A mother's love

Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint Monica the mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Today is a day when the liturgy invites us to reflect on the power of love and the value of prayer. Who better to model for us the latter of these two than this Algerian woman who must have known only too well what it was like to worry about the fate of her son, and to live in hope of the day when he would finally find the true reason for his life.

Somehow today, in the midst of my musings and meditations, I was taken with Saint Monica especially because of the value of her motherly love and concern for her children.

Even today, parents can identify only too easily with Saint Monica, as they watch their children fall away from the visible ways of faith, choosing rather to follow the winds of modern-day life, sometimes in the name of modernity and 'keeping up' with the societal demands of the day. Monica is an example of hope in the midst of deepest despair, and a source of hope for parents today because she was able to continue praying for her son's conversion even despite many other tides of temptation.

The love of a mother was able to continue in hope then, and the love of parents can and does continue today. As for those who still seek, what better place to find the source of inspiration than the faith and prayer of parents who never give up on their loved ones, especially their children?