ST AUGUSTINE LOVED HER ALWAYS, DURING HER LIFE AND AFTER HER DEATH, SHE WHO HAD BEEN FAITHFUL TO HER HOT-TEMPERED HUSBAND
There came a time when St Monica felt herself being called from this earthly sojourn to eternal life. Monica had lived an exhausting life of constant prayer and self-sacrifice. She had borne with her husband, Patricius whose incandescent rages were legendary. In the earlier years of their marriage, Patricius had tolerated her devout Catholicism, but he did not value her total dedication to prayer and alms-giving. That said, he wasn't such a tyrant that he forced her to be a pagan like him.
Monica had prayed unceasingly for her son Augustine's recovery from sex addiction and for him to be baptized a Catholic when his plan was to delay baptism as long as possible. Augustine knew that when a soul is baptized there is a complete cleansing of the sins on that soul, and he was of the mind that if he kept postponing his christening that all his sins of the flesh that were accumulating could be washed away in the rolling of the baptismal waters over his head.
Yet after Monica had offered myriad tear-stained prayers for him, Augustine converted to Catholicism. Monica felt she had done what God put her on earth to do and one day she asked plainly of Augustine, "What am I doing here?" She sounded like she had no more energy for this earthly exile. It was the year 387. Monica was only 55.
She announced to Augustine that her heart's desire had been granted, "I desired to linger a little longer in this life that I might see you a Catholic Christian before I died. God has granted this to me in more than abundance." Her most sincere prayer has been answered, and she confided in Augustine that she had lost all enjoyment of life, "Son, I now find no delight in anything in this life."
Barely 5 days after this conversation with Augustine, Monica developed a fever and lay dying. She wanted nothing more from Augustine but that he remember her at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, "I ask only this is of you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord." Augustine solemnly agreed.
After 9 days of fever, Monica's death came fast. It was then for Augustine to be in throes of agonizing grief, "I closed her eyes, and a mighty sorrow welled up from the depths of my heart and overflowed into tears...Most ill was it with me in such agony."
Much as he loved her, he anticipated that Monica might spend some time in "hidden retreat" or Purgatory, "Between a man's death and final resurrection, the souls dwells in a hidden retreat where it enjoys rest or suffers affliction in proportion to the merit it has earned on earth." He honored Monica's request, and commented, "souls are benefitted by the piety of their friends who offer the Sacrifice of the Mediator".
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Short Prayer for a Woman Deceased
We beseech Thee, O Lord, according to Thy loving-kindness, have mercy upon the soul of Thy handmaiden N., and, now that she is set free from the defilements of this mortal flesh, restore her to her heritage of everlasting salvation. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
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