Memorial of St. Monica Homily

1st Reading: 2 Thes 1:1-5,11-12

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 96:1-5

Gospel: Mt 23:13-22

Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Monica. Saint Monica was a woman of persistent prayer. She was married to a man who held to pagan belief, but she remained persistent in her hope that he would convert to Christianity. She is also known as being the mother of Saint Augustine whose memorial we will celebrate tomorrow. Augustine was raised without being baptized because his father would not have it. As Augustine grew into adulthood his mother continued to persistently pray that he would come into the faith. Through her persistent prayer her husband and son eventually came into the Church.

We are now within our second day of our parish's Week of Prayer. During this upcoming week we strive to continually come to our Lord desiring to draw closer into union with Him. When we pray we do not always get the results that we want and when we do get them they do not come as quickly as we would like. No matter what our situation is we must continue to consistently come to Christ through prayer. No matter what the results may be we must continue to persevere in prayer placing our trust in Christ. It is only with our trust placed fully in Christ that we can begin to conquer sin in our lives and draw ourselves closer to the beatific vision.

In today's first reading we hear that Christ's disciples prayed persistently for those who shared the faith. They placed the well being of this community of faith within the Hands of God in hope that all people will continue to strive after Him. May we allow Saint Monica to intercede for us today that we may continually come to God with persistent prayer. It in our practice of prayer may we continue to turn away from despair and thus continue to trust in the life giving reality of prayer. It is only through prayer that we can begin to understand the marvelous deeds that come from God.