|
122.1
First Point
In
her youth Saint Monica had a special attraction to prayer, and her
greatest pleasure was to spend days and nights in prayer, avoiding the
company of those who might turn her attention away from God. Having
learned some prayers from her mother, she never gave up reciting them.
What a blessing it is to be brought up in piety from one's youth! This
makes it easier to preserve that spirit throughout one's life. Saint
Monica had this advantage, and it contributed a great deal to the
conversion of her husband and her son.
Do you take care to educate the children confided to you in a
Christian spirit? Do you try above all else to inspire them with
recollection in their prayers and with love for this holy practice? You on
your part should pray much for them to obtain for them from God the gift
of piety, something he alone can give them.
122.2
Second Point
Saint
Monica's husband had an unpleasant and irritable disposition, and when her
neighbors wondered how she could put up with him, she told them that they
should not be surprised because from the moment she accepted him as her
husband, she had submitted herself to him and respected him as much as she
was able. Still, by her prayers and tears she converted him, and led him
to become a Catholic and to change his disposition.
This saint teaches us that when we have to live or deal with
someone who has a disagreeable disposition, we must do two things: first,
arm ourselves with patience and be accommodating; second, often ask God in
prayer to give the other person a more accommodating spirit and grant you
the grace to put up with him. Is this how you act when you happen to be in
such a situation?
122.3
Third Point
Saint
Monica's son, Saint Augustine, abandoned himself to a dissolute life in
his youth, and even fell into the heresy of the Manichees. She did
everything she could to withdraw him from his evil ways and to bring
him to life in Jesus Christ.[i]
He himself says that his saintly mother experienced a much more difficult
time giving him birth in the spirit than she had bringing him bodily into
this world. She never stopped praying and weeping for his conversion; she
even crossed the sea and undertook long journeys to keep him from being
altogether lost. Finally, after so much suffering she had the joy of
seeing him change his life completely.
When you see those confided to you inclined to a dissolute life, do
you do all you can to win them over to God? Is there anything you would
not do for them to eliminate in them the evil to which they are inclined?
Do you have recourse to God to procure for them a change in conduct? Since
you are responsible for their souls, you should use every possible means
to put them on the road to heaven.
|