How are we to take delight in the Lord if the Lord is so far away from us? But don't let him be far away! It's you who make him be far away. Love, and he will draw near; love and he will live with you. The Lord is very near; do not be anxious at all.
โข
Lower Shrine of the National Shrine of St Rita. Statue of St Augustine, one of St Rita's patrons, accompanies her, as well as John the Baptist who is also celebrated this weekend. All art by Anthony Visco. This statue in a South Philly Church specifically attempted to highlight Augustine's African identity.
October marks Domestic Violence awareness month. According to the National Coalition against Domestic Violence 1 in 4 women, & 1 in 7 experience severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. On a given day 20,000 calls to domestic violence hotlines may occur, as nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner. In addition to the immediate physical harm, mental, sexual and reproductive health effects have been linked with intimate partner violence.ย
Although stats are not immediately available, some are suggesting that stay at home orders may have increased Domestic Violence.
Because it is not something you can see, I am sure members of our Community may not see it as something in their immediate sphere. There aren't always bruises.
The US Bishops make it clear: โViolence against women, inside or outside the home, is never justified. Violence in any form-physical, sexual, psychological, or verbal is sinful; often, it is a crime as well.โ Yet some Catholics might be under the impression, including those undergoing domestic violence, that you must be faithful to a โmarriageโ despite the grave sin of violence. Some Catholics may, unfortunately, mirror a typical response in society that protects or justifies abusive men in power, over and against women or any vulnerable person.
There is for a Catholic Christian, no other response to Domestic Violence EXCEPT safety and support for the victim as well as accountability for the abuser. Abuse IS NOT Godโs will.
National Domestic Violence Hotline is available anytime: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or at www.ndvh.org.
Should you find yourself the opportunity to be a judgment free confidant, the survivor may begin to see themselves no longer as worthless but as beloved by God.
Please refer to www.usccb.org/topics/marriage-and-family-life-ministries/domestic-violence for more resources.
The following reflection was published on October 11, 2020 in the weekend bulletin at Our Mother of Good Counsel, Los Angeles, CA
Jesus Christ was handed over to death in a public execution. His Disciples encountered him Risen in gardens and shorelines. For many centuries, in danger of persecution, Christians would worship indoors. Eventually, a legal Christianity would move human ingenuity to craft a glimpse of paradise on earth, with the great work of Churches, Cathedrals, Basilicas and Chapels.
I have had opportunities, in special circumstances, to worship outdoors, and therefore notice an awkwardness among the faithful.
To our brothers and sisters in Christ,
To all men and women of good will
For a man who lived in fourth and fifth century Africa, Augustine seems remarkably close to the men and women of today. Our is not the first age to make that assertion. It is an experience we share with others who have discovered the richness of his thought through 1600 years. Perhaps it is easy to identify with Augustine today because he lived in a period not unlike our own, beset by the demons of doctrinal and moral ambiguity. Augustine fell victim to both; by Godโs grace, however, he overcame them.
The followers of Augustine imitate him in seeking and honoring God, because the essence of religious life is above all the love of God and neighbor; in laboring in the service of Godโs people, because religious life is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church for the good fo all; and in living in harmony, so that fraternal life may lead to friendship in the Lord and to knowledge of the truth.
We, and those who share this โRestless Journeyโ with us, continue the ideal of Augustine -- service of love to others, an ideal he preached to his people time and time again in his sermons. Let Augustine speak to you in his own words:ยน
The question I must turn to now is this: What is the โservice of Christโ for which so great a reward is promised? When he said: If any would serve me, let them follow, what he meant could also have been expressed by saying: โThose who do not follow me do not serve me.โ Jesus Christ is served, then, by those who seek not what is their own but what belongs to Jesus Christ. For let them follow me means โlet them walk in my paths and not in their own.โ As it is written elsewhere, Those who claim to remain in Christ must walk as he walked.
Furthermore, if they give bread to the hungry, they must do it out of mercy, not vanity; they must seek nothing but the good work, and not let their left hand know what the right is doing, so that the work of love will be free of any intention of self-centered desire. Those who serve in this manner serve Christ, and to them it is rightly said: When you did it to my least brethren, you did it to me.
Furthermore, it is not only those who do the corporal works of mercy that are Christโs servants; they also serve him who do any and every good work for his sake, up to and including the great work of love, the giving of their life for the brethren. To give it for the brethren is to give it for Christ. That is why he will say to his members: โWhen you did it for them, you did it for me.โ It was with that very work in view that he deigned even to make and call himself a servant: As the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to lay down his life for the many. The very same thing, therefore, that made Christ himself a servant makes men and women servants of Christ. On those who serve Christ in this way his Father will bestow this great honor: they shall be with his Son, and their happiness shall never fail.
