Archive for the 'His Teaching' Category

22
Nov
09

St. Augustine, Creationism and Evolution

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Categories: His Teaching and On Creation
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“It not infrequently happens that something about the earth, about the sky, about other elements of this world, about the motion and rotation or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, about definite eclipses of the sun and moon, about the passage of years and seasons, about the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such things, may be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by experience, even by one who is not a Christian. It is too disgraceful and ruinous, though, and greatly to be avoided, that he [the non-Christian] should hear a Christian speaking so idiotically on these matters, and as if in accord with Christian writings, that he might say that he could scarcely keep from laughing when he saw how totally in error they are. In view of this and in keeping it in mind constantly while dealing with the book of Genesis, I have, insofar as I was able, explained in detail and set forth for consideration the meanings of obscure passages, taking care not to affirm rashly some one meaning to the prejudice of another and perhaps better explanation.”

St. Augustine is often appealed to by many who either because they engage in a selective reading of his writings or just know a few bits of his teaching think that he supported their beliefs. The above, for example, is a quote of St. Augustine commonly used by theistic evolutionists to try and find support for their position in his writings. Yet, the Doctor never affirmed that, as is commonly said today, “the Bible is not a science book”, in that it is merely a religious book. Granted, the Scriptures do not give an exhaustive scientific explanation of every detail in creation, but what they affirm is clearly certain. Many often seek to allegorize the creation account in Genesis, in particular the creation of Adam and Eve, when they think that what the Scriptures say is contrary to science and they give a certain primacy to the conclusions of science over the Scriptures in that they make the Scriptures subservient to science. So, they think that since the Scriptures are not a science book, then we are to allegorize everything in them that does not conforms to the findings of science. Yet, something like the formation of man from the earth and the woman from his side by God, is not a statement about science but an explicit supernatural act from God along the same lines of the virgin birth, of which St. Augustine says On The Literal Meaning of Genesis (Book IX:16.30):

“Both things are incredible to unbelievers, but why should believers find what happened in the case of Christ {the virgin birth} quite credible when taken in the literal, historical sense, and what is written about Eve only acceptable in its figurative signification?”

Despite how much theistic evolutionists would like to appeal to St. Augustine in support of their position, the Doctor affirmed that God made Adam from the dust of the earth (and was not born of other parents) and Eve from a rib taken from his side. He did hold to a non-literal view of the days of creation but to him it was a single day, not a series of long ages represented by each day. And he held to a literal view of the works done on each day. He did not believe that the works done on each day were allegories. Nor did he admit, but in fact excluded, the ascendancy of species from one to another. He is quite clearly a creationist by today’s standards as is St. Thomas Aquinas, another saint that theistic evolutionists like to appeal to. St. Augustine did propose that what science proves cannot be at odds with the Scriptures but must be shown to be consistent with it. However, unlike the modern mindset of many theistic evolutionists, he did not think that the Scriptures were to be made subservient to science in the sense that we have to allegorize even it’s plainest declarations just because science “appears to say so”. The Scriptures to him hold a certain primacy and their inspiration and inerrancy cannot be limited to purely religious truths. As St. Augustine puts it in The Literal Meaning of Genesis (Book II:5.9) when talking about the waters above the heavens, after considering many scientific objections:

“In whatever form, however, waters may be there, and of whatever kind they are; the authority of this text of scripture, surely, overrides anything that human ingenuity is capable of thinking up.”

And in another place (Book V:9.24):

“If what we have already said about it {he is talking about the spring which watered the whole earth} should seem to people to be impossible, let them look for another explanation themselves, but still one which will demonstrate the truthfulness of this statement of Scripture -which certainly is truthful, beyond any shadow of doubt, even if it were not demonstrated.”

Here is also what he says of Adam in paradise in another place (Book VIII:1.1):

“Adam is to be taken as a human being set before us in his own proper nature, who lived a definite number of years and after producing numerous progeny died just as other human beings die, though he was not born of parents like others but was made from the earth, as was required at the beginning of the line.”

