Veronica Roberts Ogle in Church Life Journal:

Early in the Confessions, Augustine regretfully recalls how he dismissed his mother’s pleas for chastity as mere woman’s talk, instead opting for a promiscuous path of torturous suffering. Watching this, Monica stood by helpless and unheeded. And yet, as the Confessions unfolds, we are presented with a conversion narrative that portrays Monica, mother of tears, as Augustine’s very lifeline to God. By weeping and praying for the soul of her son, Monica exhibits a form of maternal fidelity which cannot but move the heart of God. From Augustine’s mature perspective, it is ultimately her love, conformed to the love of the Father, which accounts for his radical conversion: she participates in her son’s salvation because of her maternal love. Monica is a tiger-mama, and not a perfect saint from the beginning, but her willingness to submit her love for Augustine to God purifies her maternal instincts, and ultimately brings her and her son, together, to the heavenly kingdom.

Source: Church Life Journal