St. Monica was truly devoted to her son Augustine. She prayed much for his well-being, his spiritual well-being especially, as this is much more important than physical well-being. She shed many tears for him. The son of her tears certainly couldn’t be lost, as the Bishop simplistic consoled her. She who gave her son physical birth, also gave him spiritual birth through her cooperation with the work of God – – she brought him into the Church by her prayers so that he could be reborn, spiritually, of the Church. She it is, the Church, who gives birth to children in the spiritual order. So it is with Mary – – she has other offspring, spiritual children. She is the perfect member and personification of the Church. She dispenses grace, She brings us to the throne of grace, the source of it, Christ Jesus her Son.
If Monica cried for the conversion of her son, so Intensely desiring him to be where she was, in the heart of the Church, imagine how much more does Mary pray for all of her wayward children, including those who are not fully her children yet. Monica united her pain, her longing, to the suffering of Christ on the Cross. Mary stood by at the cross, doing the same, uniting her suffering to his suffering, to the highest degree possible, for the conversion of souls. Even now, she sheds tears for the conversion of sinners, as evidenced by the miracle of weeping statues of her, weeping with tears of blood.
If we unite with St. Monica in the pleading of the conversion of all those who don’t know God, don’t know Christ, don’t live according to the truth, don’t walk the straight and narrow path of salvation, certainly the children of our tears will not be lost. And how much more powerful will our pleading be if it is rooted with the heart of Mary, who loves much more than all mothers combined.
Results of our prayer will not appear immediately, but as we learn from St. Monica, the perseverance of our prayer will pay off. The most effective time to pray for the conversion of others, and our ongoing conversion, is 3 o’clock, the hour in which Jesus died. I know that it was at that hour that my physical mother prayed the Divine Mercy chaplet for me, and it was at that hour that my spiritual mother united her pain to that of Jesus, in order that I might be with him.