That Adam was not born of other parents but made from the dust of the earth and Eve from his side is something St. Augustine affirms several times in the Literal Meaning of Genesis. Of note is also this paragraph from the same work (Book I:21.41):

“I have learned that we should not hesitate to give the answers that have to be given, in line with the faith, to people who make every effort to discredit the books our salvation depends on. So we should show that whatever they have been able to demonstrate from reliable sources about the world of nature is not contrary to our literature, while whatever they may have produced from any of their volumes that is contrary to this literature of ours, that is, to the Catholic faith, we must either show with some ease, or else believe without any hesitation, to be entirely false. And we should so hold onto our mediator, that we are neither seduced by the chatter of false philosophy, nor frightened out of our wits by the superstitions of false religion.”

Keeping in mind the quotes above and his overall approach, for St. Augustine showing that scientific theories are not contrary to the Scriptures did not consist in allegorizing away their plain declarations but in expanding upon what the Scriptures actually affirmed. Note that despite the claim of the “scientists” of his day, he scoffed at their idea that the earth was millions of years old and appealing to the Scriptures upheld that it was no yet 6000 years old during his time (City of God XII:10). For St. Augustine the Scriptures hold a primacy and their affirmations are to be held as certain over and above scientific theories that contradict them even if what the Scriptures state cannot be definitely proved or the scientific theory that contradicts them cannot be shown to be false.

His idea of the seminal reasons is certainly developmental but it is a form of spontaneous generation, the very opposite of evolution and it does not proposes an evolution of species from one into the other but their formation from the earth or the sea as is described in Genesis 1. To extrapolate from his idea to a modern theory of evolution is unwarranted and is clearly something St. Augustine never envisioned or even considered on his teaching on Genesis.

If someone is going to appeal to St. Augustine to support their position in any subject, as in the case of the creation/evolution debate, then it is only fair that such person adheres to what the Doctor in fact affirmed and believed and avoids quote mining him. It is clear from his own writings that St. Augustine did not even consider anything like the theory of evolution, much less that the body of the first man came from existing living matter. For him the account of the creation of man in Genesis was a truly literal and faithful historical account with a real tree of life and tree of knowledge and a real talking snake used by the devil to deceive the woman who was really taken and formed from the rib of the man who was formed from the dust of the earth. The theory of evolution, if it is to be reconciled with the Scriptures, entails the denial or allegorization of these clear affirmations of Scripture which St. Augustine, along with all the Fathers before him and theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas, took and interpreted in a literal sense.

29
Sep
09

St. Augustine against faith alone

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Categories: His Teaching, On Faith and Works of St. Augustine
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Many Protestants today believe that St. Augustine held to their view of faith alone.  Luther in fact admited that his doctrine of sola fide was not found in St. Augustine but some Protestants, Calvinists in particular, claim that Luther misunderstood St. Augustine and that the saint does in fact teaches faith alone.  The main work where St. Augustine touches on this subject is called “On Faith and Works”. This work is not online so I typed out the statement from the Reconsiderations about his book “On Faith and Works”, a relevant bit from the introduction to the work by the translator and some relevant chapters from the work itself to show in full context how St. Augustine argues against the notion of faith alone:

Reconsiderations of St. Augustine, Book II:64, On Faith and Works
From The Fathers of the Church, St. Augustine – The Reconsiderations, pp. 198-199.

Meanwhile, certain brethren – laymen, in truth, but well versed in the Divine Scriptures – sent to me certain writings which separated Christian faith and good works so as to lead one to believe that it is impossible to attain eternal salvation without the former [faith], but that it is possible to do so without the latter. In response to them, I wrote a book whose title is On Faith and Works. In this book, I discussed not only how they who have been regenerated by the grace of Christ are to live, but also what kind of persons are to be admitted to “the bath of regeneration” (1 Titus 3:5).

This book begins as follows: “Certain persons are of the opinion…”.

On Faith and Works by St. Augustine
From On Christian Doctrine, The Works of St. Augustine – A Translation for the 21st Century, pp. 221-261.

