St. Monica: The Power of a Mother's Love

By Giovanni Falbo, Pauline, 142 pages.

Father Falbo combines the best, most interesting aspects of Catholic scholarship with traditional hagiography (writings on the lives of saiwas a frequent visitor and someone whose piety the bishop well regarded.

At points, such as with the discussion of St. Ambrose, the book becomes very good literature, helping to fill in the gaps of the historical record. Giovanni Falbo makes a theological point by emphasizing the human aspect of conversion and religious life. Theology is life, love, family, and struggle, rather than the dry academic musings of the ivory tower. This literary-theological book shows how Sts. Monica, Augustine, and Ambrose related to one another:

Ambrose “was greatly impressed by Monica's fervor at the services and by her deeply religious behavior. So gradually, when he saw Augustine as he was going from place to place, Ambrose would stop for a moment to sing her praises and congratulate him on the good fortune of having such a mother. Augustine would respond courteously to the compliments, almost tempted to take advantage of these brief moments to bare his soul to the holy bishop.”

Falbo shows that doubt, moral confusion, lust, and pettiness held these saints down as much as shis mother's resolve to pray for his conversion, something she never really doubted.

The author brings Sts. Monica and Augustine's world alive. Church father St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, played a famous role in St. Augustine's life, and St. Monica was a frequent visitor and someone whose piety the bishop well regarded.

At points, such as with the discussion of St. Ambrose, the book becomes very good literature, helping to fill in the gaps of the historical record. Giovanni Falbo makes a theological point by emphasizing the human aspect of conversion and religious life. Theology is life, love, family, and struggle, rather than the dry academic musings of the ivory tower. This literary-theological book shows how Sts. Monica, Augustine, and Ambrose related to one another:

Ambrose “was greatly impressed by Monica's fervor at the services and by her deeply religious behavior. So gradually, when he saw Augustine as he was going from place to place, Ambrose would stop for a moment to sing her praises and congratulate him on the good fortune of having such a mother. Augustine would respond courteously to the compliments, almost tempted to take advantage of these brief moments to bare his soul to the holy bishop.”

Falbo shows that doubt, moral confusion, lust, and pettiness held these saints down as much as such things do now to people.

St. Monica shows how the struggle of these very human people foreshadowed our struggle today. The Church is the same as then because humans and the major issues of following Christ have not changed at all:

“Monica, a wife and mother leading a fully active life and immersed in the realities of her world, teaches us that the highest form of prayer, which is contemplation, is the prerogative of all Christians.”