Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine,
who was born in the year 332 of Christian parents in Togaste in North Africa.
And strangely enough, she was given in marriage by her Christian parents to a pagan named Patricius,
with whom she had three children, and none of whom Patricius allowed her to baptize,
the eldest of the three children being Augustine.
So she set herself to winning her husband's conversion.
She lived a very, very trying marriage.
Her husband, being an unbeliever, again, not even allowing her to baptize her children
and raise them as Catholics, was difficult in every manner.
But nevertheless, she persevered in leading a holy life and giving a good example
of patience and kindness towards her husband.
And eventually he did convert and was baptized less than a year before his death.
So St. Monica won him that grace, above all, by the holiness of her life and also by her prayers.
Now her next task was to convert her son Augustine,
who had gone and followed her to the church.
Augustine had followed the wrong path.
Augustine had embraced the Manichaean heresy and fell into a life of impurity as well.
The Manichaean heresy, that was the system that believed in two ultimate sources of creation,
of God, who was the creator of everything that was good and spiritual,
and Satan, who was the creator of everything that was evil, especially the body.
And so these two elements were constantly at a struggle between them.
And in practice, Manichaeism denies human responsibility for the evil that one commits
on the premise that this is not due to one's own free will,
but rather to the power of Satan in one's life.
And so we can see why St. Augustine was inclined to embrace this particular heresy.
And so we can see why St. Augustine was inclined to embrace this particular heresy.
And so we can see why St. Augustine was inclined to embrace this particular heresy.
Maybe we can guess, to justify his life of impurity.
Again, we see how the will has an effect on the intellect.
The will desiring to choose and convince the intellect of that which is convenient,
rather than that which is really intellectually convincing.
So Monica continued a life of prayer.
Offering up her prayers and as well as her tears for the conversion of Augustine.
And she ran into a holy man one day and explained to her her situation.
And it's in this scene that we hear the famous saying, or what became famous,
by this holy man whose name is not given, who said,
The child of those tears shall never perish.
And in fact,
his words became true 17 years later,
when Augustine, St. Augustine, finally did convert,
cooperating with the superabundance of God's grace,
merited by the prayers and tears of his mother.
And after that, St. Monica died less than a year after his conversion,
convinced that she had nothing else to do in this world,
after seeing her son converted and embracing the faith.
That was in the year 387.
So what lessons can we gather from the life and example of St. Monica?
First of all, we can see how wise the church is in not encouraging mixed marriages.
St. Monica's parents, who were Christians,
gave her into a marriage with a pagan,
an unbeliever.
And as a result, she had to endure a very, very heavy cross.
And maybe a person less saintly than St. Monica would have succumbed and abandoned the faith.
And so for this reason, the church really cautions
and does not encourage mixed marriages,
as can be evident, or as is evident by Canons 11.24 and 11.25.
We also see the same advice from St. Paul
in his second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 6,
where he says,
Bear not the yoke with unbelievers.
For what participation hath justice with injustice?
Or what fellowship hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial?
Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?
Now sometimes,
it does happen that a young person
who isn't firm in their faith
tends to follow the dictates of the flesh
rather than the dictates of reason,
enlightened by faith,
and they enter into a mixed marriage,
marrying an unbeliever.
And then later on,
when that faith does become firm,
it causes big problems.
It becomes a great difficulty
and a heavy cross.
And so, once again,
this should be a lesson for all parents
to discourage their children
from dating or pursuing a relationship
with an unbeliever,
someone who is outside of the faith.
Now, the next lesson
that we can learn from St. Monica, of course,
is how efficacious and how powerful are
our prayers and our tears,
especially if we persevere.
Now, let's remember,
Remember, St. Monica, she didn't obtain St. Augustine's conversion overnight.
It wasn't one or two or even a novena of rosaries,
but it was 17 years of prayers and tears,
which finally won over her son's conversion,
who then, of course, went on to become one of the greatest doctors of the Church.
And so let's follow St. Monica's example,
especially if we have friends or family members who are in need of conversion.
Let's entrust them to the powerful prayers of St. Monica.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.
St. Monica's was a great one.