From the introduction to the work by Ray Kearney

In Augustine’s view, the proponents of a justification by faith alone were mistaken in their interpretation of what the apostle said. When paul claimed that human beings were justified by faith and not by observance of the law, he was speaking of works that preceded justification, not of those that followed upon it. Therefore only those believers whose faith is alive in works of love can hope for eternal blessedness.

It is on the basis of this Pauline teaching that 1 Cor 3:11-15 is to be properly interpreted. When the apostle speaks of the various kinds of materials with which the faithful build on the foundation of Christ, his contrast between “wood” and “gold” does not refer to the alternative of “faith without works – faith with works.” He is speaking rather of the varying quality of the works themselves. “Wood” and “gold” symbolize the different kinds of intention – self-centered and pure – from which works flow.

Relevant chapters from the work itself

14,21. We must look now at what has to be expunged from the hearts of religious people, so that they will not forfeit salvation because of a false sense of security, thinking that all they need to do to obtain it is to have faith, while neglecting to live a good life and stay on God’s path by performing good works. Even in the time of the apostles there were some people who failed to understand certain rather obscure statements of the apostle Paul and thought that he said, Let us do evil, for good to come of it (Rom 3:8), because he had said, The law came into the world so that sin would be abundant, but where sin was abundant, grace was even more abundant (Rom 5:20). The explanation of this is that those who received the law and proudly relied on their own strength, and did not have the correct belief and did not pray for God’s help to conquer their evil inclinations, became burdened with additional and more serious sins in that they also violated the law. Driven by this great guilt they fled to faith, and with it they won merciful forgiveness and help from the Lord who made heaven and earth (Ps 120:2). Then, with love poured into their hearts through the Holy Spirit, they did with love the things that were commanded contrary to the desires of this world. This was in accordance with what was foretold in the Psalm: Their weaknesses increased, but afterwards they raced on (Ps 15:4). Therefore, when the apostle says that he considers we are made just through faith without the works of the law, he does not means that works of justice should be disdained once faith is accepted and professed but that everyone should know that he can be made just through faith even if he did not perform the works of the law before. They do not come beforehand, before the person is made just, but they follow afterwards, when the person has been made just.

There is no need to go into further explanation of this in the present work, especially as I have published a lengthy book on the subject entitled The Letter and the Spirit. Since this opinion had already sprung up at the time, other letters of the apostles – those of Peter, John, James and Jude – oppose it directly, strongly insisting that faith without works brings no benefit. Paul himself also stipulated that it had to be not just any faith whereby one beliefs in God but that full faith of the gospel that brings salvation, the one whose works com from love. And the faith that works through love (Gal 5:6), he said. Hence he asserts that that faith which some think is sufficient for salvation is entirely worthless, saying this: If I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2). When, however, believing love is at work, without doubt there is then a good life, for love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom 13:10).

22. Clearly this is why in his second letter Peter remarked that there were some passages in the letters of the apostle Paul that were difficult to understand, and people misinterpreted them, and others scriptures too, for their own destruction, although that apostle held the same views as the other apostles concerning eternal salvation, which is granted only to those who lead good lives. He was commending holiness of life and conduct and proclaiming that this world will pass away, but we look forward to new heavens and a new earth, which will be given to the good to inhabit. He wanted them to see from this how they ought to live in order to become worthy of that dwelling place, as he knew that some wicked persons had taken advantage of certain less clear passages of the apostle Paul in order to have no concern for living a good life, being assured from salvation because that comes from faith. So Peter says this: As all these things will pass away…. (passage from 2 Pt 3:11-18 follows).

23. James is so strongly opposed to those who hold that faith without works has any value for salvation that he even compares them to devils, saying, You believe there is one God? You do well. The devils believes this too, and are terrified (Jas 2:19). Could he have said anything more succinctly, with greater truth or more emphatically, since we read in the gospel that the devils said this when they acknowledged that Christ was the Son of God, and they were rebuked for the same thing as was praised in the case of Peter’s declaration of faith? What does anyone gain, my brothers, says James, if he says he has faith, but does not have works? Is it possible for faith to save him? (Jas 2:14) He also says, Faith without works is dead (Jas 2:20). So great, therefore, is the mistake of those who promise themselves everlasting life from a faith that is dead!.

