“Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” (Mt. 24:42-51)
On this feast day of St. Monica, we hold fast to these words. Stay awake! Has there ever been a time in your life when you were ready to give up? Give up on praying for someone, maybe your child, or your spouse? Maybe you were giving up on yourself. You work hard; you have been obedient in your prayer life, yet you just cannot seem to see light at the end of the tunnel. You want to give up, yet something within you is saying to you, “stay awake”! St. Monica is our role model for not giving up … for not giving into the flesh that wants to give up. Not giving into the flesh that is saying, “but I am tired, and nothing is happening … nothing is changing in this situation.” It was decades of prayer that St. Monica prayed consistently with faith – true, unwavering faith. She did not know when the Lord would deliver, yet she prayed. She prayed for the deliverance of both her husband and her son, and God answered each prayer. Her husband gave his life to God a year before his death. And, St. Augustine, her son, not only reconciled his life to God, but has become one of the great doctors of the Catholic Church. As St. Monica was nearing her death, she felt that her life had been fulfilled, for she lived a life in prayer for her family’s conversion.
What is God calling us to do today? Are we not preparing ourselves today for his coming? Can we say that we are practicing unwavering faith as St. Monica displayed all of her life? I pledge today to work harder at living the way of St. Monica, never giving up on prayer and holding fast to my faith in God. Will you do the same? Stay awake! My sisters and brothers!
“Always pray and never give up” (Luke 18:1)
Author: Jennifer D. Tilghman