![\"Saint_Mary_Magdalen_Church_(Brighton,_Michigan)_-_St._Monica_icon\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/518\/2015\/08\/Saint_Mary_Magdalen_Church_Brighton_Michigan_-_St._Monica_icon-168x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFor those who don\u2019t know, my full name is a long one. I\u2019m Filipino. Long names come with the territory. My first name is Ann Mary, but I go by my middle name \u201cMonique.\u201d This often leads to people calling me \u201cMonica\u201d by mistake. Whenever that happened, I wouldn\u2019t mind. After all, I chose Monica as my Confirmation name. Now unlike my brother and other high school kids, I didn\u2019t choose my Confirmation name after researching the saints. In spite of the fact that I went to Catholic School, I didn\u2019t really get to know the saints outside of information cards and the childish renditions in those books where the saints looked like movie stars. You know the ones. I chose Monica as my Confirmation name out of convenience, not really putting a lot of thought into it.<\/p>\n
And yet I still care about what people call me. I don\u2019t mind being mistakenly called Monica, but \u201cAnn Mary\u201d or \u201cMary Ann\u201d as some may mistakenly say never sounded right to me. I also didn\u2019t like being called \u201cMomo\u201d by some bullies back in high school nor did I like it when someone thought a different name would be better for me than the one I already had.<\/p>\n
The name \u201cMonica\u201d means \u201cadvisor\u201d and the story of St. Monica shows her\u00a0trying\u00a0<\/em>to advise her son, Saint Augustine, but ultimately she surrendered herself and her son to God in the hopes that Augustine would reform. And reform he did. In my personal life, I do give advice to my friends who ask and I offer to help my friends out with their problems. I also tend to have an \u201cadvice column\u201d kind of voice when I write my Bible studies and sometimes on this blog as well.<\/p>\nI don\u2019t ask for St. Monica\u2019s intercession as often as I should, but I feel like the saint whose name I share is still a part of me. Like Monica, I am devoted to my faith and long for the return of my fallen brothers and sisters in Christ. I\u2019m also learning that when you share your faith openly, you will be met with some hostility, but for the most part, people don\u2019t mind as long as it comes from a personal level and not like the Westboro Baptist Church.<\/p>\n
I hope that I grow to have Saint Monica\u2019s perseverance and undying trust in God as I get older. And the next time someone calls me \u201cMonica,\u201d I will still correct them, but still feel happy that my name is linked with a woman like her.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For those who don\u2019t know, my full name is a long one. I\u2019m Filipino. Long names come with the territory. My first name is Ann Mary, but I go by my middle name \u201cMonique.\u201d This often leads to people calling me \u201cMonica\u201d by mistake. Whenever that happened, I wouldn\u2019t mind. After all, I chose Monica […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2156,"featured_media":3270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[1036,796,244,1035,1034],"class_list":["post-3267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saints-2","tag-confirmation","tag-identity","tag-name","tag-names","tag-saint-monica"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Saint_Mary_Magdalen_Church_(Brighton,_Michigan)_-_St._Monica_icon\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/518\/2015\/08\/Saint_Mary_Magdalen_Church_Brighton_Michigan_-_St._Monica_icon.jpg\"){kind=icon}
<\/a><\/p>\n