Wherever there is a child, there is always a mother who accompanies and cares for him or her. In the home, children learn the fundamental values that shape their personality, and it is the mother-child relationship that brings them particularly close to the Christian life.
Mothers have always relied on the testimony of exemplary people to guide their children along the path of good. Throughout history, the figure of St. Monica of Tagastethe mother of the restless St. Augustine, is presented as the model of a mother who prays for the welfare and faith of her children.
Her biography, enhanced by the pen of her son, is a reference of constancy and patience in the effort to beget children for God: “She bore her children, giving birth to them as often as she saw them depart from You” (Conf. 9:22).
The birth of Madres Cristianas Santa Monica
The Augustinian Recollect Family has had the sensitivity and commitment to accompany Christian families in the education of their children. Such is the case of the Augustinian Recollect religious Lorenzo Infante (+1997), who, in the eighties, welcomed the plea of a group of mothers concerned about the gradual distancing of their children from religious practice.
With creativity and courage, she promoted a chain of continuous prayer for the children, forming choirs of seven mothers, who were assigned the task of praying one day a week for the children of the whole group. Thus was born the lay association “Madres Cristianas Santa Monica” in the parish of St. Rita in Madrid, attended by the Augustinian Recollects.
Expansion and growth
This initiative progressively spread to various ministries in Spain and beyond its borders, both in Europe and America.
Its simple structure has favored the proliferation of the Monica Mothers’ choirs. It has been enough for a group of seven or more mothers to agree to form a choir to pray for each other’s children, following short prayers and meeting on a day around the 27th of each month, as far as possible.
There was no lack of religious who, with pastoral zeal, accompanied the choirs of Madres Monicas, providing them with the “official” prayers and accompanying them with other prayers with which every mother nourishes the faith life of the family.
Even simple manuals or instructions have been published to guide the constitution of these choirs.
The 56th General Chapter of the Augustinian Recollects, celebrated in October 2022, welcomed with joy the proposal of the religious requesting greater attention for the Monica Mothers.
The Chapter proposed to“promote and accompany the devotion of the Christian Mothers of St. Monica groups in our ministries” (D. 3).
One year later, in June 2023, the General Council formed a team to attend to them, with the following assignments:
1️⃣ To carry out a survey of the existing groups, both in the ministries of the Order and outside of them.
2️⃣ To know the reality of these groups and their functioning.
3️⃣ To put the different groups in contact with each other to facilitate their organization.
4️⃣ To identify their demands, expectations and desires in relation to the Order.
5️⃣ To discern what the Lord is asking of us in these moments of history, in order not to put obstacles to the action of the Holy Spirit.
A path of accompaniment
The members of the team have dedicated themselves to the General Council’s mandate. The first step has been to make contact, either in person or virtually, with the coordinators of the choirs of the Monica Mothers, echoing the Order’s desire to accompany and promote them.
They have noted the strength and commitment of the Monica Mothers, both in ministries attended by Augustinian Recollects and in those where there is no presence of the Order. A simple gesture of attention has been enough to reactivate some choirs that had been neglected and fornew prayer groups to emergein various ministries.
In addition, the team has worked on the preparation of guidelines for the proper accompaniment of this lay association, as well as on the creation of a prayer booklet for different circumstances in which mothers present their children to the Lord.
Among the demands they make of us is the concern to receive formation, such as materials related to St. Monica, Augustinian spirituality or the magisterium of the Church, which they can use in their meetings, either in audio or video format. The request to be initiated in prayer is very significant; they are not satisfied with just reciting a few prayers.
The need and attraction for mothers to pray for their children is so great that it is enough to know of the existence of a space or support group for new choirs of continuous prayer to be born.
*Article written by Fr. Sergio Sánchez for the Yearbook 2024.