St. Augustine here reflects on the famous conversation in the Gospel of John between Jesus and the Samaritan woman who came to draw water from the well. He sees her as a symbol for the Gentiles who are called to conversion and faith and...
St. Augustine explains how we can rejoice and even delight in something that we can’t yet see and don’t yet possess. In so doing, he helps us understand better the power of the theological virtue of hope....
Augustine here notes that we wayfarers should sing alleluia as we make our journey through constant temptation, trial and danger toward our heavenly homeland where we our song will be sung without anxiety, temptation or toil....
St. Augustine here clearly disguishes between devotion to and veration of the martyrs and saints, and the worship (Latreia) due to God alone. This distinction was clear to the early Christians, but abuses and misunderstandings certainly existed, as noted by this bishop of the late...
[dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']Y[/dropcaps]ou have already been told about the wicked things shepherds desire. Let us now consider what they neglect. You have failed to strengthen what was weak, to heal what was sick, and to bind up what was injured (that is,...
This excerpt from the Confessions of Saint Augustine helps us understand what the author means by the title of his book: his goal is to confess his own weakness and at the same time to confess God's goodness - the mercy of one who sees...
Augustine makes clear that though grace must come before any good works that are truly pleasing to God, grace necessarily leads to good works which are really God's works in and through us as we tred the path of humility....
This brief reading from St. Augustine succinctly expresses the implications of the full divinity and the full humanity of Christ for the proper interpretation of the Scriptures, particularly the passion narratives which become the focus of the Church's meditation in the closing days of Lent....
Here Augustine explains the necessary and important role of trials in the Christian life. Without the discipline of trials and chastisements, there would be no true spiritual growth. Chastisement means that God has truly adopted us as sons....