15, 24. We should pay careful attention to the way that statement of the apostle Paul, certainly difficult to understand, should be interpreted. His words are: No one can lay… (passage from 1 Cor 3:11-15 follows). They take the interpretation of this to be that those who add good works to faith, which is faith in Christ, are seen as building on this foundation with gold, silver and precious stones; but those who perform evil works, even though they have the same faith, are seen as building with wood, grass and straw. As a consequence they think that through certain punishments with fire, they can be purified in order to receive salvation because of the merits of the foundation.

25. If this is so, we have to admit that they are acting with commendable charity in trying to have everyone admitted to baptism indiscriminately, not only adulterers and adulteresses who cling to their false marriages in defiance of the Lord but also public prostitutes who continue in their corrupt profession. In no church, not even the more lax, has it been the practice to admit these unless they are first freed from that past prostitution. By that reasoning, however, I cannot see at all why they are not accepted regardless. Who would not prefer that they be purified by fire, certainly one of some longer duration, because they laid the foundation even though they piled wood and grass and straw on it, rather than that they perish eternally?

In that case, however, those other texts, which are not obscure or ambiguous, will not be true, namely, If I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2), and, What does anyone gain, my brothers, if he says he has faith, but does not have works? Is it possible for faith to save him? (Jas 2:14). Also untrue will be that text: (1 Cor 6:9-11) and also that other (Gal 5:19-21). These texts would not be true, for, if they only believe and are baptized, even though they continue with those sins, they will be saved through fire, and so those who have been baptized in Christ, even those who do those things, will possess the kingdom of God.

But it is meaningless to say, Some of you were like this, but you have been washed clean (1 Cor 6:11), when they are still the same even after they have been washed. Peter’s words will also seem pointless: You too, in a similar state, are now saved by baptism, which is not the removal of physical dirt, but the questioning of a good conscience (1 Pt 3:21). There is no point to it, if in fact baptism also saves those who have evil consciences, filled with every crime and atrocity and not changing at all by repenting of those evils, if they too will be saved, even thought by passing through fire, because of the foundation that was set in place in that baptism. I do not see either why the Lord said, If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments (Mt 19:17), and listed those that related to good conduct, if even without keeping them one can enter into life merely through that faith that without works is dead (Jas 2:17). How then will those words be true that he will say to those he is going to put to his left: Go into eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt 25:41)? He does not condemns them because they did not believe in him but because they did not perform good works. Without doubt the reason why he said he was going to separate out all the nations that mingles under the care of the same shepherds was to prevent anyone from promising himself eternal life from the faith that without works is dead. In this way it would be clear that those who would say to him, Lord, when did we see you suffering these things and fail to assist you? (Mt 25:44) were those who believed in him but were not concerned about performing good works, thinking that eternal life would be attained through a faith that was itself dead. On the other hand, might it be perhaps that those who will go into eternal fire are those who did not perform works of mercy, while those who robbed others or who were merciless towards themselves by desecrating the temple of God within themselves will not go there? As if works of compassion could be worth anything without love, when the apostle says, If I distribute everything I have to the poor, but do not have love, it does me no good (1 Cor 13:3), or anyone could love his neighbor as himself, if he did not love himself! He who loves sin, it says, hates his own soul (Ps 10:6).

One cannot say here, as some have deceived themselves by saying, that it is the fire that is said to be eternal, not the actual punishment. They think that those to whom they promise salvation through fire because of a faith that is dead will pass through a fire that last forever. In other words, the actual fire lasts forever, but the burning, that is, the action of the fire, does not lasts forever for them. The Lord, being Lord, foresaw this, and he concluded by saying: So they will go into everlasting burning, but the just will go into everlasting life (Mt 25:46). Therefore the burning will be everlasting, like the fire. The Truth has said that those who go there will be those he pronounces to have been lacking not in faith but in good works.

