Resurrection of the Lord Catholic Church

Feast date: Aug 27

On August 27, one day before the feast of her son St. Augustine, the Catholic Church honors St. Monica, whose holy example and fervent intercession led to one of the most dramatic conversions in Church history.

Monica was born into a Catholic family in 332, in the North African city of Tagaste located in present-day Algeria. She was raised by a maidservant who taught her the virtues of obedience and temperance. While still relatively young, she married Patricius, a Roman civil servant with a bad temper and a disdain for his wife's religion.

Patricius' wife dealt patiently with his distressing behavior, which included infidelity to their marriage vows. But she experienced a greater grief when he would not allow their three children – Augustine, Nagivius, and Perpetua – to receive Baptism. When Augustine, the oldest, became sick and was in danger of death, Patricius gave consent for his Baptism, but withdrew it when he recovered.

Monica's long-suffering patience and prayers eventually helped Patricius to see the error of his ways, and he was baptized into the Church one year before his death in 371. Her oldest son, however, soon embraced a way of life that brought her further grief, as he fathered a child out of wedlock in 372. One year later, he began to practice the occult religion of Manichaeism.

In her distress and grief, Monica initially shunned her oldest son. However, she experienced a mysterious dream that strengthened her hope for Augustine's soul, in which a messenger assured her: “Your son is with you.” After this experience, which took place around 377, she allowed him back into her home, and continued to beg God for his conversion.

But this would not take place for another nine years. In the meantime, Monica sought the advice of local clergy, wondering what they might do to persuade her son away from the Manichean heresy. One bishop, who had once belonged to that sect himself, assured Monica that it was “impossible that the son of such tears should perish.”

These tears and prayers intensified when Augustine, at age 29, abandoned Monica without warning as she passed the night praying in a chapel. Without saying goodbye to his mother, Augustine boarded a ship bound for Rome. Yet even this painful event would serve God's greater purpose, as Augustine left to become a teacher in the place where he was destined to become a Catholic.

Under the influence of the bishop St. Ambrose of Milan, Augustine renounced the teaching of the Manichees around 384. Monica followed her son to Milan, and drew encouragement from her son's growing interest in the saintly bishop's preaching. After three years of struggle against his own desires and perplexities, Augustine succumbed to God's grace and was baptized in 387.

Shortly before her death, Monica shared a profound mystical experience of God with Augustine, who chronicled the event in his “Confessions.” Finally, she told him: “Son, for myself I have no longer any pleasure in anything in this life. Now that my hopes in this world are satisfied, I do not know what more I want here or why I am here.”

“The only thing I ask of you both,” she told Augustine and his brother Nagivius, “is that you make remembrance of me at the altar of the Lord wherever you are.”

St. Monica died at age 56, in the year 387. In modern times, she has become the inspiration for the St. Monica Sodality, which encourages prayer and penance among Catholics whose children have left the faith.

Pope Leo XIV expresses profound sorrow over the murder of two children and the injuring of 17 others at the Annunciation Catholic church and school complex in the US city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV sent his "heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness" to all those affected by the "terrible tragedy" of a shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis that left two children dead and 17 people injured.

The pope's condolences went particularly to "the families now grieving the loss of a child," said a telegram to Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

The shooting Aug. 27 took place while the children of Annunciation Catholic School were in the parish church for the first Mass of the school year.

Police said a gunman in his 20s, armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, shot through the church windows at the students in the pews and then killed himself.

The dead children were 8 and 10 years old. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara told reporters 17 other people were injured, including 14 children.

Police did not release the gunman's name or speculate on a motive for the shooting. 

The papal message to Archbishop Hebda said that "while commending the souls of the deceased children to the love of Almighty God, His Holiness prays for the wounded as well as the first responders, medical personnel and clergy who are caring for them and their loved ones."

"At this extremely difficult time, the Holy Father imparts to the Annunciation Catholic School community, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and the people of the greater Twin Cities metropolitan area his apostolic blessing as a pledge of peace, fortitude and consolation in the Lord Jesus," it said.
 

WASHINGTON – In response to the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minn., Archbishop William E. Lori, vice-president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement.

“As a Church, we are following the tragic news from Annunciation School in Minneapolis with heartbreaking sadness. Whenever one part of the Body of Christ is wounded, we feel the pain as if it were our very own children. Let us all beg the Lord for the protection and healing of the entire Annunciation family.”

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV appealed to Israel and Hamas to stop the violence that has caused "so much terror, destruction and death."

"I plead for all hostages to be freed, a permanent ceasefire to be reached, the safe entry of humanitarian aid to be facilitated and humanitarian law to be fully respected," the pope said at the end of his weekly general audience Aug. 27.

Without naming Israel, Pope Leo specified that he was calling for full observance of "the duty to protect civilians and the prohibitions against collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force and the forced displacement of populations."

The pope said he endorsed the statement made Aug. 26 by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, and Patriarch Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, calling for an end to "this spiral of violence, to put an end to the war and to give priority to the common good." 

The two patriarchs, who both have parishes in Gaza City sheltering the displaced, said, "It seems that the Israeli government's announcement that 'the gates of hell will open' is indeed taking on tragic forms" as the Israeli military campaign against Hamas intensified.

Local media reported that Israel wants civilians in Gaza City, including the hundreds of people in the Greek Orthodox compound of St. Porphyrius and the Catholic Holy Family compound, to evacuate to southern Gaza.

But "among those who have sought shelter within the walls of the compounds, many are weakened and malnourished due to the hardships of the last months," the patriarchs wrote. "Leaving Gaza City and trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence. For this reason, the clergy and nuns have decided to remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds."

Praying for the conversion of hearts and for peace, the patriarchs said, "There has been enough devastation, in the (Palestinian) territories and in people's lives. There is no reason to justify keeping civilians as prisoners and hostages in dramatic conditions. It is now time for the healing of the long-suffering families on all sides."

Pope Leo ended the audience asking that "Mary, queen of peace, source of consolation and hope," would intercede "to obtain reconciliation and peace in that land so dear to all."
 

In less than 24 hours, Curtis Windom is scheduled to be executed in the United States and, Kevin Jackson from the Community of Sant'Eigidio, makes one final appeal for clemency to be granted and Curtis' life to be spared.

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Dozens of people are killed when a landslide caused by heavy rains strikes a pilgrim route near a Hindu shrine in India.

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As Pope Leo XIV appeals for peace in Gaza, Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of the only Catholic parish in Gaza, tells Vatican News that Christians in the enclave are committed to serving those in need, asking people to pray for an end to the war.

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The official announcement of the milestone will be made on 8 September, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Founder and CEO Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, speaking at the Rimini Meeting, tells Vatican Media: “We feel called to stand with those parts of the world where people have no voice.”

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Pope Leo XIV has united his voice to the Latin and Greek Orthodox Patriarchs’ joint appeal for an end to the war in Gaza and for humanitarian aid to flow freely into the enclave.

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