Pope Francis has recalled the feast day of Saint Monica, mother of St. Augustine of Hippo. Toward the conclusion of Wednesday's general audience in St. Peter's Square in his remarks to Italian-speaking pilgrims, Pope Francis recalled that today, August 27, is the feast day of St. Monica. To the intercession of her and her son, Francis said, "We entrust newlyweds and Christian parents so that, like Monica, they will accompany the way of their children with their example and prayer." "We recommend comfort and constant attentions for the neediest sick as well as youth so that, like Augustine," he continued, "they tend always to the fullness of Truth and of Love, which is Christ: He alone can satiate the profound needs of the human heart." Born in Tagaste, North Africa, in 322, Monica was raised in a Christian home. The young girl had a difficult life and was forced to marry an adulterous, abusive Roman pagan, with a bad temper. She suffered greatly and prayed for long years for the conversion of her family members. Her patience and kindness were said to have become a source of encouragement to other unhappy housewives. After Monica gave birth to three children, her husband would not allow them to be baptized. Augustine, her oldest son, was the most wayward of her children and caused her great pain. After praying for his conversion for decades, some of her prayers were eventually answered. When Augustine moved away to Milan, his mother followed and became friends with Milan's bishop, St. Ambrose, who had a key role in leading Augustine to convert to the Christian faith. Also, shortly before his death, Monica's husband converted. Pope Benedict XVI remembered St. Monica on different occasions. For example, during his Angelus address to the crowds gathered in the courtyard of the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo on her feast day in 2006, Benedict said, "Monica, born in Tagaste, in present-day Algeria (in Souk-Arhas), of a Christian family, lived in an exemplary way her mission of wife and mother, helping her husband Patricius to discover, little by little, the beauty of faith in Christ and the strength of evangelical love, capable of overcoming evil with good." As Augustine himself would say later, Benedict stressed, his mother gave him birth twice; the second time required a long spiritual labor, made up of prayer and tears, but crowned in the end by the joy of seeing him not only embrace the faith and receive baptism, but also dedicate himself entirely to the service of Christ. "How many difficulties there are also today in family relationships and how many mothers are anguished because their children choose mistaken ways!" Pope Benedict observed, noting, "Monica, a wise and solid woman in the faith, invites them not to be discouraged, but to persevere in their mission of wives and mothers, maintaining firm their confidence in God and clinging with perseverance to prayer."

How much reading do you do in a year? More specifically, how much Catholic reading do you do in a year? I am talking about books, articles, newspapers, blogs, websites, twitter, and instagram to name just a few. What about Catholic radio? Do you send a specific amount of time reading or learning about your faith? The Catholic faith is complex and rich with history and significance. There is so much to know about it and the resources are everywhere. I think that as I became more comfortable with the teachings of the Catholic church through study, I became much more willing to do as Jesus asked and evangelize. Bringing the Gospel to the unchurched is one of our primary missions in life. Exposing people to the life of Jesus and His teachings is needed in this world more than ever. The spread of relativism, the focus on oneself and free will, has made the world we live in very complex. As Christians we are assaulted for our beliefs everyday. And one of the ways to push back on this relativism is by bringing people into the Catholic church. Another way is to live the life that Jesus chose for us. We should be focusing less on ourselves and more on others. How is God calling you to be His earthen vessel? What is your special mission? A good way to begin to discover that is to learn more about the Catholic faith each day. Make a short term goal of reading a few pages of Catholic writing everyday. Turn you car radio to the local Catholic station. Bring your prayer book to work and use the small down time windows as your opportunity to pray more. All of this effort will allow you to grow in knowledge, faith, and confidence so that you are willing and able to evangelize.

Here is part of the homily given Sunday by Bishop Kevin Doran for the 2015 National Novena to Our Lady of Knock, which is underway through Aug. 22. "Giving thanks is a central theme in the writing and preaching of St. Paul. I think it comes, in the first place, from a deep down sense of gratitude for everything that God has done in his own life and especially for the experience of the Risen Jesus. Today, St. Paul encourages us, "always and everywhere" to give thanks to God. It is not just a formality or a routine, but an attitude and - as Paul knew well - that attitude of gratitude sometimes had to be lived in the face of adversity. In his work of proclaiming the good news about Jesus Christ, he was beaten, shipwrecked and imprisoned many times, but he remained grateful to God who, as he says, gave him the victory through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Today and during the whole of this novena, our focus is on the family and it seemed appropriate to reflect on why we might give thanks to God for the gift of the family. Very early on in the Bible, the beginnings of faith in a creator God are very closely linked with the idea of family. The account of creation in the Book of Genesis is not meant to be history. It is really a proclamation of faith in a God who made all things good and who, as part of this created man and woman in his own image. This ancient profession of faith includes the idea that, as part of their own mission, man and woman were to share with God in passing on to their children the gift of life and love. It was not, of course, without its struggles and its failures. The account in Genesis leaves us in no doubt that failure and recrimination and fighting among the children were part of the experience then as they can be in our own families today. But that doesn't take away from the original goodness of God's gift of family."

