LIBERA ME, Domine, Iesu Christe, ab omnibus iniquitatis meis et universis malis,
fac me tuis semper inhærere mandatis et a te numquam separari permittas. Amen.



Friday 27 August 2010

All I ask . . .

. . . is that you remember me at the Altar of God.

These, apparently, were among S. Monica’s last words to S. Augustine as they looked out over the sea together before she died; and I have little doubt that they are words we would all echo; had we the intuition that we were on our way home for the last time, and had we the opportunity to do so.

For many of us, there is no such chance : we can only pray that those whom we have loved, and who have loved us, will remember us, from that day on, ‘at the Altar of God’.

In our turn, though, we should remember those we have known and loved – and indeed those we have known but have not loved as we ought – at the Altar of God : and the purpose of this brief post, on S. Monica’s feast day, is to remind us to do so, that in our turn we may merit the same generosity of others.

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