Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Wednesday of the 21st week in ordinary time, August 27, 2025, Memorial of Saint Monica

Delivered by Evelyn from the Church of Holy Spirit in the Archdiocese of Singapore. 1 Thessalonians 2: 9-13; Rs psalm 139: 7-8.9-10.11-12ab; Matthew 23: 27-32.LOVE FOR MOTHER Our meditation today is entitled: Lovefor Mother. All our praise and respect for mothers, especially our own mother,are not enough to repay all love and kindness from her. A mother is given suchhigh appreciation as the the saying goes "heaven is under the mother'sfeet." Even so, the burden of pain and the power to withstand the pain ofthe mother reaches a level like being sorrowful in a very dark valley. We all can not lift and eliminate thepain of our mothers, because suffering has become part of their vocation to bemothers. Your mother endured extreme pain when giving birth to you. Themother's heart is painful for being cut with a sharp knife and her head hit bya stone when her husband is doing evil or her children meet accidents. Thedeath or loss of a husband or children greatly make a mother suffer verydeeply. Saint Monica whose memorial wecelebrate today also experienced great physical and spiritual suffering, when herson Saint Augustine was not yet converted. She prayed while crying and stirredup to God, so that her son could convert. She chose to suffer even if it wasvery severe, as long as her son Augustine changed his life from evil andbelieved in God. Jesus Christ met a widowed mother whosuffered greatly because her only child died. She had lost a husband, she alsolost her only child. But God is full of mercy. At that time, Jesus helped tofill the widow's heart which was empty, so that it became whole again, byraising her dead child. What the Lord did to the widow is thesame as what was done to Saint Monica. The act of love for these mothers isalso done to all our mothers in the world. Joy and sorrow experienced by amother, repaid by the love of the whole world, that is, everyone withoutexception always confirms that he or she was born through a mother. Mother'sheart and character are embedded in him or her so that in him or her life,there is a figure of the mother who plays shaping  him or her whole life. This love for mother is not only aform of kindness from this world that a mother receives, but also what God hasprovided in heaven for a mother. The love of a mother that she shares both withher husband, her children and with anyone around her, will be repaid by God'sgreat love. A mother's responsibility before God is to say that she is veryblessed and grateful for being a mother. Let's pray. In the name of theFather ... O Lord, we pray for our respective mothers and all mothers in theworld, so that they will always be happy and grateful to be the mothers. Gloryto the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit ... In the name of theFather ...