ENTRANCE TO LADY CHAPEL AND SACRISTY

Note in this picture the imposing and impressive pillars and arches of the old church.

This second picture [above] shows the old church and supporting pillar with a view of the new doors into the Lady Chapel and Sacristy, the latter which was a side chapel years ago. Also to be seen is the statue of St. Augustine and St. Monica.

The design showing St. Monica and St. Augustine is very instructive. Firstly, St. Monica is mentioned in the Confessions written by her famous son and from all accounts she had a very strong influence concerning the beneficial changes which occurred in his powerful personality and character.

By the time she died in 389AD the good work accomplished by her gentle persuasion and influence was bearing fruit. Augustine was afterwars to forward to priestly ordination, to become the Bishop of the North African city of Hippo and exercise a fruitful intellectual and pastoral ministry for over thirty years.

The Catholic Church owes a great deal to St. Monica. Through her St. Augustine, after so many vicissitudes, was to find his true home and haven and fulfil his vocation. The Statue shows St. Augustine as a young intellectual in a sincere contemplative attitude. We can visualise them both engaged in the discussion of spiritual things, Augustine drawing further away from earlier associations that had impeded his relations with the Truths of Christianity; St. Monica living in hope that so much spiritual potential would be ultimately realized in Augustine's developed vocation.

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