…

There is more that is relevant and I encourage people to read the whole work itself. But I think this is sufficient to show that St. Augustine is explicit in denying the notion of faith alone and that Protestants who claim him as if he supported their view should pay closer attention to the writtings of the saint. I shall post additional quotes from his other works where he is explicit in denying faith alone.

08
Aug
09

A brieft saying on the Lord’s Prayer

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Categories: His Teaching and On Prayer
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“The Lord’s Prayer enjoins upon us the necessity of praying both that our debts may be remitted to us, and that we may not be led into temptation—the one petition entreating that past offences may be atoned for; the other, that future ones may be avoided. Now, although this is never done unless our will be assistant, yet our will alone is not enough to secure its being done; the prayer, therefore, which is offered up to God for this result is neither superfluous nor offensive to the Lord. For what is more foolish than to pray that you may do that which you have it in your own power to do”

– On Nature and Grace, 20

31
Jul
09

Sermon by St. Augustine “Suffer for my sheep”

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26
Jul
09

An example of St. Augustine’s humility

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Volusianus sent a letter to St. Augustine in 412 a.d. (Letter 135) requesting his expertise on a couple of questions that were presented to him by a person who was skeptical of some truths of the Catholic faith. After explaining the matter to the saint, he ends his letter with the following:

“You have heard, O man worthy of all honour, the confession of our ignorance; you perceive what is requested at your hands. Your reputation is interested in our obtaining an answer to these questions. Ignorance may, without harm to religion, be tolerated in other priests; but when we come to Bishop Augustine, whatever we find unknown to him is no part of the Christian system. May the Supreme God protect your venerable Grace, my lord truly holy and justly revered!”

Here we see a certain excess of praise towards the saint coming from Volusianus, which is in a sense similar to that of which sometimes us Catholics are guilty of when it comes to the worship of dulia we give to the Blessed Virgin and the saints. St. Augustine responded to Volusianus on the same year (Letter 137) and answered the questions he had sent to him, but before he moved to that he told him in response to the above paragraph:

“I begin, therefore, by requesting you to lay aside the opinion which you have too easily formed concerning me, and dismiss those sentiments, though they are gratifying evidences of your goodwill, and believe my testimony rather than any other’s regarding myself, if you reciprocate my affection. For such is the depth of the Christian Scriptures, that even if I were attempting to study them and nothing else from early boyhood to decrepit old age, with the utmost leisure, the most unwearied zeal, and talents greater than I have, I would be still daily making progress in discovering their treasures; not that there is so great difficulty in coming through them to know the things necessary to salvation, but when any one has accepted these truths with the faith that is indispensable as the foundation of a life of piety and uprightness, so many things which are veiled under manifold shadows of mystery remain to be inquired into by those who are advancing in the study, and so great is the depth of wisdom not only in the words in which these have been expressed, but also in the things themselves, that the experience of the oldest, the ablest, and the most zealous students of Scripture illustrates what Scripture itself has said: “When a man has done, then he begins.” Sirach 18:6″

His humility is one of the things I love the most about the saint, despite his great mind and the high regard with which he was held even on his own time, he still kept a humble spirit and remained down to earth. He is a true model for the Bishop who has the laymen looking up to him for guidance not just in theological questions but also in matters of virtue. Another example of this humility of the saint comes from the preface to the third book on his work On The Trinity, where he says:

“Assuredly, as in all my writings I desire not only a pious reader, but also a free corrector, so I especially desire this in the present inquiry, which is so important that I would there were as many inquirers as there are objectors. But as I do not wish my reader to be bound down to me, so I do not wish my corrector to be bound down to himself. Let not the former love me more than the catholic faith, let not the latter love himself more than the catholic verity.”

