Written by Barb Spies, OFS, Director of Mission Services and Pastoral Care

This week we remember several saints. On Wednesday we remember St. Monica, on Thursday St. Augustine, and on Friday is the Passion of St. John the Baptist. I have good memories of various connections with these three saints. St. Monica was one that I talked about at the beginning of the fall semester when I taught at the university. There was a parish with her name nearby that students sometimes attended. There was a street that ran close to the university called Santa Monica. I loved her persistence in prayer for her son. As a mother, she is a great model for caring for her child.

St. Augustine is one that I always discussed in my public speaking courses. He was trained in classical rhetoric, which was a strong emphasis in my undergraduate and graduate education. I especially appreciated how he focused on the use of persuasion from the ancient Greeks to preach the Gospel to a contemporary audience. Though the classical rhetoricians like Plato and Aristotle were before Christ, St. Augustine noted that we should employ all the available means of persuasion in spreading the Truth.

St. John the Baptist, pictured here in a statue in front of one of the California missions, is also a model for us. Mission San Juan Bautista is the first church I visited as a kid in junior high school. We had a field trip there as part of our education on the history of the state. I also took my family there in more recent years. St. John the Baptist shows us the importance of highlighting the life of Christ for others, encouraging them to grow close to Him. We should be bold in our proclamation of the call for justice in the Gospel. St. John the Baptist preached without concern for self, only with attention to bringing others to Jesus.

As we remember these saints this week, it is good to keep in mind the ways they can teach us about holiness. They turned to God in fervent prayer and preached the Gospel message with their lives.

Blessed Angela: “The more fervently I turned to God, the more peace and joy I felt, the more I felt God’s presence.”