Friday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

National Back to School Month

Saint: Saint Monica (331-387)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 69 The Presumption of Defending Another in the Monastery

Mass: 1 Th 4:1-8; Resp Ps 97; Mt 25:1-13

The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.

THE WOMAN WHO FEARS THE LORD WILL HERSELF BE PRAISED. HER CHILDREN HAVE CALLED HER MOST BLESSED, HER HUSBAND HAS SUNG HER PRAISES.

(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

As we commemorate Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, it occurs to me that Saint Monica and Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur (1866-1914) could have a lively discussion about the power of prayer. Jesus tells us a parable today, the one about the foolish virgins and the wise ones. In the end, we are to stay awake, no matter what. We never know the results of perseverance in prayer. We keep on praying for one another; Jesus acts when He will. Saint Monica saw the answer to her prayers before she died. Servant of God Elisabeth saw them in her husband after she died. Stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour (Mt 25:13). 

The day was now approaching when my mother Monica would depart from this life; you knew that day, Lord, though we did not. She and I happened to be standing by ourselves at a window that overlooked the garden in the courtyard of the house. At the time we were in Ostia on the Tiber ... And so the two of us, all alone, were enjoying a very pleasant conversation ... My mother said: "Son, as far as I am concerned, nothing in this life now gives me any pleasure. I do not know why I am still here, since I have no further hopes in this world. I did have one reason for want to live a little longer: to see you become a Catholic before I died. God has lavished his gifts on me in that respect, for I know that you have even renounced earthly happiness to be his servant. So what am I doing here?

(From the Confessions of Saint Augustine, bishop, in Office of Readings, August 27)

Let us not think that by our personal action we can hasten the coming of God's Kingdom in souls. As soon as the divine hour has come, our efforts will be useless, or rather they will only be an active prayer, and appeal to Him who transforms and saves. Nevertheless, let us make this appeal to Him with the humble conviction that He alone will do what must be done, and will bring life to the souls for which we act and pray.

(Elisabeth Leseur from her Journal, in The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, p. xiv)

SAINT MONICA,

SAINT AUGUSTINE,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Another look at Three Sisters from atop Scott Mountain, Oregon. 

© Gertrude Feick 2021