This humility, of course, is not limited to St. Augustine, but as it is the fruit of God’s grace (Colossians 3:11-15), it is common to all the saints. The apostles too showed the same humility when people wanted to offer sacrifices to them (Acts 14:8-15). Humility, the hallmark of the saints, is something which we should strive to imitate and something which with the help of the intersession of the humble saints and of God’s grace we too are able to attain. The key is to know, as St. Augustine did, that “the only cause of any good that we enjoy is the goodness of God” (Enchiridion, 23).

19
Jul
09

Some of Augustine’s teaching on prayer

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Categories: His Teaching and On Prayer
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Great are you, 0 Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise;
your power is immense,
and your wisdom beyond reckoning.
And so we humans,
who are part of your creation,
long to praise you —
we who carry our mortality about with us,
carry the evidence of our sin
and with it the proof that you thwart the proud.
Yet these humans,
due part of your creation as they are,
still long to praise you.
You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy,
because you have made us
and drawn us to yourself,
and our hearts is unquiet
until it rests in you
(Confessions 1.1)

Late have I loved you,
0 beauty ancient, ever new!
Late have I loved you!
For behold, you were within; and I without
And without I sought you,
and deformed I ran after these forms of beauty you have made.
You were with me and I was not with you.
Those things held me back from you,
Things whose only being was to be in you.
You called; you cried; and you broke through my deafness.
You flashed, you shone, and you chased away my blindness.
You became fragrant; and I inhaled and sighed for you.
I tasted and now hunger for you.
You touched me and I burned for your peace.
(Confessions 10:27)

The word calls you to return.
In Him is the place of peace
That cannot be disturbed

Return to yourself from the things that are without
And then give yourself back to Him who made you.
God is delight
and we rest in delight in Him,
called home from the noise that is a round us
to the joys that are silent
Why do we rush about to the top of heaven
and the bottom of earth
looking for Him
who is here at home with us,
if only we would be with Him?

Return to yourself from what is outside you,
and then give yourself back to him who made you;
for he is the sum of all our happiness and our perfect good.
To worship him is to love him,
to long to see him,
and to hope and to believe that you will see him.
This is to long for happiness — to reach him is happiness itself… Dear friends,
this love does not come to us of our own free choice, but by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us;
for how could we have cleaved to God
if he had not spoken in our hearts.

Unknown to me You caressed my head,
You closed my eyes
that they should not see my emptiness.
I lost for a while the heavy burden of self
and my madness was lulled to sleep.
And when I awoke in You
I saw You completely differently

Enter into yourself,
leave behind all noise and confusion.
God speaks to us in the great silence of the heart

Look within yourself
and see whether there be some sweet hidden place within where you can be free from noise and argument,
where you need not be carrying on your disputes
and planning to have your own stubborn way.
Hear the word in quietness
That you may understand it.

The Christian may sometimes envy
those who have renounced the cares of the world
for the supposed calm of the desert;
but then those who live in the world
may at any time find within themselves the true desert, where no one enters,
where no one is with you,
but where there is only you and God.

For Christians who fear they are drowning in the world’s business the worst thing they can do is panic.
There can be no question of escape from the situation; they is many miles from land and there is no help near. The one thing they can do is to withdraw,
as it were, into themselves,
to find the Christ within who is as powerful
to still the tempest in their own lives
as He was to subdue the waves on the Lake of Galilee.

Where so ever you are,
where so ever you may be praying,
He who hears you is within you,
hidden within,
or He who hears you
is not merely by your side,
and you have no need
to go wandering about,
no need to be reaching out to God
as though you would touch him with your hands.

At the wall where Our Lord sat down to rest,
great mysteries took place.

Our Lord forbids loquacity.
You are not to address God with a great flow of words
Your true teacher will always be
the teacher within.
It is He who enables you to understand
in the depths of your being the truth of what is said to you
Let Christ speak to you interiorly,
in that place where no human teacher may enter.

