St. Monica's hope in Augustine Confessions

[Br. Nick, OP]

Here are some excerpts from Augustine's Confessions in which he talks
about his mother's faithfulness.

Confessions, Book III, paragraphs 19, 20, 21 (chapters 11 & 12) from
newadvent.org

(Chapter 11. He Refers to the Tears, and the Memorable Dream
Concerning Her Son, Granted by God to His Mother.)

19. And You sent Your hand from above, and drew my soul out of that
profound darkness, when my mother, Your faithful one, wept to you on
my behalf more than mothers are wont to weep the bodily death of their
children. For she saw that I was dead by that faith and spirit which
she had from You, and You heard her, O Lord. You heard her, and
despised not her tears, when, pouring down, they watered the earth
under her eyes in every place where she prayed; yea, You heard her.
For whence was that dream with which You consoled her, so that she
permitted me to live with her, and to have my meals at the same table
in the house, which she had begun to avoid,hating and detesting the
blasphemies of my error? For she saw herself standing on a certain
wooden rule, and a bright youth advancing towards her, joyous and
smiling upon her, while she was grieving and bowed down with sorrow.
But he having inquired of her the cause of her sorrow and daily
weeping (he wishing to teach, as is their wont, and not to be taught),
and she answering that it was myperdition she was lamenting, he bade
her rest contented, and told her to behold and see that where she was,
there was I also. And when she looked she saw me standing near her on
the same rule. Whence was this, unless that Your ears were inclined
towards her heart? OThou Good Omnipotent, who so carest for every one
of us as if You cared for him only, and so for all as if they were but
one!

20. Whence was this, also, that when she had narrated this vision to
me, and I tried to put this construction on it, That she rather should
not despair of being some day what I was, she immediately, without
hesitation, replied, No; for it was not told me that 'where he is,
there shall you be,' but 'where you are, there shall he be'? I confess
to You, O Lord, that, to the best of my remembrance (and I have oft
spoken of this), Your answer through my watchful mother— that she was
not disquieted by the speciousness of my false interpretation, and saw
in a moment what was to be seen, and which I myself had not in truth
perceived before she spoke— even then moved me more than the dream
itself, by which the happiness to that pious woman, to be realized so
long after, was, for the alleviation of her present anxiety, so long
before predicted. For nearly nine years passed in which Iwallowed in
the slime of that deep pit and the darkness of falsehood, striving
often to rise, but being all the more heavily dashed down. But yet
that chaste, pious, and sober widow (such as You love), now more
buoyed up with hope, though no whit less zealous in her weeping and
mourning, desisted not, at all the hours of her supplications, to
bewail my case unto You. And her prayers entered into Your presence,
and yet You still allowed me to be involved and re-involved in that
darkness.

(Chapter 12. The Excellent Answer of the Bishop When Referred to by
His Mother as to the Conversion of Her Son.)

21. And meanwhile You granted her another answer, which I recall; for
much I pass over, hastening on to those things which the more strongly
impel me toconfess unto You, and much I do not remember. You granted
her then another answer, by a priest of Yours, a certain bishop,
reared in Your Church and well versed in Your books. He, when this
woman had entreated that he would vouchsafe to have some talk with me,
refute my errors, unteach me evil things, and teach me good (for this
he was in the habit of doing when he found people fitted to receive
it), refused, very prudently, as I afterwards came to see. For he
answered that I was stillunteachable, being inflated with the novelty
of that heresy, and that I had already perplexed various inexperienced
persons with vexatious questions, as she had informed him. But leave
him alone for a time, says he, only pray God for him; he will of
himself, by reading, discover what that error is, and how great its
impiety. He disclosed to her at the same time how he himself, when a
little one, had, by his misguided mother, been given over to the
Manichæans, and had not only read, but even written out almost all
their books, and had come to see (without argument or proof from any
one) how much that sect was to be shunned, and had shunned it. Which
when he had said, and she would not be satisfied, but repeated more
earnestly her entreaties, shedding copious tears, that he would see
and discourse with me, he, a little vexed at her importunity,
exclaimed, Go your way, and God bless you, for it is not possible that
the son of these tears should perish. Which answer (as she often
mentioned in her conversations with me) she accepted as though it were
a voice from heaven.