Augustine

SERMON: A Sermon Of Saint Augustine On The Gospel For The Fourth Sunday In Lent

March 11, 2018

Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lift up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” (And this he said to prove him; for he himself knew what he would do.) Philip answered him, “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, “There is a lad here, which [...]

SAINTS: Augustine — The Grace Of Conversion, by Greg Friedman

March 18, 2017

Augustine — The Grace Of Conversion Greg Friedman

From: Lent With The Saints Micah 7:14-15; Psalm 103:1-4, 9-12; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke’s gospel personifies the mercy of God. Many commentators and homilists suggest the story is mistitled and think it should be called, The Father Who Couldn’t Forget. The father, who is spurned by a selfish, insensitive son who squanders his share of the family fortune, suffers not only personal shame but public embarrassment as his close-knit community watches him wait daily for his son’s return. The story of Saint Augustine is, in part, the story of a mother who couldn’t forget. A talented and scholarly young man, Augustine immersed himself in all the shallow pursuits of his pagan society. [...]

JESUS: On The Love Of God And The Illumination Of The Blind Man, by Augustine

May 9, 2016

Love God. You will not find anything more worthy of love. You love silver, because it is more precious than iron or bronze. You love gold still more, because it is more precious than silver. Still more precious stones, for they are prized above gold. Last, you love this light; which all who dread death fear to leave. You love light, I say, as he loved it, with deep longing, who cried to Jesus: Son of David, have mercy on me. The blind man cries out, as Jesus was passing by. He heard he might pass by, and not heal him. And how earnestly he cried? Though the crowd rebuked him, he would not be silent. He overcame his rebukers, and held our Savior. While the crowd clamored against him, and forbade him cry out, Jesus stands, and called him, and [...]

SATURDAY READING: A Walk In Two Worlds by Thomas O’Loughlin

May 10, 2014

From Journeys on the Edges: The Celtic Tradition I asked the earth and it answered: “I am not he.” I asked the sea and its creatures and they answered: “We are not your God, seek higher!” I asked the whole air, and everything in it, and it answered: “Anaximenes was wrong – I am not your God.” I asked the heavens, the sun, moon and stars, and they answered: “Neither are we God whom you seek.” I asked the whole frame of the universe about my God and it answered me: “I am not he, but he made me.” (Augustine, Confessions 10.6) All The World’s a Sign One of the attractive features of early medieval writings for us today is their sense of the closeness of God as manifested in the [...]

SERMON: Perpetua And Felicity Have Received The Reward Of Perpetual Felicity, by Augustine

February 9, 2014

On the Birthday of the Martyrs Perpetua and Felicity 1. This day, coming round year after year, is a reminder to us, and after a certain fashion represents for us the day on which God’s holy servants, Perpetua and Felicity, adorned with the garlands of martyrdom, burst into bloom in perpetual felicity, holding onto the name of Christ in the war, and at the same time also finding their own names in the reward. We heard of the encouragement they received in divine revelations, and of their triumph in their sufferings, as it was all being read; and all those things, recounted in such glowing words, we perceived with our ears, and actually saw with our minds; we honored them with our devotion, and praised them with love. However, a [...]

SATURDAY READING: Perpetua — Memory And The Text, by Joyce E. Salisbury

February 8, 2014

From Perpetua’s Passion The analysis of Perpetua’s and Saturus’s dream records show their sacrifices were not only for their own salvation but for the benefit of the faithful left on Earth. This is why they recorded their visions and experiences. The account of the martyr Pionius, who died in Carthage in 259, during the persecution that took Cyprian, addresses this directly: “We are to share in the remembrances of the saints, fully aware that to call to mind those who have passed their lives in the faith wisely with all their hearts gives strength to those who are striving to imitate the better things.” Probably, the martyrs who were urging the recollection of their deeds imagined that the example they were setting was to [...]

SERMON: Beware If You Have No Temptations by Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney

September 29, 2013

Whom does the devil pursue most? Perhaps you are thinking that it must be those who are tempted most; these would undoubtedly be the habitual drunkards, the scandalmongers, the immodest and shameless people who wallow in moral filth, and the miser, who hoards in all sorts of ways. No, my dear brethren, no, it is not these people. On the contrary, the Devil despises them, or else he holds onto them, lest they not have a long enough time in which to do evil, because the longer they live, the more their bad example will drag souls into hell. Indeed, if the Devil had pursued this lewd and shameless old fellow too closely, he might have shortened the latter’s life by fifteen or twenty years, and he would not then have destroyed the [...]

SERMON: To The Newly Baptized — On The Eucharist by Augustine of Hippo

January 13, 2013

To The Newly Baptized — On The Eucharist Augustine of Hippo

What you see here on the Lord’s table, my dear brethren, is bread and wine. But once the word is pronounced over them, this bread and this wine become the body and the blood of the divine word. He is the very Lord who “in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” (John 1:1) Owing to his mercy, the Lord did not disdain the nature created by him in his own image, but, as you know, “the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14) The same word assumed human nature; in other words, he took a human soul and body, became man, yet ever remained God. And since the word suffered on our behalf, he left us his body and blood in this sacrament, in which he also included us. For we, [...]

MYSTICISM: The House Of The Soul by Evelyn Underhill

December 13, 2012

From: The Essentials of Mysticism and Other Essays When Saint Paul described our mysterious human nature as a “temple of the Holy Spirit” — a created dwelling-place or sanctuary of the uncreated and invisible divine life — he was stating in the strongest possible terms a view of our status, our relation to God, which has always been present in Christianity and is indeed implicit in the Christian view of reality. But that statement as it stands seems far too strong for most of us. We do not feel in the very least like the temples of creative love. We are more at ease with Saint Teresa, when she describes the soul as an “interior castle” — a roomy mansion, with various floors and apartments from the basement upwards, not [...]

PRAYER: Confession According to Augustine

August 27, 2012

From Overcoming Our Evil: Human Nature and Spiritual Exercises in Xunzi and Augustine, by Aaron Stalnaker “Confession,” or rather the Latin confessio, carries a double meaning. It does include the sense of confessing one’s sins or failures, but also of acknowledging the glory of mercy of God, and especially of acknowledging God’s healing action within one’s own life. Confession, for Augustine, is very similar in form and purpose to petitionary prayer or oratio, but even more intimate, a direct address to God concerning the state of one’s soul and God’s relations to that soul. Augustine writes: Accept the sacrifice of my confessions offered by “the hand of my tongue” which you have formed and stirred up to confess [...]

PRAYER: Vocation Prayers of and to the saints

April 30, 2012

from Francis of Assisi Most high, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of our minds. Give us a right faith, a firm hope and a perfect charity, so that we may always and in all things act according to your holy will. Amen. to Joseph O great Saint Joseph, you were completely obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Obtain for me the grace to know the state of life that God in his providence has chosen for me. Since my happiness on Earth, and perhaps even my final happiness in Heaven, depends on this choice, let me not be deceived in making it. Obtain for me the light to know God’s will, to carry it out faithfully, and to choose the vocation that will lead me to a happy eternity. Amen. from Ignatius of Loyola Dearest [...]