Let your desire be before God
and “the Father, who sees in secret will reward you”.
It is your heart’s desire that is your prayer;
and if your desire continues without interruption,
your prayer continues as well.
For it was not without meaning
that the Apostle Paul said,
“Pray without ceasing”.
Are we “to pray without ceasing” in the sense of kneeling,
prostrating ourselves
or lifting our hands?
For if he speaks of prayer in this sense,
I believe we cannot do it “without ceasing”.
Yet there is another inward prayer without ceasing,
that is the desire of the heart.
Whatever you are doing,
if you are longing for that eternal Sabbath rest with God,
you are not ceasing to pray.
If you want to pray without ceasing,
never cease to long for God..
The freezing of love
Is the silence of the heart:
the flame of love is the cry of the heart.
If love continues, you are still lifting up your voice;
you are always longing for something
and if you are longing for something yet to come,
you are calling to mind
the eternal Sabbath rest that God has promised.
Homilies on the Psalms 38.13

You are praising God when you do your day’s work.
You are praising him when you eat and drink.
You are praising him when you rest on your bed.
You are praising him when you are asleep.
So when are you not praising him?
Commentary on Psalm 146

Do not wish to ask anything of God
except God.
Love him, desire him alone.

Leave all your desires.
He who made heaven and earth
is more beautiful than all;
he will be to you everything you love.

Seek for him alone,
and despise everything else,
make your way to him.
Forget other things, remember him;
leave other things behind, stretch out to him.
Let him be your hope,
who is guiding you to your destination.

This is to love God gratis:
to hope for God from God,
to wish to be filled with God
to be satiated by him.

Let the Lord God be your hope —
seek nothing else from him,
but let him be your hope.
There are people who hope from him riches
or perishable or transitory honours,
in short they hope to get from God
things which are not God himself.

The sound of Your secret melody
I could not catch,
No matter how hard I tried.
my heart was deafened
by the din of my mind.

Love of truth seeks the quiet of contemplation,
while the urgency of love accepts the activity of the apostolate.
De Civ 19:19

We ought not to renounce completely the joys that truth brings,
lest deprived of that sweetness
we be weighed down by the urgency of love.
De Civ 19.19

Let us seek him out in order to find him,
and when we find him,
let us continue searching for him.
We must search for him,
because he is hidden from us.
And when we have found him,
we go on searching because he is without bounds…
He fills those who seek him,
insofar as their capacity permits;
and he increases the capacity in those who find him,
so that they might again seek to be filled.
In ep Jo 63.1

We search for God in order to find him with greater joy,
And we find him in order to keep on searching with greater love.
De Trinitate 15.2

Our voices praise you, 0 Lord,
our spirit praises you.
Since our being is a gift of your love,
our whole life becomes a continual liturgy of praise.

Whisper words of truth in my heart
for you alone speak truth
I will leave outside those who do not believe,
letting them stir up the dust in their own eyes,
while I withdraw to my secret cell
and sing to you hymns of love.
I shall not turn aside until you gather
all that I am
into that holy place of peace
rescuing me from the world
where I am broken and deformed
and giving me new form and new strength.
You alone are always present,
even to those who have set themselves apart from you.
Let them turn back and look for you.
they will find you have not deserted them
as they have deserted you.
Let them turn back
and they will find you in their hearts.

Rest in him and peace shall be yours

Empty that which is to be filled.
Consider that God wants to fill you up with honey.
But if you are already full of vinegar,
where will you put the honey?
What was in the vessel must be emptied out,
the vessel itself must be washed out
and made clean and scoured,
hard work though it may be,
so that it may be made for something else,
whatever it may be.
Commentary on 1 Letter of John

To turn work into prayer
we need to spend countless hours
In prayer not working.

Return to yourself from the things that are without
And then give yourself back to Him who made you.

Enter then into your heart,
And if you have faith,
You will find Christ there.
There He speaks to you.
I the preacher,
Must raise my voice,
but He instructs you
more effectively in the silence.
I speak in sounding words;
He speaks within.

Father,
I am seeking:
I am hesitant and uncertain,
But will you, 0 God,
Watch over each step of mine and guide me.
Confessions 11.17

It is hard to find Christ in crowded places.
We need solitude.
If your heart is attentive,
God allows himself to be seen.
In the crowd you find noise,
in the silence you find God.

