One of the things I learned from St. Monica is to never stop praying, never to give up hope.
She is the emblem, the model of perseverance in prayer.
For all of us who have been praying for years and years for loved ones, she represents hope and persistence.
Can you imagine if she had given up on her prayers for her son?
No St. Augustine, no Augustinians, perhaps no Pope Emeritus....
No Confessions, no City of God, no sermons...
No correction of the Manicheans, no end of the Donatists...
No St. Augustine of Canterbury, no Canterbury, no Mottisfont Abbey, no Walsingham Priory, plus the other 133 Augustinian houses in per-Reformation England...
No St. Rita, no Augustinian martyrs of Japan, no St. Nicholas of Tolentino...
No Angela of Foligno, no Augustinian martyrs of Africa...and more.
One woman's prayers began all of this.
Persevere.