Patient In Prayer - Monica

CA. 331–87

How long should you pray before you just give up? A year or two? A decade? Monica prayed for thirty years that her son would know Jesus, and that miracle slowly came about, making her literally jump for joy.

We’re not sure when Monica herself came to faith. Her name has pagan roots, suggesting that her parents were not Christians. She was also married to a non-Christian man, with whom she had at least three children. The oldest was precocious—with a brilliant mind and a nose for trouble. His name: Augustine.

From his boyhood, Augustine inspired many tears and many prayers. In his autobiographical classic, Confessions, he wrote about the various sins of his youth—from stealing pears in a neighbor’s orchard to having adolescent sexual exploits. But Monica never wrote him off. She kept weeping and praying, which irked him at the time. At one point Augustine told her they would get along fine if she would just give up her faith. She never did.

Sneaking away one night from their home in North Africa, he caught a ship to Rome. There he established political connections and also dabbled in cultic philosophy. Climbing the political ladder, he later landed a job at the emperor’s headquarters in Milan.

Meanwhile Monica continued praying for her errant son and for her husband—who became a Christian just months before he died. Eventually she moved to Milan to join Augustine. Her prayers continued, now at close range.

Then one day Augustine had a mystical experience of sorts, hearing a child’s singsong voice telling him to read a portion of the Bible, which he did. That text inspired him to finally say yes to God.

When he told his mother, “she leaped for joy victoriously” (he wrote later), thanking God, who had “granted her far more than she had ever asked for in all her desperate, woeful cries.”

Patient in prayer, Monica serves as an example for all of us. No matter how long you’ve been at it, keep praying. The Lord answers our cries in ways we might never expect.

We keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.

2 Thessalonians 1:11