Do not be afraid
To throw yourself on the Lord!
He Will not draw back
And let you fail!
Put your worries aside
And throw yourself on him:
He will welcome you,
And heal you.
Confessions 8.11

0 God,
Creator of the universe,
Grant that I may learn to pray;
Grant that I may become worthy of being heard by you;
Grant that I may in the end be set free by you.
Soliloquies 1.2

He bade me shut the door
of our secret chamber
and pray in secret,
that is in the soundless
secret places of our hearts.
For we pray to Him
In the silence in our hearts

Enter into your heart
and you will be content.
The house of my soul is too small for you to enter:
make it more spacious by your coming.
It lies in ruins: rebuild it.
Some things are to be found there which will offend your gaze; I confess this to be so and know it well.
But who will clean my house?
To whom but yourself can I cry,
Cleanse me of my hidden sins, 0 Lord,
and for those incurred through others
pardon your servant
Confessions 1.6

Let me know you,
o you who know me;
then I shall I know even as I am known.
You are the strength of my soul;
make your way in and shape it to yourself,
that it may be your to have and to hold,
free from stain or wrinkle.
Confessions 10.1

Give yourself to me,
O my God, for Ilove you.
And if that is not enough,
let me love you more ardently.
Confessions 13.8

Give me, 0 Lord, a heart that thinks on you;
a soul that delights in you,
a mind that contemplates you,
an intellect that understands you,
and a reason that always remains faithful to you,
and loves you wisely,
O most wise love.
O Life through whom all things live,
you give me life and you are my life,
life through whom I live and without whom I die:
life through whom I am brought back to life
and without whom I am lost,
life in whom I rejoice,
and without whom I am in torment;
sweet, lovely, life-giving life
who can never be forgotten.

O Lord my God, my only hope,
hear me in your goodness:
grant that I may not stop seeking you when I am weary,
but seek your presence ever more fervently

Heal and open my eyes
that I may recognise your will.
Put to flight my foolishness
that I may know you.

0 Lord God,
give us your Christ,
let us know your Christ,
let us see your Christ.

Turn and have pity, 0 Lord my God,
you who are the light of the blind
and the strength of the weak,
the light of those who see
and the strength of those who are strong,
turn my soul and listen
when it calls from the depths.
Let us be of one mind and one heart on the way to God.
Rule I

We need not fly to the height of heavens,
nor go down to the depths of the earth,
to find him who is with us,
if only we love him and want to be with him.

No one need say “But what am Ito love?”
Love your brother and sister,
and you will be loving love itself,
you will know the love by which you live
better than the brother and the sister whom you love.
God can be better known than the brother or the sister:
better because more present, more inward and more sure.
Take to your heart the love that is God,
through love embrace him.
He is that very love that draws together all God’s servants,
angels and humankind, uniting them with each other in obedience to himself.

The one who is filled with love is filled with God himself.
It is with the same love that God and our neighbour are loved,
for God is love.

The end of all our action is contemplation
as it will be the everlasting perfection of everyone,
for God said to his servant Moses, “1 am he who is”,
and it is God that we shall contemplate in eternal life.

Contemplation is the reward of that faith which purifies our hearts
(and it is the pure heart who will see God).
Beloved friends, realise that the joy of all joys will be the delight in the Trinity
in whose image we have been created.

Sing and keep on walking.
Sermon 2563

Taken from: friendsofaugustine.org

Augustine Day by Day – 11/22

Pine for the Homeland
Now let us hear, brothers and sisters, let us hear and sing. Let us pine for the city where we are citizens. By pining, we are already there. We have already cast our hope, like an anchor, on that coast.

I sing of somewhere else, not of here; for I sing with my heart, not my flesh. The citizens of Babylon hear the sound of the flesh; the founder of Jerusalem hears the tune of the heart. -- Commentary on Psalm 64, 3

Prayer
Lord, let us make our home again in you and thus avoid being lost. Long ago we left it--for what is our home but your Eternity, which does not disappear because we have deserted it! -- Confessions 4, 16