ST. MONICA, A WOMAN OF GREAT FAITH!

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"St. Monica was a woman of great faith," the priest declared as he began his homily at morning Mass at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church here in New Orleans.

That’s all it took.

I felt the tears welling up in my eyes and a sudden rush of emotion as his prophetic words penetrated me to the core. “A woman of great faith,” I thought to myself as I sighed deeply. “She certainly was.” I admired her and I understood her.

St. Monica knew God intimately, and she relied on him completely. She was a woman who believed in the power of steadfast, unbridled prayer. She was a wife who kept a hopeful heart during intense and prolonged suffering at the hands of her abusive husband. And she was a mother who allowed God’s grace to carry her through the torment and pain triggered by her prodigal son.

St. Monica put her faith in God every single day…and she never took it back. She remained faithful to God, and he remained faithful to her. During 17 years of suffering, St. Monica grew her faith and as a result, God grew his grace around her. And in time, he manifested the miracle St. Monica had been praying for; the conversion of her addicted son, St. Augustine, who is now revered as one of the most influential doctors of the Catholic Church.

Yesterday I completed a novena to St. Monica which I dedicated to my five sons. I prayed for God’s intercession in their daily lives because it is my hope that each one of them will come to know the Lord intimately, powerfully and joyfully so that nothing and no one will ever get in the way of that relationship.

Like St. Monica, I am relentless in my prayer life, remaining loyal to a daily disciplined rhythm of prayer that invites grace and feeds my faith. I know no other way to make it through the rigors and rainy days of life in a world that is beautiful, yet challenging, gifted yet exhausting.

Personally I have so much to be thankful for having experienced the power of prayer through the return of the prodigal son. I have watched the resurrection of the dead and I have felt God’s amazing grace flow through me as I've navigated some pretty horrendous situations.

Through it all I have come to understand that God is completely faithful. And as St. Monica so clearly represented, when we remain faithful to him, the inevitable burdens will eventually be transformed into precious jewels of grace that will strengthen and sanctify us.

I’d like to close with these words from “Confessions” by St. Augustine….

“Too late have I loved you, O Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! Too late I loved you! And behold, you were within, and I abroad, and there I searched for you; I was deformed, plunging amid those fair forms, which you had made. You were with me, but I was not with you. Things held me far from you—things which, if they were not in you, were not at all. You called, and shouted, and burst my deafness. You flashed and shone, and scattered my blindness. You breathed odors and I drew in breath—and I pant for you. I tasted, and I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for your peace

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