St. Monica on Mother's Day

St. Monica has long been a source of inspiration to mothers. Her son, Augustine was a troubled youth who lived an immoral life after accepting the Manichean heresy. Perhaps its most enticing doctrine was, as Augustine later explained, that "it was not we who sin but some other nature that sins within us. It flattered my pride to think that I incurred no guilt, and when I did wrong, not to confess it." A perfect system of belief for the young who had lost his father at the age of 17.

At first, Monica refused to let Augustine into her home. Then, after a vision saying that Augustine would eventually return to the faith, and after encouragement by her bishops, Monica decided to take another tack and stay close to Augustine, praying and fasting for him.

Augustine converted after years of prayer and fasting on the part of Monica.

St. Monica, beg Our Lord to give us the strength to follow your example.

Where is the Church Militant?

Where is The Church Militant? Sometimes it seems she is silent.  Sometimes the army of God has fled in terror.  Sometimes we do not see the Church because we are the ones who have fled in terror.  We are in terror of being alone.  We are in terror of following God and being the only one who has done so . When, one by one, our loved ones turn away from God, the power of that momentum is difficult to resist.  We do not want to stay here alone.  We know we are not up to the task of showing Christ's light by ourselves.

Some of us have come from a time where all our family, friends and neighbors were Catholic, to a time where none of them are.  What world have we woken up in?  What have we done?

Sometimes we feel alone.  The Church Triumphant is all we have.