Therefore, brethren, when you hear the Lord saying: Where I am, there too shall my servant be, do not think only of good bishops and clerics. You too serve Christ in your own way: by a good life, by almsgiving, by proclaiming his name, and by teaching to whomever you can. Many from your number have served in the supreme stewardship of suffering. Many who were not bishops or clerics but youth and virgins, old people and young, many of them married men and women, many of them fathers and mothers, have served Christ by laying down their lives in testimony to him, and the Father has honored them with glorious crowns.ยฒ
Read More about Saint Augustineย in this series from the writings of Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA.
Read a brief History of the Order of Saint Augustine, also from Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA.
Read a summary of Augustinian Life, by Fr Theodore Tack, OSA
Read Praying with Saint Augustine, by Fr Gervase Corcoran, OSA
Learn about the Saints of the Order of Saint Augustine
Pสแดสแดส
O Lord my God,
you alone do I love;
you alone do I follow;
you alone do I seek;
you alone am I prepared to serve,
for you alone justly rule,
and under your authority I long to be.
Instruct me then, and command what you will -
but first heal me and open my ears
that I may hear your words.
Heal too, and open my eyes
that I may recognize your will.
Put to flight my foolishness
that I may know you.
Show me the road I must travel
that I may see you.
Thus aided, I hope I shall do all
you have commanded me.ยณ
A letter from the Prior Provincials of the Augustinian Family in North America, a letter from April 25, 1987.
From his earliest years, when he prayed that he might not be beaten at school, to the day of his death on 28 August 430, Saint Augustine was a man of prayer. Even during his stormy adolescence, when Catholicism and chastity were abandoned, he continued to pray. He even prayed for chastity, though he admitted to himself and to God that he feared a too sudden answer to his request. However, even such a prayer was a beginning. As he told his congregation later:ย โWhen a man is crying out of the depths, he is already rising out of the depthsโยน. Indeed, precisely because he was eventually raised out of the depths, Augustine experienced vividly the necessity, nature and effectiveness of prayer.
Essentially, prayer is a desire for God which aims at transforming those who pray by turning all the drives within them towards God. As Augustine puts it:ย โThe soul grounded in piety prays, not to inform God but to conform itselfโยฒ. And the norm of this conforming of the self to God is found in the Lordโs Prayerย which, according to Augustine, delimits the boundary of legitimate desire. Therefore, it is always the standard by which the authenticity of prayer is established.
On the other hand, words are used in prayer not to inform God of our love or our needs: he knows all things and therefore, knows all our needs. Instead, the words we use instruct us in what we may legitimately desire. As he told his flock:ย โWe speak, but it is God who instructs; we speak, but it is God who teachesโยณ. Likewise, God sometimes delays granting our requests or even refused to do so in order to coax our desires and ambitions to maturity. For this reason Augustine told his people:ย โAsk, seek, insist, it is by asking and seeking that you grow big enough to receiveโโด. Indeed, his most famous work, the Confessions, is one long prayer of thirteen books in which he seeks to grow big enough to receive Godโs offer of love and intimacy.
In this booklet a short selection of his prayers is presented: they are not the fruits of self-satisfied piety, but of Augustineโs own difficult journey to God. Only when he came to realize his utter weakness could he entrust himself to God. This experience is powerfully conveyed in his plea to his congregation to avoidย โmuscularโ Christianity:ย โThere are strong-minded people who rely not on wealth nor physical strength nor their rank in society, but on their moral rectitude. We should beware of this type of strong man; we should fear them, avoid them and never imitate them... O strong men who need no physician! Your strength comes from madness and not from health. Nobody is stronger than a mandman; he is more vigorous than the healthy, but the greater his strength, the nearer he is to deathโโต
Because Augustine found the path of conversion so painful he surely has something of significance to say to us in our struggles.
Pสแดสแดส - Self-offeringโถ
O Lord, my God, pay heed to my prayer,
look with mercy on my desire
which is not concerned with myself alone,
but with my neighborโs good as well.
You see in my heart that this is so.
Then, let me offer you the sacrifice of every thought and word
only first give me what I may offer you.
I am poor and needy, and you are generous
to all who appeal to you.
You exist without care for your own security,
but are full of concern for us.
Read a series on The Life of Saint Augustine by Fr van Bavel, OSA
Read a brief History of the Augustinian Order, also by Fr van Bavel, OSA
Originally published in Praying with Augustine, a short devotional of Augustineโs Prayer. Introduction, above, written by Fr Gervase Corcoran, OSA.
Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, 129, 1. (Enarr. in ps., 129,1)
The Persecution of Christians throughout the world
The following reflection was published on March 22, 2020, for my Parishioners, in the weekend bulletin at Our Mother of Good Counsel, Los Angeles, CA
On Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019, over 200 people were killed by suicide bombers at 3 Churches and Two Hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
On Palm Sunday, April 9, 2017, two churches were bombed in Alexandria & Tanta in Egypt killing 47 and injuring
On Easter Sunday of 2016, March 21, suicide bombers targeted Christians celebrating Easter in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore, Pakistan, killing over 75 people, and injuring over 300.
Another suicide bombing in 2015, a week before Palm Sunday, in Lahore Pakistan saw the killing of 17 and the wounding of 70.
On Holy Thursday of 2015, masked gunmen opened fire in a Church killing over 150.
On Easter Sunday, April 8 of 2012, a car bomb targeted Christians attending services, killing nearly 40 people in Kaduna, Nigeria.
In an ancient Christmas Tradition, in preparation for Christmas, a special set of prayers is prescribed in the Liturgy. In a special way, this takes shape in Simbang Gabi, a rich cultural tradition in the Philippines. Although our Parish Community celebrated on one evening, many communities have the ability to celebrate for a full nine consecutive days. This is what is referred to as a Novena.
We Augustinians recognize in the person of Stephen Bellesini a brother who personifies what is best in the vocation we share with him: a firm dedication to religious life combined with passion for service to others and the ability to adjust to limitations, without capitulating in the face of challenges.
Stephen found an opportunity to live his life faithful to his ideals, and in fruitful benefit to others, in the circumstances that life unexpectedly presented to him. He did not hesitate to give up family, friends, reputation, position and even citizenship, to โmeet his destinyโ with fellow religious in Rome.
Blessed Stephen Bellesini, O.S.A. models for friars, and for many other people, as well, what it means to live authentically and faithfully the life we have embraced.ยน
Read More about Blessed Stephen Bellisini
O God,
who made the priest Blessed Stephen
admirable for educating youth
and for promoting filial devotion
to the Mother of God,
grant that by imitating his zeal
we may generously respond
to the needs of the Church.
Father Michael Di Gregorio, O.S.A., Prior Provincial of the Augustinian Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova
The salvation of anything consists in unity or union with that which is fitting and suitable to itself. But nothing is more suitable to the rational soul than the highest good, which is God; and therefore human salvation consists in union with him. This union takes place above all through love. Therefore, the end of sacred doctrine is primarily the love of God, and consequently the love of our neighbor also, since he is the image of God.
For love does not pass away but is made perfect, because the more perfect our knowledge is the more perfect our love will be, since knowledge is the source of love and the way by which it grows.
Friendship consists in the sharing of life, for nothing is more appropriate to friendship than living and talking together.ยน
James was born around the year of 1255 in Viterbo. Giles of Rome, a respected Augustinian theologian, would be his teacher in Paris, where James would also later go on to teach. He would be ordained bishop of Benevento in 1302 and soon be instated in Naples. The influence and love of Augustine would be noted in his writings. He died in Naples in the early 1300s.ยฒ
Read More about Blessed James of Viterbo.
Pสแดสแดส
God our Father,
you have enriched the Church
through the teaching and example
of Blessed James of Viterbo.
His gifts of wisdom, humility, and generous service
call us to a more authentic
and faithful following of your Son,
who became for our sake the servant of all.
Fill us with the spirit of selflessness,
that like Blessed James
we too may spend our lives in loving service
of your Church and all its members.
Through Christ our Lord.
Blessed James, Pray for us!
1. From the writings of Blessed James of Viterbo
2. From Saint Augustine Parish, Philadelphia, PA.ย
Born in 1268, Clare was only six years old when she entered a kind of hermitage which her father had arranged for his older daughter, Joan. In 1290 Joan asked the bishop of Spoleto to declare the place a monastery, and the bishop gave her the Ruleย of Augustine.
After the death of her sister Joan, Clare was chosen abbess of the monastery. Her spirituality is a striking example of a synthesis of Augustinian and Franciscan spiritual life. Its main characteristic is the unitive contemplation of the sufferings of Jesus. Her maxim was:ย โI donโt need an external cross for I bear the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ in my heart.โ Christian life does not consist of external signs, but in the conformity of our heart, intellect, and will to Christ. Although she was a mystic, she opposed a quietist sect calledย โThe followers of the free spirit.โ On her deathbed in 1308, the last exhortation to her sisters was:ย โBe humble patient, and united in love. Behave in such a way that God may be honored in you, and that the work he has wrought in you may not be lost.โ
Read More about Saint Clare of Montefalco
Prayer
Saint Clare, Sister and Mother,
you accompany us along the path of God
in the search of Beauty and Love,
that is always possible
when the heart is the center of interiority.
Teach us to make our heart
the dwelling place of the Lord,
where He can rest his Cross,
so that our life could be a gift for all
and for the Church,
that you have loved and served in the prayer
that transforms into the image of Jesus Christ
and intercede for us to the Father.
We will announce with you
early in the morning with fear and great joy
How Beautiful is the life of heaven!
How Beautiful what the Lord is giving us!
How Beautiful to praise the Lord!
Amen.
Written by Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA, from Augustine, and originally published by Editions du Signe, Torino, Italy, in 1996.
Read Augustineโs Return to Africa, the previous post in the series
Primacy of the Bible
Bishop Augustine led a very busy life, his entire time being taken up with preaching, teaching, catechetical instruction, synods, public debates, and journeying all over North Africa. The emperor Constantine had also put the office of a local judge under the care of the bishops. Every morning he had to listen to lawsuits: questions of inheritance, of guardianship, of ownership, of demarcation, and so on, a burden that he did not like at all. Moreoever, as a man of study and contemplation, he was a very productive writer. His works cover some 12,000 pages in modern printing: 113 books, 247 letters, and more than 500 sermons have been preserved. How could he manage so many distinct activities? He himself more or less gives the answer when he declares that his writing was mostly done at night. Then he dictated his writings to shorthand writers.
Possidius, his friend and biographer, tells us that, after he had disposed of the care of temporal and irksome affairs, he turned his mind to meditation on the divine scriptures. The significance of the Bible in Augustineโs work cannot be stressed often enough. He knew the Bible by heart; it was for him the height of all truth, the source of all teaching, and the center of all cultural and spiritual life. His theology is in the full sense of the word a biblical one. His desire was that through his voice the word of God should be heard. Another characteristic of his works is that most of what he wrote was at the request of others; only a very few books were not provoked by external circumstances. We will present here only a rough classification of his writings.
Anti-Manichean writings
Augustine saw it as his first duty to devote himself to the conversion of his former friends, the Manichees. What he had previously thought to be the truth, he now saw as an error. He had been responsible for the adherence to the Manichean doctrine.
Anti-Donatist works
In the following period of his life he was forced to concern himself with a very sad situation, that of a separation within the North African Church. As soon as he was ordained a priest, he had to face the disunity among Christians, caused by the schism of Donatism. Every town had a Donatist and a Catholic church, every diocese a Donatist and a Catholic bishop, all in all over three hundred bishops on each side. The assertion that all should be one in Christ was fictitious. The Donatists pretended to be the only pure Church; they considered the Catholics as betrayers of the purity of Christian law. To understand how painful this split was, it must be remembered that the Donatists used the same holy scriptures, professed the same faith, possessed the same sacraments, and celebrated the same liturgy as did the Catholics. Hatred alone divided the Christians of Africa, and the conflict sometimes deteriorated into a civil war. With immense energy Augustine dedicated himself to restoring peace and unity, but he never completely succeeded in bringing an end to the Donatist schism - this in spite of the fact that the Conference at Carthage in 411, under the chairmanship of the very conscientious imperial delegate, Marcellinus, had decided against the Donatists. Two years later Marcellinus himself was executed at Carthage. This murder was a heavy blow for Augustine, and it was one of the reasons why he lost his enthusiasm for the alliance between the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church.
Ant-Pelagian writings
In 411, after the condemnation of Donatism, Augustine must have hoped for some peace, but instead he became involved in another controversy, this time with Pelagianism. Pelagius was a servant of God, the inspirer of a more radical and ascetical Christian life, and held in high esteem by the Roman aristocrats. He insisted strongly on free will and on the efforts human beings had to make in order to reach perfection. Since perfection lies in the power of the human person, it is, according to him, something obligatory. No wonder that he was scandalized by a sentence in Augustineโs Confessions, namely: โCommand what you will, give what you command.โ For him this was cowardice and laxity. Pelagius concept of Christian perfection contrasted to a certain degree with Augustine's theology and experience as a convert. Pelagius did not deny the role of Godโs grace, but saw it rather as a divine help coming from outside. On the other hand, like Paul, Augustine was convinced that the human will had to be strengthened from within by Godโs grace: all the good things we do are gifts of divine grace. It seemed to him that the Pelagian claim to be able to achieve a Church without spot or blemish continued the Donatist presumption of a pure Church. In Augustineโs eyes, the human situation is much more complex. Human freedom is not a static quality. Our freedom which has to become more and more free. Augustine also believed in the doctrine of original sin, including the existence of a collective guilt, with humankind as a whole responsible for the evil in the world. Certainly one need not agree with Augustine in every detail of his view on original sin (as, for example, his conviction that unbaptized infants will be excluded from the highest degree of eternal bliss). His last work, left unfinished at his death, was against the Pelagian, Julian of Eclanum, the son of an Italian bishop friend. Julian was the most able adversary Augustine ever met. Augustineโs controversy with the much younger Julian was the most dramatic of his life, in which positions on both sides became more and more inflexible.
Go back to the Young Augustine, the first post in the series.
How to Read & Study Augustineย by Fr Mark
The Augustine Digital Library by Fr Mark
Read a brief History of the Augustinian Order, also by Fr van Bavel, OSA
Praying with Saint Augustine by Fr Gervase Corcoran, OSA
Written by Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA, from Augustine, and originally published by Editions du Signe, Torino, Italy, in 1996.
Read aboutย Augustineโs Conversion, the previous post in this series.
Servant of God: monk
Soon after his baptism Augustine decided to return to Africa, a decision which bears witness to a renunciation of his worldly career. At Ostia, the port of Rome, on their homeward journey, Monica became sick and died. Her death meant a yearโs delay in their return to Africa. In 388, however, Augustine arrived at Thagaste, together with his son and little group of his most intimate friends. As servants of God they settled on Augustineโs portion of the family estates at Thagaste. Augustine sold some of his property, and organized a kind of monastic community. The group of like-minded enthusiasts that had gathered around him put into practice the lifestyle of a monastery, with Augustine as the spiritual father of the community.
Augustine intended to live a life of retirement, study, contemplation, meditation, and prayer for the rest of his days. However, this happy period of rest was not to last longer than some three years. Since ancient monasticism essentially was a lay movement, a monk shunned the honor and task of priesthood. Thus when Augustine went to Hippo in order to gain a new candidate for his monastery, he was on his guard not to visit a town where the episcopal see was vacant. Nevertheless his journey to Hippo turned out differently from what he had hoped.
Priest, bishop, and monk
The bishops of Hippo, Valerius, was an elderly Greek, who spoke Latin with difficulty. He needed a priest to assist, and who could later on become his successor. The bishop of Hippo had informed the faithful of his wishes. With persistent shouting the people required Augustine to be their priest. They seized him against his will and presented him to Valerius for ordination. Such ordinations were not uncommon in the later Roman Empire. The vocation to an ecclesiastical ministry was not considered a question of the personal will of the subject; it became this in later centuries, but in former days it was the will of the community. On the other hand, Valerius welcomed Augustineโs proposal to set up a monastery like the one at Thagaste, and put the garden-enclosure of the church at his disposal. In 395 Valerius wrote secret letters to the primate of Carthage to have Augustine consecrated as his co-adjutor. A year later Valerius died, and Augustine became bishop of the seaport town, Hippo Regius.
All these events required serious changes in Augustineโs life. Although he had to renounce many of his dreams, he accepted his new task in a resolute way, being well aware of his responsibility and the burden on his shoulders. But also as a bishop he wanted to live in a monastic community. He moved from the lay monastery into the bishopโs house establishing there a monastery of clerics. He lived the full common life of his brothers as much as was possible for a bishop. This monastery became very famous, for it was a nursery of learned and capable bishops for the whole North African Church. For nearly forty years Augustine was the real driving force of that Church.
Read Augustineโs Duties as a Bishop, the next post in the series
Written by Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA, from Augustine, and originally published by Editions du Signe, Torino, Italy, in 1996.
Read the Evolution of the young Augusitne, the previous post in this series.
Separation from his mistress
Monica had seen to it that her newborn baby, Augustine, was signed with the sign of the cross and received salt, which meant that he was received as a catechumen in the Catholic Church. The intense significant and responsibility attached to baptism led many Christian parents to postpone baptism; this was the reason why many people were baptized only on their deathbeds. Augustineโs decision to receive baptism had been blocked for a long time by two obstacles, one of a moral and the other of an intellectual nature. It was now a question of removing these obstacles.
The relationship with his mistress came to an end under pressure from Monica, who strove for a โfirst classโ marriage for her son. She found him a new bride, only ten years old and almost two years under age for marriage. Augustine had loved his mistress sincerely and the separation from her affected him deeply. โMy heart which was deeply attached to her was cut and wounded, and left a trail of blood. She had returned to Africa vowing that she would never go with another man.โ He was unhappy and felt incapable of following the example of his wife; therefore he procured another mistress. It gave him no relief, as he himself states: โBut my wound, inflicted by the earlier parting, was not healed. After inflammation and sharp pain, it festered. The pain made me as it were frigid and desperate.โ For Augustine conversion included more than an honorable marriage; it also implied conversion to the monastic ideal of asceticism and chastity.
From reason to faith
His intellectual difficulties were more complicated. For a long time he considered the Catholic faith good for simple souls like that of monica. He had put all his confidence in the power of reason, and desired comprehension and understanding by his own resources alone. He was a rationalist in the fullest sense of the word. The Manichees had promised him insight into the mysteries of life, without the need for faith. They mocked at mere belief and promised knowledge. However, they ordered belief in many fabulous and absurd myths: โI was ordered to believe Mani.โ He was disappointed and his rationalism was undermined. At that moment, he gave his preference to the Catholic faith, for he thought it more modest to be told by the Church to believe what could not be demonstrated. Thus he discovered the important role played by belief in daily life: how many things he believed which he had not seen, events which occurred when he was not present, such as incidents in the history of nations, facts concerning places and cities which he had never seen, things accepted on the words of friends, from physicians, from other people. And he drew the conclusion, unless we believed what we were told, we would do nothing at all in this life. After he had lost faith in Manicheism, Augustine went through a short crisis of skepticism, during which he despaired of the possibility of finding the truth, is not everything a matter of doubt? Does an understanding of the truth not lie beyond human capacity? This crisis also prepared the ground for the coming conversion.
The influence of Ambrose
Many people played a part in Augustineโs conversion, especially Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. His influence was not through personal contact, but rather through his sermons, which allowed Augustine to discover how different Christian faith was from what he had supposed. Ambroseโs sermons taught Augustine how to interpret the biblical texts, and introduced him to some totally new ideas: โI noticed, repeatedly, in the sermons of our bishopโฆ that when God or the soul, which is the one thing in the world nearest to God, is thought of, our thoughts should not dwell on anything corporeal whatsoever.โ The reading of books of Platonic philosophers gave him a deeper insight into the world of the spirit, and their writings also offered him an answer to the burning problem of evil. Friends told him exemplary stories of famous persons who had converted to a Christian lifestyle.
Take and read
Thus Augustine came to his well-known personal crisis in the garden of his house in Milan. There he heard a voice from a nearby house chanting as if it might be a boy or a girl, repeating over and over again โTake and read, take and read.โ He interpreted these words as a divine command, opened the Bible, and read the first passage on which his eyes lit: Not in riots and drunken parties, not in debauchery and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts (Rom 13:13-14). All the shadows of doubt were now dispelled. It was not merely accidental that a text of the great convert, the apostle Paul, was at the heart of Augustineโs conversion. The influence of Paul on Augustine continued throughout his whole life. In many respects his later theology and spirituality showed similarity to Pauline ideas, such as the relation between law and grace, the consequences of original sin, the parallelism between Adam and Christ, and the theme of the body of Christ.
After the holidays in 386, Augustine resigned his professorship, and retired to the country, to Cassiciacum, in order to study, to write, and to prepare for baptism. At the Easter Vigil of the year 387, he was baptized by Ambrose, together with his son Adeodatus and his friend Alypius. Augustine, as he himself states, had made the leap: โWhy are you relying on yourself, only to find yourself unreliable? Cast yourself upon him, do not be afraid. He will not withdraw himself so that you fall. Make the leap without anxiety; he will catch you and heal you.
Read Augustineโs Return to Africa, the next post in the series
Written by Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA, from Augustine, and originally published by Editions du Signe, Torino, Italy, in 1996.
Read About Augustineโs Character, the previous post in this series.
The student and mistress
After his elementary education at Thagaste Augustine was sent for secondary studies to the nearby town of Madauros, a more intellectual center than Thagaste. In his sixteenth year he returned to Thagaste, spending a year at home to enable his father to save money for his higher education at the school of Carthage. It was a year of idleness which he describes in the following way: โThe thorns of lust rose above my head, and there was no hand to root them out.โ
With the help of the already mentioned Volusianus Augustine went to Carthage in 370 to study rhetoric. Rhetoric, the art of speaking and writing, was at that time the highest form of culture, giving access even to the most brilliant political career. As the metropolis of Africa and the biggest city of the Roman West after Rome, Carthage was also a cauldron of illicit loves. Since Augustine had never been in love but longed to love, he sought an object for his love: โI was in love with love. My longing then was to love and be loved, but most when I obtained the enjoyment of the body of the person who loved me.โ He acquired a concubine of low birth, to whom he remained faithful during an association which lasted some fourteen years, but whose name he never mentioned. She became the mother of his son, Adeodatus - โa gift from Godโ - who died young, in his eighteenth year. Augustineโs relationship with his mistress was a legally recognized marriage, a kind of second-class marriage.
It was at Carthage too that he, in his nineteenth year, discovered his philosophical vocation. He read a book of Cicero that made propaganda for โlove of wisdom.โ The quest for truth and wisdom inspired the rest of Augustineโs life. But he missed the name of Christ in Cicero, and began to read scripture, but its style disappointed him badly. Only much later was the dream of his nineteenth year to be realized, after he had become a monk and a Christian philosopher.
Adherent of Manicheism
While he was still at Carthage Augustine became an adherent of the Manichean religion, albeit only as a โhearerโ or โlistener.โ There were several reasons why he felt attracted to it. It claimed to be a rational religion, giving insight, and not imposing faith as did the Catholic Church. Its criticism of the Old Testament was able to satisfy Augustineโs dislike of some passages in it. The names of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit were current in the Manichean liturgical texts, so that there was a certain affinity to Christianity. The Manichees claimed to have a solution for a problem which worried Augustine intensely, namely the problem of evil. They professed two eternal ย principles, totally opposed to each other: good and evil, light and darkness, both involved in struggle and at war among themselves. Augustine felt vividly in himself the tension between good and evil, purity and sin. There was much in his life that continued to cause him feelings of acute guilt. Inner discontent and unrest led him to Manicheism. It freed him from an intimate sense of guilt: โI still thought that it is not we who sin, but some alien nature which sins in us. It flattered my pride to be free of blame and, when I had done something wrong, not to make myself confess to you that you might heal my soul. I liked to excuse myself and to accuse some unidentifiable power which was within me and yet not I.โ For ten years Augustine remained a Manichee, although his enthusiasm for Manicheism had begun to cool more and more over that period.
Professor of rhetoric in Italy
About 374 Augustine returned to Thagaste and taught grammar there, but soon he went back to Carthage to teach rhetoric. The behavior of the Carthaginian students, however, was foul and uncontrolled, and they committed many acts of vandalism. So he decided to go to Rome, for all informed people declared that there such troubles did not occur. His mother strongly opposed his going, but the ambition of her son was stronger. Once in Rome, Augustine attached himself to the local Manichean community. He continued to teach, but discovered that the Roman students avoided paying the teacher his fee, breaking their word out of love of money. When Milan notified Rome of its intention to appoint a teacher of rhetoric, Augustine went there in 384 with the help of influential Manichean friends. Milan was at that time the imperial residence and the city of Bishop Ambrose. What Augustine could not foresee was that in Milan his professorship would end; he would renounce a political career and would be converted.
Read Augustineโs Conversion, the next post in the series.
Written by Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA, from Augustine, and originally published by Editions du Signe, Torino, Italy, in 1996.
This series, by Fr Van Bavel, a highly respected Augustinian Theologian, was written in the 1990s with the young in mind. Read More about Augustineโs Family Background, the previous post in this ongoing series.
Intellect and heart
The young Augustine describes himself in the following way: โI lived and thought and took care of my self-preservation. An inward instinct told me to take care of the integrity of my senses, and even in my little thoughts about little matters I took delight in the truth. I hated to be deceived, I developed a good memory, I acquired the armory of being skilled with words, friendship softened me, I avoided pain, despondency, ignorance. But every one of these qualities is a gift of my God; I did not give them to myself. They are good qualities, and their totality is my self.โ The same qualities are evident throughout his life.
He was very sensitive, emotional and passionate. Although he was an intellectual, one does not find in him a dry, cerebral attitude. Although he liked self-control, there is no trace of inhuman rigidity. Although he always emphasized the relativity of created things, he would never deny the richness of life or the splendor of the world. Intellect and heart always go together. Consequently, love, common life, and friendship are at the heart of his life and thought. A superficial reading of his Confessions can give the impression that Augustine was an introvert, constantly busy with self-analysis. The reality was very different. One is surprised to learn that this man was scarcely ever alone. He himself admitted that he could not possibly be happy without friends. A friendship might cost him half his soul, but it was through friendship that his wounds could be healed. This is probably due to the congenital feeling for solidarity of the Africans.
Passion for the truth
โOnly the truth gains the victory, but the victory of truth is loveโ (Sermon 385,1)
It is true that his passion for the truth made him a tenacious debater; when he got his teeth into a subject, he had difficulty in giving it up. Outside of debates, he showed a great sense of modesty. As an old man he revised his books, and declared: โI do not wish that someone accepts all my opinions, in such a way that he or she follows me blindly, except in those points where the reader has come to the conviction that I was not mistaken. Not even I myself have followed myself in all points. I have written books constantly making progress. But I did not start off in perfection, and to claim that I now, in my old age, write perfectly and without any error would be rather a sign of conceit than of veracity.โ In a letter to a girl named Florentina, he wrote: โYou should not think that you will find in me an answer to all your questions and to everything you want to know. For I did not present myself as a perfect teacher who knows everything, but as a man in search of light, together with those for whom he has been called in order to enlighten them. Please realize the danger we are in, we of whom it is expected that we be not only teachers, but even teachers of divine realities, although we are just simple human beings.โ
Read The Evolution of the Young Augustine, the next post of this series.
Written by Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA, from Augustine, and originally published by Editions du Signe, Torino, Italy, in 1996.
The Augustinians have a tradition of praying Seven Days for the Deceased. The tradition comes from St. Nicholas of Tolentino, a patron of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
Nicholas was born about 1245. He lived for nearly thirty years at Tolentino, Italy. He studied in the provincial study center of the Marches of Ancona from 1262 till 1273. He was known as an ascetic and apostle, harmonizing prayer and solitude with apostolic activity. Many came to hear him preach, and to learn from him the wisdom he displayed in his long hours in the confessional. He died at Tolentino on 10 September 1305, and was canonized in 1446.ยน
Saint Nicholas was visited by Souls in Purgatory, who would ask him to remember them when he Presided at Mass. The following is a form of the prayer to be said on Seven Consecutive Days, Hence the phrase Septinarium. A tradition developed, or a devotion, to pray for the deceased particularly between November 6 and 13 (two Augustinian Feasts). One model devotion below, prepared by Fr John Rotelle, includes readings from Augustine, in addition to the following prayer.
The Augustinian Septinarium for the Dead
Pสแดสแดส
O Lord, God of holiness and light,
you do not allow any shadow of darkness
or evil in your sight
and so in your mercy you grant to those
who have left this world burdened with sin
a time of purification,
applying to them the spiritual treasures of your Holy Church.
Hear my prayer
and through the merits of Christ,
the Blessed Virgin, the Saints,
and all your faithful people
bring to an end this time of waiting
for our beloved dead, especially for N.
Since in your providence
you have chosen your faithful servant
Saint Nicholas of Tolentine
as a special intercessor
on behalf of the departed,
hear also his fervent prayer for the dead
whom I recommend to you
through his intercession.
Saint Nicholas,
you were so attentive to the pleas
of many needy souls
and through your prayer and penance
you hastened their enjoyment
of the vision of God.
Look with compassion on our beloved dead,
and obtain for them by your prayers
the full forgiveness of their sins
so that they may experience
the happiness and peace of the Father's presence. ยฒ
Death provokes prayer.
This is a prayer for other people, obviously. Yet, in recalling our own mortality... we are moved to gratitude for the moment; we are moved to integrity, since we wish not to die with regret; ย we are moved to charity, since we want more to let people we know we care about them; the list goes on. Although we can pray this all year round, it is especially pertinent for November.
November is a good month for prayer, when things are dark and quiet. It is the month of prayer for the dead, for the Holy Souls. We can reflect on our failures in the year, and vow to improve, with God's assistance. We can also reflect on our little victories, and that too can move us to greater gratitude for God's love, as well as for a greater effort to keep giving God the glory.
Read More about Saint Nicholas of Tolentino
Written by Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA, from Augustine, published by Editions du Signe, Torino, Italy, 1996.
From Prayers for the Dead, Ed. by Fr John Rotelle, OSA, published by Augustinian Press, PA, 1980s.
