St Monica Sodality of Michigan

The next monthly Mass is at Ss. Cyril & Methodius, and is the fourth Sunday of the month, May 26th at 1:30 P.M.

Assumption Grotto Church will have their next monthly Mass, First Saturday, May 4th at 4 P.M.

Prior to August 27, the feast of St. Monica was May 4, the date her remains were transferred to Rome to the Basilica of St. Augustine. Here an altar was built over her tomb in her chapel. And here is where our petitions come to rest. All the names written on the petition slips and placed in the St. Monica Petition Box near the St. Michael Statue by the church entrance, and those at Assumption Grotto, are sent yearly to St. Monica's chapel and placed on the altar when Masses are offered. Some remain at the foot of the altar, and some have even been placed on the pillow next to her below the altar.

Since every Mass is all inclusive, you are all invited. Come learn about St. Monica and her son, St. Augustine, and her sodality. Experience her intercession in a new light, in May the month of Mary and all mothers.

Praise be to our risen Lord! Alleluia!

Saint Monica Sodality prays for dear souls to return

to the Catholic Faith, and for conversion of sinners.

HOW CAN WE BRING THEM TO JESUS?

As parents come to the altar during Mass to receive Communion and bring their infants and toddlers to be blessed by the priest, so too, can we bring to the altar, spiritually, those we are praying to return to the Catholic Faith and return to union with us, their family. The Holy Mass is the most powerful prayer given to us by God. So let us bring all our needs and intentions and unite them with Jesus who offers Himself to the Father.

The ways we can bring them to Jesus along with the Holy Mass is to recite the Saint Monica Sodality Prayer every day, to say the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet for their intention, and by writing their names on the petitions slips found at the Petition Box near St. Michael statue at the church entrance. These petition slips will be placed in a covered album and brought to the altar during the monthly Mass which is offered for the intention of the St. Monica Sodality. And, when possible, we can ask them to attend Mass with us.

WHO CAN WE BRING TO JESUS?

Jesus healed the paralytic because He saw the faith of those who brought him. We assume they are his friends, but they could easily have been family, or even strangers who took pity on him.

At first, we generally ask the intercession of St. Monica and St. Augustine for a person we love most dearly. Soon, we begin to pray for family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. And each time we pray the St. Monica Sodality Prayer, we are also praying for total strangers on whom we can take pity because we know their only true happiness is to be united with God, the Catholic Church and their loved ones who are also praying the St. Monica Sodality Prayer.

God creates us out of love, we return His love in our acts of mercy. Each act offered for love of another strengthens us to persevere and increases the depth of our love.

HOW CAN WE PREPARE OURSELVES TO RECEIVE JESUS?

We can prepare ourselves for Easter and each Holy Communion through good and frequent Confessions. And during Lent, to ask God to enlighten our souls to see what we need to give up and what we need to add each day to our spiritual lives. Springtime is soon to come, let us clean out the cobwebs and all the things we've hidden, even from ourselves.

THE SAINT MONICA SODALITY PRAYER

Please recite this prayer DAILY for your intentions and in union with all those also saying this prayer:

Eternal and merciful Father, I give You thanks for the gift of Your Divine Son Who suffered, died and rose for all mankind. I thank You also for my Catholic Faith and ask Your help that I may grow in fidelity by prayer, by works of charity and penance, by reflection on Your Word, and by regular participation in the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist.

You gave Saint Monica a spirit of selfless love manifested in her constant prayer for the conversion of her son Augustine. Inspired by boundless confidence in Your power to move hearts, and by the success of her prayer. I ask the grace to imitate her constancy in my prayer for [name(s)] who no longer share(s) in the intimate life of Your Catholic family. Grant through my prayer and witness that (he/she/they) may be open to the promptings of Your Holy Spirit, and return to loving union with Your Church. Grant also that my prayer be ever hopeful and that I may never judge another, for You alone can read hearts. I ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Printed with Diocesan Approval, Diocese of Cleveland 1986

TRIDUUM (THREE-DAY) NOVENA in HONOR of ST. MONICA

For an INCREASE of FAITH, HOPE and CHARITY

This Three-Day Novena may be begin three days before or on the feast days of St. Monica August 27 also the Tridentine Mass on May 4th, St. Augustine - August 28, St. Augustine's birthday - November 13, St. Augustine's Baptism - April 24

St. Monica, pray for us

FIRST DAY

Prayer for Faith

O glorious St. Monica, transfixed with sorrow when you saw your beloved child Augustine living in the dark and gloomy abyss of error and vice, and straying far from the right path which leads to true felicity in the possession of God and His holy grace, hear our prayer, O afflicted mother. By that cruel sorrow, which with so much patience you did bear, and by those earnest sighs and bitter tears with which you did appeal to God to change the heart of your prodigal son, and by your wondrous confidence in God, which was never shaken, O grant to us, your children, that we may, like you, place all our trust in God, and in our trials and troubles be ever resigned to His holy will. While we ask you, O glorious mother St. Monica, to supply for us our special needs, we here earnestly ask you to pray for the erring children of Jesus, so many Augustines, straying from God and hurrying to ruin. Let that earnest prayer of yours go forth once more for us and for sinners, that we may live in the light of divine grace and be united again thereafter to bless the bounty of a loving God for eternity. Amen.

