot understand what is happening or why our prayers have not been answered in the way we hoped.
Let us trust, accept, and patiently await the day when the answers to our questions are revealed in God’s good time.
Even Jesus experienced the pain of asking for a different outcome. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed that the cup of suffering might be taken from Him, yet He surrendered Himself to His Father’s will: “Not my will, but yours be done.”
May we have that same confidence. Like Monica, may we continue to pray, continue to trust, and continue to knock on the door of God’s heart, believing that in God’s good time, all will be well.
The Resurrection of Jesus is our greatest assurance that this is true.
– Sister Helen R. Boyd, OP
Sister Helen resides in Dominican Convent where she serves on the Life Enrichment Committee and co-chairs the Mission Outreach Committee. She also preaches regularly and helps coordinate rides for the Sisters.