St Monica’s Feast Day 27 August

This week we celebrated the feast of St Monica with a beautiful Mass and buddy activities. Fr. Loi spoke beautifully about St Monica being a mother. He made many connections for us about the role our mothers play in our lives. Fr. Loi also explained the gospel in a way that helped us to understand why Jesus returned to life the deceased son of the widow of Nain. In Jewish society, women were to be cared for by husbands and sons. If these died- the widow would be destitute and usually died not long after. Jesus saw the widow at the funeral of her only son…and felt sorry for her (he knew what could become of her) and so raised the son to life.  We are expected to care for those who have no other way to do so.

St Monica is a somewhat enigmatic person- not much is known about her and thus in the age of instant photos and Google, it is hard for us to discover information about her life and beliefs.