LET US PRAY. O God, look graciously down upon Your children who sigh in this valley of tears. With hope we pray for our daily bread, for the forgiveness of our sins, for the never-failing help of Your grace, and for the faithful fulfillment of Your promises: to find life everlasting and a happy abode with You in heaven, through the merits of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer.

May God, through the merits and intercession of Saint Monica, increase our faith, strengthen our hope, and enkindle the fire of charity in our hearts. Amen.

Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . . Glory Be. . . Saint Monica, pray for us.

SECOND DAY

Prayer for Hope

O glorious mother, St. Monica, although the many means you employed to accomplish the conversion of your son Augustine seemed fruitless, and for a long time God Himself appeared deaf to your earnest prayer and unmoved by your ever-flowing tears, you never lost confidence in obtaining the long-sought grace for Augustine. You lovingly and tenderly admonished your erring son; you watched over him ever with all a mother's love, and fearless of danger and heedless of fatigue, followed him from place to place in his weary and wayward wanderings. In a word, all that a mother's tender love could suggest, all that a mother's anxious solicitude could inspire, all that a wondrous prudence and true wisdom could dictate, you, O great St. Monica, cheerfully did to effect the return to God of your firstborn and darling child. By all these generous efforts, so happily crowned in the end, hear, O mother, the petitions we make to you. Pray for us, too, and pray especially for those who are unmindful of and ungrateful to God. To you, O dearest mother, we are especially dedicated; look upon us, then, as your children, and win for us the grace we need. Regard mercifully the most destitute among us, that sin being diminished, the number of the faithful may increase, and greater glory may be given to Him who is the best of friends, the truest of benefactors, our first beginning and last end, the source of all our hope, our Savior, our God. Amen.

May God, through the merits and intercession of Saint Monica, increase our faith, strengthen our hope, and enkindle the fire of charity in our hearts. Amen.

Our Father . . . Hail Mary . . . Glory Be . . . Saint Monica, pray for us.

THIRD DAY

Prayer for Charity

O glorious mother St. Monica who can conceive the consolation that abounded in your heart, so long the home of brooding sorrow, when you saw your child Augustine rising in the light of grace and giving himself generously to God. When you folded your converted son in your arms and tears of every joy streamed forth to tell the glowing jubilee of your heart, Oh, how in that moment God in his mercy recompensed your years of sorrow and anxiety, your long and weary days of racking suspense. It was impossible that a child of tears like yours should perish and when your son Augustine heard the call of God he obeyed it, and his life and his deeds flung a luster all their own on you, St. Monica. O fortunate mother, twice mother of your child, deign to listen to our prayers and present our petitions to God. Look lovingly, and with all a mother's interest on us assembled here, under your protection, to honor you. We love you and let us become, as St. Augustine of old, the objects of your maternal love. Pray that we, too, like St. Augustine, may have strength to cling to God, and triumph over sin and temptation. By your prayers break the fetters of sin that hold in cruel bondage the souls of your sinful children in this world. O mother, pray that the miracle of grace in the heart of Augustine may again and again be repeated in these day of universal sin, and that the erring children of Jesus may be led back to the fold so that united here on earth, we may securely go through the dangers of life and be united with you, our mother, in heaven forever. Amen

May God, through the merits and intercession of Saint Monica, increase our faith, strengthen our hope, and enkindle the fire of charity in our hearts. Amen.

Our Father. . . Hail Mary . . . Glory Be . . . Saint Monica, pray for us.

IN MY DISTRESS I CRIED UNTO THE LORD

St. Monica, pray for us

THE BEGINNING of the ST. MONICA SODALITY in Michigan

The Saint Monica Sodality of Michigan, at this time, consists of two local chapters of the St. Monica Sodality, the international organization that was formed in 1995 out of St. John Cantius Roman Catholic Church in Chicago, IL. Fr. C. Frank Phillips, C.R. is the director of the Sodality, as well as pastor of St. John Cantius.

THE LOCATION OF THE TWO LOCAL CHAPTERS IN THE DETROIT METROPOLITAN AREA THAT OFFER MONTHLY MASSES ARE:

The Assumption Grotto Roman Catholic Church, a national shrine, located in Detroit (directions). This first chapter started in November of 2003 with encouragement from the pastor, Fr. Eduard Perrone. The monthly Mass for the Sodality's intention is First Saturday at 4:00 p.m. The person of contact is Mary (313) 885-6910 St. Monica Sodality at Assumption Grotto is First Saturday of each month at 4:00 P.M.

