St. Monica's Feast Day

Who doesn't love St. Monica? She is a comfort to every Catholic mother's heart; a model to cling to should we ever find ourselves in her situation. A beacon for us mothers that shines forth should we stumble in our responsibilities or should our children choose a rough and rocky road; St. Monica offers us the hope that with God's mercy we can cry our sweet babes into Heaven. I tried to find pictures of St. Monica to use as a foundation for a coloring page, but honestly, I didn't like any of the ones I saw. She either looked like a really old, wrinkly nun or was kind of sentimental looking. Some people like pictures like that, but they don't really suit me. The picture I kept coming back to was this icon found at Monastery Icons.

I thought since the Church saw fit to move St. Monica's feast day (August 27th) to the day before her son's feast day (August 28th), I thought I would make matching icon coloring pages for this special mother and her son. Here is St. Monica's coloring page. I hope to get St. Augustine's up later but my computer time is coming to an end.

We have a book club meeting tomorrow, but we are going to spend a little time studying St. Monica. We aren't doing any formal geography this year, but a globe, some wall maps and Google Earth are going to help us explore the place she was born (Algeria) and the place she died (Ostia, Italy). And for dinner, we are having a version of this Algerian dish. My recipe calls for zucchini, chicken, tomatoes and couscous (no chickpeas).

Exemplary Mother of the great Augustine, you perseveringly pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen.