Monica and her son, Augustine, have impacted greatly on the church. . Below is an excerpt from Augustine’s Confessions which shows Monica’s constancy in prayer for Augustine’s conversion and, of unique importance, a shared mystical experience of great significance.
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Not long before the day on which she was to leave this life – you knew which day it was to be, O Lord, though we did not – my mother and I were alone, leaning from a window which overlooked the garden in the courtyard of the house where we were staying at Ostia. We were waiting there after our long and tiring journey, away from the crowd, to refresh ourselves before our sea-voyage. I believe that what I am going to tell happened through the secret working of your providence. For we were talking alone together and our conversation was serene and joyful. We had forgotten what we had left behind and were intent on what lay before us. [i] In the presence of Truth, which is yourself, we were wondering what the eternal life of the saints would be like, that life which no eye has seen , no ear has heard, no human heart conceived.[ii] But we laid the lips of our hearts to the heavenly stream that flows from your fountain, the source of all life which is in you,[iii] so that as far as it was in our power to do so we might be sprinkled with its waters and in some sense reach an understanding of this great mystery.
Our conversation led us to the conclusion that no bodily pleasure, however great it might be and whatever earthly light might shed lustre upon it, was worthy of comparison, or even of mention, beside the happiness of the light of the saints. As the flame of love burned stronger in us and raised us higher towards the eternal God, our thoughts ranged over the whole compass of material things in their various degrees, up to the heavens themselves, from which the sun and the moon and the stars shine down upon the earth. Higher still we climbed, thinking and speaking all the while in wonder at all that you have made. At length we came to our own souls and passed beyond them to that place of everlasting plenty, where you feed Israel for ever with the food of truth. There life is that Wisdom by which all these things that we know are made, all things that ever have been and all that are yet to be. But that Wisdom is not made: it is as it has always been and as it will be for ever – or, rather, I should not say that it has been or will be, for it simply is, because eternity is not in the past or in the future. And while we spoke of the eternal Wisdom, longing for it and straining for it with all the strength of our hearts, for one fleeting instant we reached out and touched it. Then with a sigh, leaving our spiritual harvest[iv] bound to it, we returned to the sound of our own speech, in which each word has a beginning and an ending – far, far different from your Word, our Lord, who abides in himself for ever, yet never grows old and gives new life to all things. (to be continued)
[i] Philippians 3:13
[ii] I Corinthians 2:9
[iii] Psalm 35: 10 (36:10)
[iv] Romans 8:23
