Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome, where his mother St. Monica is buried
I hope you've been checking out my posts on Instagram! I'm sorry I haven't been posting here as much, but I have been posting several times a week on Instagram. My handle is @rosemary.writer.
Today is the Feast of St. Augustine. The other day, TAN Books posted to their Instagram feed about his mother St. Augustine. I keep thinking about the excerpt they posted, from one of the books they've reprinted. It's such a beautiful miracle, as well as an encouragement to every one of us.
Taken from Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence by Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure:
"It took St. Monica sixteen years to obtain the conversion of Augustine, but the conversion was entire and far beyond what she had prayed for.... She had only wanted him to be baptized and become a Christian, and she saw him a bishop. She asked God to turn him aside from heresy, and God made him a pillar of the Church and its champion against heretics. Think what would have happened had she given up hope after a couple of years, after ten or twelve years, when her prayers appeared to obtain no result and her son grew worse instead of better, adding avarice and ambition to the wildness of his life and sinking further and further into error. She would have wronged her son, thrown away her own happiness, and deprived the world of one of the greatest Christian thinkers."
This also makes me think about what Sarah Mackenzie of readaloudrevival.com said in one of her podcasts. She encouraged her listeners to think of what they are worried about and then realize that "God isn't anxious about this, and it's not a surprise to Him." We are all in the Palm of His Hand!