The second chapter started in January of 2004 at Sts. Cyril & Methodius Roman Catholic Slovak Church in Sterling Heights (directions) was welcomed by the pastor, Fr. Ben Kosnac. Their monthly Mass for the intention of the Sodality is the Fourth Sunday of the month at 1:30 p.m. St. Monica Sodality at St. Cyril, is the fourth Sunday of each month at 1:30 P.M. The person of contact is Jerry (586) 883-1721 St. Monica Sodality at St. Cyril

Both churches offer Confession and recitation of the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the St. Monica Sodality Prayer. During Mass a covered album, with petition lists and photos for those being prayed, is brought to the altar where your petitions are united with the most sacred offering of Christ.

On a table near the entrance, both churches have Petition Slips at the St. Monica Sodality Petition Box to write the names of those who are no longer practicing the faith. Just place the slip in the box and take a St. Monica Sodality Prayer Card.

Online Petitions here

WHO are St. MONICA and St. AUGUSTINE?

St. Monica was born of devout parents who educated her in the Catholic Faith in Tagaste, North Africa (now known as Algeria) around 332 A.D. She was given in marriage to Patricius, a pagan Roman official of violent temper. Their first child was Augustine born in 354. They also had another son, Navigius and a daughter, Perpetua. In time, her pagan mother-in-law would come to live with them. St. Monica exercised much patience and prudence in dealing with her husband and his mother. They, and Augustine, would convert through her virtuous life which gave them a living example of the Way of Christ.

Even as a child Augustine showed signs of possessing a great intellect so he was sent to the best schools to train him in the disciplines necessary for a promising career. His search for knowledge and truth took him down many different paths, most were scandalous to his virtuous mother and brought her great sorrow. She continually offered prayers and tears for her son to find his way to the Truth he was so desperately seeking.

For years she begged clergy to convince him to turn away from his way of life. She was told by one bishop that "the heart of this young man is at present too stubborn, but God's time will come". When she persisted the bishop dismissed her with the words, "Go now, I beg of you; it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish".

And so it was to be, to the joy of St. Monica who would witness St. Augustine's baptism in answer to her years of prayer, fasting and tears. This was the second birth of her son, and the most important for it brought Life to his eternal soul. In 387, she could now rest from her labors and

await him in their Heavenly home.

Her perseverence in prayer and sacrifice won for him the grace of conversion. This is why we have her as our intercessor with God for all those who have gone astray. If her life of prayer brought about the conversion of her son, who became a priest, bishop and Doctor of the Church, how much more powerful are St. Monica and St. Augustine's prayers for us today!

August 27 is Saint Monica's feastday, August 28 is Saint Augustine.

PRAYER to SAINT AUGUSTINE

Written by JOHN PAUL II

In November 2004 Pope John Paul II received the relics of St. Augustine at the Vatican. The initiative marked the celebration of the 1,650th anniversary of the birth of the bishop, philosopher and theologian, as well as one of the most influential Fathers of the Church of the West. The Holy Father was so moved when viewing the relics that he composed this prayer to St. Augustine:

"Great Augustine, our father and teacher, knowledgeable in the luminous ways of God and also in the tortuous paths of men; we admire the wonders that divine grace wrought in you, making you a passionate witness of truth and goodness, at the service of brothers.

At the beginning of the new millennium marked by the cross of Christ, teach us to read history in the light of Divine Providence, which guides events toward the definitive encounter with the Father. Direct us toward peaceful ends, nourishing in our hearts your own longing for those values on which it is possible to build, with the strength that comes from God, the 'city' made to the measure of man.

May the profound doctrine, that with loving and patient study you drew from the ever living sources of Scripture, enlighten all those tempted today by alienating illusions.

Give them the courage to undertake the path toward that 'interior man' where the One awaits who alone can give peace to our restless hearts.

Many of our contemporaries seem to have lost the hope of being able to reach -- amid the numerous opposing ideologies -- the truth, of which their innermost being still keeps a burning nostalgia.

Teach them to never cease in their search, in the certainty that, in the end, their effort will be rewarded by the satisfying encounter with the supreme Truth who is source of all created truth.

Finally, St. Augustine, transmit to us also a spark of that ardent love for the Church, the Catholic Mother of the Saints, which sustained and animated the toils of your long ministry.

"Have us, walking together under the guidance of legitimate Pastors, reach the glory of the heavenly Homeland, where, with all the Saints, we will be able to join the new canticle of the everlasting alleluia. Amen."

..... Pope John Paul II November 2004

Started 2007

Copy written by Louise Hand

email stmonicasodality@hotmail.com

Questions or problems with the website