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and other speakers at a Steubenville Youth Conference inspired 1,800 Catholic teenagers to live their faith openly. Cardinal Dolan charmed the youth with his trademark sense of humor early on in his homily. "I'm a little uncomfortable today having Mass in a gym," he said, gesturing toward his stomach, "because I don't go to gyms very often. That's all right, because nowhere are we more at home than to gather around the table of Jesus Christ." The cardinal preached about St. Dominic's work with the Albigensians, a 12th-century sect. "They had such a lofty concept of God, and they just went off the wrong track," he said. "(They thought), 'How could God leave heaven and enter this stupid, sinful, corrupt, dirty world?' They said, 'This Incarnation is a big, fat lie, and we don't believe it. God could not have been conceived in the womb of a woman. God could not have sweated and cried and been nailed to a cross.'" Eventually, St. Dominic convinced the Albigensians the Incarnation was real. St. Dominic also created the rosary, Cardinal Dolan said, to let Mary complete his task for him. "If we could restore Mary to the minds and imaginations of people, then we'll have no trouble restoring the truth of the Incarnation," he said. "Mary prevents God from being a myth or just a nice idea or a concept."

Today we celebrate Christ's transfiguration. The Transfiguration of Christ is the culminating point of His public life, as His Baptism is its starting point, and His Ascension its end. Moreover, this glorious event has been related in detail by St. Matthew (17:1-6), St. Mark (9:1-8), and St. Luke (9:28-36), while St. Peter (2 Peter 1:16-18) and St. John (1:14), two of the privileged witnesses, make allusion to it. About a week after His sojourn in Cæsarea Philippi, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them to a high mountain apart, where He was transfigured before their ravished eyes. St. Matthew and St. Mark express this phenomenon by the word metemorphothe, which the Vulgate renders transfiguratus est. The Synoptics explain the true meaning of the word by adding "his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow," according to the Vulgate, or "as light," according to the Greek text. This dazzling brightness which emanated from His whole Body was produced by an interior shining of His Divinity. False Judaism had rejected the Messias, and now true Judaism, represented by Moses and Elias, the Law and the Prophets, recognized and adored Him, while for the second time God the Father proclaimed Him His only-begotten and well-loved Son. By this glorious manifestation the Divine Master, who had just foretold His Passion to the Apostles (Matthew 16:21), and who spoke with Moses and Elias of the trials which awaited Him at Jerusalem, strengthened the faith of his three friends and prepared them for the terrible struggle of which they were to be witnesses in Gethsemani, by giving them a foretaste of the glory and heavenly delights to which we attain by suffering.

The mystery priest who seemingly came from nowhere to pray with an accident victim at the scene of a head-on car crash in Missouri has come forward to say that he was only doing the basic job of a priest and most of the credit goes to God, who "took such good care of" the injured woman. "I have no doubt the Most High answered their prayers and I was part of his answer, but only part," the Rev. Patrick Dowling told ABC News Monday. First responders had said they were convinced the mystery priest was sent from above. Dowling, a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, was the clergyman who showed up when an allegedly drunken driver hit Katie Lentz, of Quincy, Mo., head-on Aug. 4 while traveling on Route 19 near Center, Mo. The accident pinned the 19-year-old in the front seat of her vehicle. "I was coming from 8:30 a.m. mass and shortly after that I saw this line of cars," Dowling recounted. Lentz was barely clinging to life and her vital signs were failing fast when she asked rescue crews to pray with her. That's when first responders say a man who looked like a Catholic priest seemed to appear out of nowhere, despite a 2-mile perimeter blocking the scene. "One of the rescuers said to me, 'We need all the help we can get right now,'" Dowling said. Dowling had anointing oil with him. He prayed, gave Lentz the anointing of the sick, as well as absolution. "There was a calmness that, to me, seemed to come over the entire scene," New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed said. But that's not the only seemingly divine detail. Firefighters say their equipment kept failing until the mystery man appeared. After Dowling performed his duties, he left the scene. But his sudden disappearance only added to the air of mystery. Dowling wasn't in any of the nearly 70 photos or videos taken near the scene, which left many wondering whether he was an angel from above. It wasn't long before the entire town and soon the country were searching for this seemingly heavenly hero who was dubbed the "angel priest." Lentz was eventually airlifted to a local hospital with broken legs and ribs. Dowling had a chance to meet with Lentz Saturday in the intensive care unit. "I told her I'm the priest who stopped by the site and she started to cry. I don't know why," Dowling said. "I think it was the most disappointing moment of all that I wasn't an angel or something." While Lentz's savior might have salt and pepper hair instead of a halo, those closest to the teen say they still believe Dowling is an angel among men. "Let's remember it was the all mighty who loved that little girl so much and took such good care of her," he said. A native of Ireland, Dowling was ordained a priest for the Jefferson City Diocese in 1982. He serves in the prison ministry, and also ministers to the Spanish-speaking population of the Diocese of Jefferson City, according to the National Catholic Register.