Daybreak

Tuesday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of St. Monica, 330-387; she became distressed when she learned that her son, Augustine, had accepted the Manichean heresy ("all flesh is evil") and that he was living an immoral life; she prayed and fasted for him; Augustine came under the influence of St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan; at Easter 387, St. Ambrose baptized Augustine and several of his friends; Monica knew that her life would end soon; she became ill and suffered for nine days before her death; almost all that we know of St. Monica comes from St. Augustine's writings, mostly from his "Confessions" Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 8/27/24 Gospel: Matthew 23:23-26