Thursday – 21st Week in Ordinary Time – A – Memorial of Saint Monica
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the beautiful feast of Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine. We take our readings for today's Mass from the book of Sirach and from the Gospel of Luke, Saint Luke. And my brothers and sisters, first of all, Sirach is also called Ecclesiasticus. Perhaps if you'd like to find it under that heading in your Bible, Sirach chapter 26 verses 1 to 4 and 13 to 16. And it was composed in Hebrew by Jesus Ben Sirah in Jerusalem, probably around 180 years before Christ.