When St. Monica, the mother of the great Doctor of the Church St. Augustine, knew that she was coming to the end of her life she wanted to return to her home country, Africa. And so, St. Augustine agreed to travel with his mother there. But their journey was shortlived, for St. Monica became sick in Ostia, and soon felt that death was approaching.

"It is here that you will bury your mother," she told Augustine calmly. At peace with God's will, she had but a single and last request for her son: "The one thing I ask of you is that you remember me at the altar of the Lord."

When his holy mother did die, St. Augustine was faithful to his promise. He understood the value of prayers offered for the dead.

"It cannot be doubted that the prayers of the Church, the Holy Sacrifice, and alms distributed for the departed, relieve those holy souls [in Purgatory], and move God to treat them with more clemency than their sins deserve. It is the universal practice of the Church, a practice which she observes as having received it from her forefathers - that is to say, the holy Apostles."

Years later, when writing his book of Confessions, St. Augustine relates this touching moment between mother and son. Driven on by his love for her, he goes on to write and ask all of his readers to unite with him in praying for the repose of her soul. Yet, as clearly as he understood how blessed his mother was in her eternal rest, the loving son could not help but feel the pain of separation. "May I be pardoned for the tears I then shed," the Saint humbly admitted, "for her death should not be mourned; it was only the entrance to true life." Thinking of how few are as ready for death as Monica was, Augustine realized that there is even a truer reason for tears: "Considering with the eyes of faith the miseries of our fallen nature, I might shed before You, O Lord, other tears than those of the flesh, tears which flow at the thought of the danger to which every soul is exposed that has sinned."

Then, with all the fervency of his passionate and loving soul, Augustine penned - in his own words - his confident prayer to God for the repose of his dear mother's soul:

"It is certain that my mother lived in such manner as to give glory to Your Name, by the activity of her faith and the purity of her morals. Yet dare I affirm that no word contrary to Your law has ever escaped her lips? Alas ! What will become of the holiest life if You examine it in all the rigors of Your justice? For this reason, O God of my heart, I leave aside the good works which my mother has performed to ask of You only the pardon of her sins. Hear me, by the wounds of Him who died for us upon the cross, and Who, now seated at Your right hand, is our Mediator.

"I know that my mother always showed mercy, that she pardoned from her heart all offenses, and forgave all the debts owing to her. Remove then her debts, if during the course of her long life there are any owing to You. Pardon her, O Lord, pardon her, and do not enter into judgment against her ; for Your words are true ; You have promised mercy to the merciful.

"This mercy, I believe, You have already shown to her, O my God ; but accept the homage of my prayer. Remember that on her passage to the other life Your servant desired for her body neither pompous funeral nor precious perfumes, she did not ask for a magnificent tomb, nor that her body should be carried to the tomb she had caused to be constructed at Tagaste, her native place ; but only that we should remember her at Your altar, whose mysteries she prized.

"You know, Lord, all the days of her life she took part in those Divine Mysteries which contain the Holy Victim Whose Blood has effaced the sentence of our condemnation. Let her repose then in peace with my father, her husband - to whom she was faithful during all the days of her marriage and during the sorrows of her widowhood and to whom she made herself a humble servant, to win him for You by her meekness and patience.

"And You, O my God, inspire Your servants, who are my brethren, inspire all those who read these lines to remember at Your altar Monica, Your servant, and Patricius, who was her spouse; that all who still live in the false light of this world may piously remember my parents, that the last prayer of my dying mother may be heard beyond her expectations."

Needless to say, St. Augustine's wish and St. Monica's have surely come to pass. And why? Because, as Monica’s last request shows, she ended her life the way she had lived it - by valuing the things that are truly important. And God rewarded that. She had the humility to realize that, although she had faithfully worked hard to do the Will of God, she was not perfect and would stand in need of prayers once she died. If such a good and virtuous woman believed in the necessity of prayers for her after her death, how much more so are prayers needed for people who are not concerned with God or the life to come? So many die without having any idea of what awaits them after death, and even those who do know cannot be sure that they will go straight to Heaven when they die.

For this reason, it is clear that prayers for the dead are the best return to make to the people we have known in life, either personally or indirectly. That is why the Church has set aside an entire month to especially focus our prayers for the departed souls. Let us follow then the good example of St. Augustine and his mother, and pray for the dead as best and often as we can. For no prayer is unanswered - and only after we ourselves die will we discover just how grateful those souls are to us for the sacrifice we made to pray for them.