O my Mother!
"Weeping she hath wept in the night . . .: there is none to comfort her among all them that were dear to her." - Lamentations 1:2
Recall to mind that mother to whom you have cost infinitely more than you can ever imagine or believe. How mucli solicitude she has shown, how much anguish she has endured! You were her joy, her treasure, her life. For nine months did she carry you in her w^omb, and still longer nourish you with her own substance. So many sleepless nights, so many days did she pass in agitation! Poor mother! for every trifling thing you suffered she suffered much, and each groan that pain drew from you made her almost inconsolable. The faintest of your cries found echo in her heart; burning and bitter tears filled her eyes when your repose was a little disturbed or your health threatened. She has done so much for you! For you she has recorded so many vows, recited so many prayers, solicited s'o much, invoked, fatigued heaven! Through her do Mary, the angels, and the saints know perfectly all that would be useful or interesting to you. Would it not be justice and gratitude to make her a similar return?
O my mother! Yes, yes, for thee I ought, for thee I wish to pray, suffer and expiate. O my tender mother! no, no, I will not forget thee; each day and night will I think of thee. Thou hast given me life amidst suffering; I wish in return to tear thee from the sufferings of exile, and so give to thee, in some measure, the everlasting life of heaven.
Saint Augustine - Saint Catherine of Bologna - Filial Expiation
Saint Augustine, addressing the readers of his works, recommends to them his pious and tender mother, for whom he had prayed so much, practised so many mortifications, and offered so many sacrifices during twenty consecutive years. He says: "Inspire, my Lord and my God, Thy servants, my brethren, and Thy children, my superiors, whom with voice and heart and pen I serve, that as many as shall read these words may remember at Thy altar Monica, my mother, and Patrick, her husband, so that she may obtain through the multitude of supplications what she so strongly solicited of me in her last hour." (Here, pious reader, will you permit both writer and translator of these pages to beseech a like favor in behalf of deceased parents?)
Boudon, doctor of theology, and Archdeacon of Evreux, said of Blessed Catherine of Bologna, whose body is miraculously untouched, that God granted her favors, when she prayed for the souls in Purgatory, which she failed to obtain through the intercession of the blessed in heaven, and added: "I knew a very wise and truly virtuous person, who, in making a pilgrimage for the soul of one of my parents long since deceased, saw him as when in life. He accompanied her for more than a league, and complained that his children had not, as was customar}^ offei'ed tapers for the service that had been celebrated for him. Now, from whom had he learned these things, if not from his good angel? He conversed with her on other very eminent truths, and added that his little girl, who had been an invalid since his death, suffered for him by a special dispensation of divine Providence, Who applied her sufferings to his soul, and as a pi oof of the truth of what he said, she would expire on this person's next visit. This took place as he had foretold. The fact was related to me by the person to whom it happened."
Practice
Resolve to devote one day of each week, for instance Wednesday, to the relief of the dead, especially your parents, by increasing your prayers and good works.
Prayer composed by Saint Auustigine in behalf of his Mother
Lord, I implore Thee to pardon the offences of my mother. Hear me, I conjure Thee by Thy sacred wounds, which are the remedy for the wounds of our souls, by that divine Saviour, Who has been pleased to be nailed to the cross for us, and Who, being now seated at Thy right hand, ceases not to intercede for us. I know that she has practised works of mercy, and pardoned with all her heart those who had offended her. Pardon her likewise. Lord, and enter not into judgment against her.
Recite the Litany of the Blessed Virgin.
O Mary, who didst come into this world free from stain, obtain of God for me that I may leave it without sin.
- text taken from Month of the Dead by Father Celestin Cloquet, translated by a Sister of Mercy, with the Imprimatur of Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan, Archdiocese of New York, 18 October 1886