Today we are each writing a post in honor of September's Woman Warrior: St. Monica, whose feast day was August 27th. This woman and sister in Christ is so incredible that she really could be every month's nominee. I could go on and on about her, but I will just tell you a little of why she is so important of a model to me.
We are taught by our Church that the pinnacle of femininity is reached in motherhood, that the "crown of a marriage" lies in children, or the visible fruits of the love between a man and a woman. I tend to stay in the shallow end of the teaching and focus on the procreative part of the feminine vocation and the married vocation...stopping at the conception and birth of children as if that is the fullness the Church is speaking of.
St. Monica's fruit was St. Augustine, but not Augustine as an infant. The fruit of her femininity was the same fruit of her labors of prayer, fasting, and modeling the faith - it was Augustine the man, the scholar, the preacher, the convert, and the saint. St. Monica is the exemplar of receiving the task that God has given you and laboring until you have made it worthy enough to glorify Him. How often do I do a mediocre job on things that are in front of me? How often do I fail to really work at my vocation of singleness? Will I accept a satisfactory job this school year as I prepare to teach young high school women, or will I pray, study, and fast so that their souls are opened to the Lord?
Thank you St. Monica, for your beautiful example.
And as a sidenote, thanks for teaching me that it's okay to love wine...just in moderation.
(Picture found here)
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