Memorial of Saint Monica
Most Scripture scholars agree that St. Paul was not married, not a father. Yet he speaks of the spiritual fatherhood he enacted as an apostle: “As you know, we treated each of you as a father treats his children, exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his Kingdom and glory.” As a natural father nurtures, models, disciplines, and teaches his children, a spiritual father does in the Kingdom of God. St. Thomas Aquinas states that not only priests, but indeed, every natural father should seek also to be a spiritual father for children.
Today is the memorial of St. Monica, the long-suffering but vindicated mother of the great St. Augustine. She was married to a non-Christian and she prayed for years that her eldest son would put away his career ambitions and vicious behavior to embrace Christian holiness. Obviously, her fidelity and hope led not only to Augustine’s conversion and being raised to the altars, but her own saintly reward. Monica was a true spiritual mother.
I have met so many parents who lament that their adult children have abandoned the faith. What did they do wrong? What can they do but pray now? It is true that today a parent must be more than an obedient Catholic in order to pass on the faith to children. They must witness to a personal prayer life and help children to fall in love with Jesus as their rock. Yet parents cannot live their children’s lives for them. They still have prayer, hope, and their spiritual parenthood might still nurture other children in their local parish that they never would have considered because of their holiness.
Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections