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 God’s 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 God’s 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 “Restless Journey” 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:¹
The question I must turn to now is this: What is the “service of Christ” 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: “Those who do not follow me do not serve me.” 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 “let them walk in my paths and not in their own.” 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 Christ’s 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: “When you did it for them, you did it for me.” 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.²
Read More about Saint Augustine 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
Pʀᴀʏᴇʀ
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.³
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: ‘When a man is crying out of the depths, he is already rising out of the depths’¹. 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: ‘The soul grounded in piety prays, not to inform God but to conform itself’². And the norm of this conforming of the self to God is found in the Lord’s Prayer 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: ‘We speak, but it is God who instructs; we speak, but it is God who teaches’³. 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: ‘Ask, seek, insist, it is by asking and seeking that you grow big enough to receive’⁴. Indeed, his most famous work, the Confessions, is one long prayer of thirteen books in which he seeks to grow big enough to receive God’s 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 Augustine’s 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 avoid ‘muscular’ Christianity: ‘There 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 death’⁵
Because Augustine found the path of conversion so painful he surely has something of significance to say to us in our struggles.
Pʀᴀʏᴇʀ - Self-offering⁶
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 neighbor’s 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 Augustine’s Prayer. Introduction, above, written by Fr Gervase Corcoran, OSA.
Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, 129, 1. (Enarr. in ps., 129,1)
This series, by Fr Van Bavel, a highly respected Augustinian Theologian, was written in the 1990s with the young in mind. Read More about Augustine’s Family Background, the previous post in this ongoing series.
Intellect and heart
The young Augustine describes himself in the following way: “I 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.” 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
“Only the truth gains the victory, but the victory of truth is love” (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: “I 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.” In a letter to a girl named Florentina, he wrote: “You 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.”
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.
History of the Rule and the Order of Saint Augustine
Augustine’s Rule in the World
The night of time
One cannot call Augustine the founder of a religious order in the modern, juridical sense of the word. We know for certain that he founded at least three monasteries, and desired that monastic life should spread all over Africa. From Possidius’ Life of Augustine we also know that there was a convent at Hippo, under the direction of Augustine’s sister. Moreover, a number of monks from Augustine’s monasteries became bishops in other African towns, where they founded monastic communities after the model they had known at Hippo. Thus the North African Church had some fifteen monasteries with a marked Augustinian character. Even after the Vandal invasions and the death of Augustine monasticism persisted in African. It’s extinction only came with the Arab invasions during the years 647-688. In the period between 430 and 668, many monks went into exile. They fled to nearby countries, but we do not know whether they continued to live in communities following the Rule of Augustine. Of the dispersed monks of Africa, we can say that they walked into the night of time. There is no certainty at all about the historical continuity between the monasteries of Augustine and later monastic life outside Africa.
Influence of the Rule
If we follow the history of the manuscripts of Augustine, we get a rather different picture. We see then that the spirit of his Rule indeed survived during the subsequent centuries. No less than fourteen manuscripts, dating from before the year 1000, have come down to us. From the time of Caesarius of Arles (+542/543), via Benedict of Nursia (+550), till the time of Benedict of Aniane (+820/821), we notice the influence of Augustine’s Rule. But we have to wait till the end of the ninth century to find an intense longing for a full common life according to the spirituality of Augustine among the Canons Regular of Reims (975).
This reform movement led in the last decades of the eleventh century to the acceptance of the Rule by the Canons Regular as the norm for the common life. In the twelfth century, they were followed by the Victorines, Canons Regular of the abbey dedicated to Saint Victor founded in 1108 at Paris by Norbert of Xanten who founded the Premonstratensian Canons in 1120, and by Dominic for the ORder of the Friars Preachers in 1215. Furthermore, the Rule of Augustine was adopted by the Crutched Friars (O.S.C.) founded probably by Dietrich von Zell around 1210, by the Mercerdarians founded by Peter Nolasco in 1218, by the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulcher founded at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and by the Order of the Servites of the Holy Virgin Mary founded in 1240.
In 1244 the Holy See united several under the Order of the Hermits of Saint Augustine (O.E.S.A.), now known as the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.). In the following centuries we find a considerable number of communities living under the Rule of Augustine, of which the most important are: the Brethren of the Common Life, Augustinians Canons and representatives of the Devotio Moderna together with the famous monastery of Windesheim, founded by Florentius Radwijns respectively in 1384 and 1387, the Alexians, of whom most adopted the Rule in 1450; the Brothers Hospitallers founded by John of God around 1540; the Piarists founded by Joseph Calasanctius in 1597; the Visitation Order of Holy Mary founded by Jane de Chantal and Francis de Sales in 1610; the Sisters of Our LAdy of Charity (of the Refuge) and its branches, founded by John Eudes in 1641; the Barmhersizge Bruder von Maria Holf founded by Peter Fredhofen in 1850; the Augustinians of the Assumption founded at Nimes by Emmanuel d’Alzon in 1850.
History of the Order of Saint Augustine
From Hermits to Mendicant Friars
In the tenth and eleventh centuries, all over Europe and particularly in Italy, there were many monks who had settled in remote places, the so-called hermitages. One of the most famous hermitages is that of Lecceto near Siena. The origin of these little congregations must be sought in the desire for a deeper spiritual way of life as a protest against an easy and poor evangelical lifestyle. But in the thirteenth century the eremitical life no longer corresponded to the needs of the surrounding world, which required a new style of religious life. The world and social life had changed notably with the growth of commerce, the rise of capitalism, the development of the cities, the origin of the bourgeoisie as a social power, and the foundation of universities. Monastic theology had become scholastic theology. Whereas the intellectual education had been for centuries the patrimony of the clergy, it then also passed into the hands of lay people. In this climate movements of voluntary poverty came into existence, which adopted a critical attitude toward the worldly life of the Church. This attitude was at the root of the creation of the mendicant orders: Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinians. The Church needed them in order to stem the tide of the new mentality. This was the reason why several contemplative congregations of hermits, some of which lived under the Rule of Augustine, wanted to become united as juridical entity, the Order of Saint Augustine. The union of March 1244 was soon followed by the Great Union in 1256, which was approved by Pope Alexander IV. From that moment on they tended to concentrate their work in the towns.
Evolution through the ages
As is the case for every medieval religious order, one can clearly distinguish five periods
1. 1244-1350: Period of Maturation and Progression
After the Great Union of 1256, and even here and there before this date, the Order expanded rapidly from Italy into France, England, Germany, and Spain.
From these centers, it spread all over Europe: from hungary and Poland to Portugal, from Ireland to the Aegean Sea, Crete, Corfu, Cyprus, and Rhodes, with a few settlements in the Balkans, the Ukraine, and the Baltic countries. From 1264 on, we also find contemplative Augustinian nuns. Already in 1293, the Augustinians had moved into the monastery situated on what is now called the Quai des Grands Augustins in Paris, which had became an important center of studies. There were twenty-four provinces in 1329. The expansion continued till 1350, although here and there one already discovers some signs of slackening.
2. 1350-1538: Decadence and Observant Movements
A period of enthusiasm is normally followed by a period of regression. Zeal for the evangelical life as well as for the common life ad faded. There were several reasons for this, such as the poor condition of theological education, the slackening of ecclesiastical authority, and the gap between the higher and lower clergy. The late Middle Ages saw the rise of local reformed congregations as a reaction against spiritual laxity. We can see that many were filled with nostalgia for the old eremitical lifestyle. Such reforms were often accompanied by serious tensions between “observants,” the advocates of renewal, and “conventuals,” the advocates of the old customs. One of these reformed congregations was the congregation of Saxy (1438), to which Martin Luther, the founder of the Great Reformation, belonged. The ORder suffered considerably from the effects of the Reformation. Augustinian monasteries in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands were strongly influenced by the Saxon reform movement. Several monks chose Luther's side. Already in 1523 at Brussels, two Belgian Augustinians, adherents of the Lutheran doctrine, had died at the stake. It is also true, however, that the Calvinists did the same at Ghent with Augustinians who did not renounce their faith. Apart from the Reformation, another serious reason for the declining number of Augustinians was pestilence and famine all over Europe. Between 1348 and 1351 no less than 5,084 members of the Order died from the Black Death.
3. 1539-1785: The Golden Age
This period begins with the election of Girolamo Seripando as prior general. He was a member of an observant congregation and established a solid basis for the renewal of discipline and spiritual life. In 1562 he had to direct the work of the third period of the Council of Trent.
During this period more reformed congregations came into existence. The Augustinian Recollects (O.A.R.) wanted to live a more rigorous and contemplative life. Their first house was founded in Spain in 1589; from 1621 on they formed a congregation within the Order of Saint Augustine, and became an independent ORder only in 1912. Greater austerity was also aimed at by the Discalced Augustinians (O.A.D.) in Italy (1593 - an autonomous Order in 1931), and in France (from 1596 till the time of the French revolution, 1790). The congregation of Bourges, the so-called “Petites Augustins,” founded in 1592 by Etienne Rabache, as one of them. The discovery of the new world opened the way for settlements in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Chile. Missionaries reached the Philippines and Japan. By 1753 the Order had some 15,000 monasteries and some 20,000 members.
4. 1786-1880: Time of Trial and Ruin
The emergence of an anti-monastic climate and the events of the French Revolution had devastating effects on religious life in Europe. Contemplative orders were considered socially useless, and this opinion was soon applied to active religious communities. The wave of suppression began under King Louis XV (+1774) with the closing of monasteries considered in difficulty by the “Royal Commission for the Regulars.” In 1769 the Augustinians were convoked in connection with the suppression of houses, and in 1773 sixty-nine houses were closed. The suppression reached its climax during the French Revolution (1789-1801, and with continuing effects till 1811) and meant the confiscation of all ecclesiastical property, the disolution of the religious orders and congregations, and an official prohibition on taking vows as contrary to human rights. The French Revolution was not an isolated event, for under Joseph II, too, in 1782, religious suffered a systematic suppression. Only outside Europe, in the provinces of the Philippines and the United States (founded in 1796), were the effects of the revolution not felt. During this period, the province of Malta was founded in 1817, friars went to Australia, and returned to China. The number of Augustinians had been reduced to 1,900 members.
5. 1881-1990: Laborious Restoration
A characteristic of this period is that the government of the Order became more and more international, and that its expansion encompassed more continents, in particular Africa. Nowadays the Order is present in Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Ireland, England, Scotland, Malta, Tunisia, Algeria, Nigeria, Zaire, Tanzania, the Philippines, Australia, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Panamá, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brasil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, and Peru
If poverty pinches and grief saddens, if physical pain alarms, if exile makes sorrowful, or any misfortune harasses us, then let there be good people who know how to rejoice with the joyful and to weep with the weeping, who are skilled in comforting speech and conversation. Thus, for the most part bitter trials are relieved, heavy burdens lightened and adversities overcome. But God does this in and through them, the God who made good people through his Spirit. On the other hand, if riches abound, if no bereavement befalls, if there is good health and secure life in a free homeland, but evil people are your fellow citizens among whom there is no one you can trust and from whom you have not to fear and endure trickery, cheating, anger, discord, ambushes, do not all these good things then become bitter and harsh, devoid of all joy and sweetness? Thus, in all human things nothing whatsoever is friendly to a human being without having a human being as friend.” Augustine, Letter 130,2,4
Read The Life of Saint Augustine, also by Fr van Bavel, OSA
Praying with Saint Augustine by Fr Gervase Corcoran, OSA
How to Read & Study Augustine by Fr Mark
The Augustine Digital Library by Fr Mark
Written by Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA, from Augustine, and originally published by Editions du Signe, Torino, Italy, in 1996.
To be saved, it is necessary to obtain forgiveness of one’s sins; yet it is only by pardoning our enemies that we can find grace before God. The gospel is formal on this point. Forgive, does it say, and you shall be forgiven. Do you wish to be treated with mercy? Treat others likewise; because you will be measured with the same measure wherewith you have measured others. These are the oracles of Jesus Christ, Truth itself, which admit of no equivocation, and which will not fail to be accomplished.
You have offended and insulted God countless times; you ask him every day for forgiveness in the Lord’s prayer. He will grant it to you, but on the condition that you pardon those who have offended you. On you depends the task of fixing your sentence and deciding your destiny. Forgive, and you will be sure of forgiveness. For when you have forgiven your neighbor, you may say to Almighty God: “Lord, I have done what you commanded me; I have fulfilled the condition to which you attached my forgiveness! Allow me to sum up your word. You have said that you would give mercy to those that gave it; I am sure of the sincerity of your promises; I may then regard my reconciliation as certain.”
What a source of consolation to be able to assure ourselves, as far as we can in this life, that we are in grace with God, that we bear on our souls the mark of predestination, which gives us a right to the kingdom of heaven. Behold the great benefit we receive in forgiving the injuries done by our brethren.
How think you, revengeful men, who refuse to follow a maxim so wise in itself and so beneficial in its results? Forgive us as we forgive others. You know that you will not obtain mercy, save in so far as you are merciful to others, and you do not want to exercise that virtue towards those that have offended you. You might as well renounce all hope of pardon and eternal salvation.
Like the servant mentioned in the gospel, you are laden with more debt to God than the debt that other men owe you. Yet however numerous and weighty may be your offenses, though your debts were mountains in size, God wishes to forego them, provided that you will show the same generosity to those that are beholden to you. This is the standard-rule of judgment to you: So shall my heavenly Father do to you.
Remember tat every time you say the Lord’s prayer, while you still continue in an unforgiving spirit, you condemn yourself out of your own mouth: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. God will simply pronounce the judgment on you which you have given against yourself. If you wish to take revenge, says St. Augustine, take revenge on your own anger and spite.
Francis McGowan, OSA originally published in Sunday Sermons (Villanova Monastery), pp 586-587
8 Reasons Why Augustine’s Confessions Still Matter
I believe that plenty of people who call themselves atheists, agnostics, or renounced their Catholic faith are not irreedemably damned. I believe that not so much because God doesn't damn people, but more, because many of them just think that they are atheists, agnostics or not-Catholic anymore. Augustine, as he describes in his Confessions, makes it clear that God drew close to him, in spite of Augustine's sinful life, and drew him back.
Augustine was taught about Jesus as a child, by his Mother, Saint Monica. He was not necessarily raised pagan, he was just never baptized. He even would search for the name of Jesus in pagan literature. He drifted, joined a cult, became a skeptic, and eventually found his home in communion with the Church.
God is not some bearded man in the sky who created the world in six 24 hour days, so many people leave the Church, and declare that they are agnostic or atheist. Augustine was deeply troubled by a literal interpretation of Genesis, probably just as troubled as many intelligent adults are by Modern Evangelical Fundamentalists. Augustine describes this in his Confessions.
Young People swear that they had religion "crammed down their throat." Augustine took a Sea Voyage at Night, from Africa to Rome, to get away from his Mom who wanted him to be Catholic.
Temptations are tempting because they seem to feel good. Augustine makes no qualms about covering up the internal conflicts we face, about the gruesome delight of sin. He also does not justify himself by evading the fact that these same sins leave you incredibly bereft. Augustine's candid discussion of Sin, Grace & Redemption would resonate with many young people.
We both know what it is to have a Broken Heart. Many young people are putting off marriage, many of them are just as cynical about finding someone worth marrying as they are about finding a religion worth committing too. Augustine describes the heartbreak he experienced when it didn't work out with a woman he loved.
As Augustine matures, so does his perspective on God, Faith & the Church. I believe that many young people claim agnosticism without realizing this is part of maturation. I think they are turned away by Catholics who have had an easier time at their faith, not realizing that this Negative Way is part of Spiritual Maturation.
People wonder if religions is useless. Augustine became disillusioned with a narrow perspective of Catholicism before returning. He also became disillusioned with many other Religious cults of his time, including Philosophy & Manicheanism. Conversely he also credits non-Christian pagans with being stepping stones on his way to the fullness of Truth in the Church. I think many people who leave the Church because they think that we teach that being non-Catholic instantly damns one to hell.
Augustine does not always have easy answers, in fact his Confessions often presents unanswered questions. Some Catholics find genuine comfort in Church Teachings which are stated clearly. Many people, including myself, find quick, easy, and clear answers constricting. Augustine's Confessions reminds us of the importance of Mystery.
Ultimately, Augustine's Confessions are not so much about himself, but about God's work in his life. You can always read plenty about Augustine if you want to know him, including a biography from his long time friend Saint Possidius. Since his Confessions are about giving Glory to God, they will provoke readers to see God working in their own life.
First of all I strongly believe in the future of the Order of Saint Augustine just as I strongly believe in the Order itself. I believe in our place in modern society, because we are the heirs of a man--a saint--whose mentality is valid for all seasons and times. Augustine was an energetic defender of the very things which so appeal to the men of our age: community, friendship, fraternity, equality, unity--and above all, charity! He did not defend these realities as abstractions, but as everyday realities. He did not teach and preach them as a cure for social evils, but as a means to closer union with the common Father of us all.
Through the religious communities which he founded and helped propagate, he offered to the world a vibrant witness of Christian dedication to an ideal which still very definitely attracts men of our times, especially when they see this ideal lived out, incarnated if you will, in other men like ourselves. We Augustinians have a message for our society. Whether it is received or not depends very much on how we ourselves reflect fraternity, friendship, and the unity of charity in our individual Communities.
I am convinced that we will not reflect these Augustinian traits unless we are first of all men of deep faith and prayer, and I do not think that we can be men of deep faith unless we are willing to pray. As our holy Father the Pope recently reminded us concerning prayer:
“Be conscious of the importance of prayer in your lives; learn to give yourselves generously to it”¹
“If we are deeply imbued with the spirit of prayer, the Spirit of Jesus will enlighten us and enrich us with his wisdom in the humble concern we show for men and things.”²
And if any of the brethren have unfortunately forgotten how to pray or even stopped, then again in the thought of Paul VI, let them be humble enough to start in again, to make new efforts. Our sharing of life together in the same community really has no meaning unless it is at the same time a sharing of spiritual oneness: God looks more to unity of heart than to unity of place.³
I believe furthermore that the coming years are going to see a greater re-awakening, on the part of many, of the realization that we have much to be thankful for because God has called us to the Augustinian way of life. If we will only give the deep spiritual teaching of our Constitutions a chance to sink in and take a hold of all of us in a more meaningful way, we shall find that our Communities will become ever more and more centers of real fraternal unity and sources of dynamic apostolic activity.
The holy sharing of life which we seek is truly a gift of God, but it is a gift which must be accepted, appreciated, cultivated, and made fruitful, and this can only be done when we have all put into practice one of the very basic teachings of our Rule: we put the common good before our own interests, so that we might grow in charity...
Community which grows out of friendship is basic to our Augustinian life, because it is basic to the true Christian life. Moreover, St. Paul makes very clear that our individual talents are not given to us for our own personal advancement, but in order to build up the Body of Christ which is the Church. Our Order, that is, the Community of the Order, is in the mind of Augustine, a mini-Church. It is only right then that our talents should go towards the building up of this community for the greater service of the Church. A community where the unity of charity exists in true fraternal understanding, imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice, is a community where the Augustinian ideal is fully realized.
Fr. Theodore V. Tack, OSA, Prior General, Closing Address to the General Chapter of 1971.
Image: Saint Augustine Gives His Rule to Men and Women
Hymnal, British Library, London, England,
ms Add. 30014, C.130v.
Apostolic Exhortation, June 29, 1971
ibid., no.44
Constitutions of the Order of Saint Augustine, no. 27
Once God is tasted, the world becomes insipid, and as a magnet draws iron to it from every direction, so when God is in the heart’s midst, he draws to himself all thoughts, affections, all motions of the senses, and all the powers of soul and body, so that the soul, whose inheritance is this pearl without price, keeps nothing for itself but wants this alone and seeks it alone with burning desire. I say all this as best as I can; anyone who has experienced it knows the truth of the story I tell.
How many we have seen who, having found this pearl without price, have immediately abandoned great riches and family, houses, fields, possessions, indeed even kingdoms, and great dignities and honors, and have devoted themselves wholly to seeking further after this pear. The world judges such persons to be almost mad, for it does not see the brilliance of the pearl which these persons have now seen with new eyes, nor does the world know its value, as Job says: Man knows not the price thereof.¹
— The Sermons of Saint Thomas of Villanova
Thomas was born in 1486 at Fuenllana, Spain. Later he became professor of philosophy at the University of Salamanca, and preferred to enter the Order in 1516. He had a great influence on the progress of study and spirituality therein, through his teaching and preaching. While he was prior in Valladolid, Charles V presented him in 1544 as a candidate for the archbishopric of Valencia. In his writings we find a synthesis between the thought of Augustine and the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas, between mysticism and scholasticism. He was a defender of the true mystics and this became the reason why some of his writings were placed on the Index in 1599. He was also a promoter of the Devotio Moderna in Spain. His concern for the little ones, the sick, the young in danger, and the poor were the main characteristics of his apostolate, so that people called him “the father of the poor.” In this respect, he repeated Augustine’s words: “The superfluous goods of the rich do by right belong to the poor. It is Jesus who in the poor receives our gifts.” As a contemporary of Luther, in his sermons he vehemently accused the clergy and the monks of moral deterioration and unfaithfulness to the gospel. He was canonized in 1658.²
Read More about Saint Thomas of Villanova
Prayer
Lord, grant me this grace:
to reverence the poor,
for they are my masters.
I shall purchase from them,
by my almsgiving,
entry into the kingdom of heaven,
which belongs to them.
If I cannot help them with money,
let me serve them with loving deeds,
by good example, by holiness of life.
Lord, fill our hearts of love
that we may be always ready
to spend ourselves on them,
since you have given yourself
so unsparingly for us.
From Day by Day with Saint Thomas of Villanova, OSA. Ed. by Fr John Rotelle, OSA published by Augustinian Press, PA, 1997.
Written by Fr Tarcisius van Bavel, OSA, from Augustine, published by Editions du Signe, Torino, Italy, 1996.
