Augustine

Augustinian spirituality has always been what formed my religious understanding. A child of an Augustinian parish, a student at an Augustinian University and a parent in an Augustinian elementary school, it seemed only fitting that I understand the man a bit more. This summer, I am moving through Saint Augustine of Hippo - Selections from Confessions and other essential writings. It is excellent. The historical context courtesy of the translator, Joseph T. Kelley, PhD really helps frame the pieces. The annotations help me when something is harder to understand. However, a surprise, to me, is that its quite digestable AND relevent. The relevance between today and writing from the 300's - early 400's, tells us what we need to know. How little people actually change! Here are a few lines I highlighted: "What, at the present moment, are the evils of humanity? Error and weakness. Either you don't know what to do and you go wrong, you fall into error, or else you know what should be done, and you are overpowered by weakness. So every human evil is error and weakness." Sermon 182:6 As innotated: Ignorance (we do not know what is the right and good thing to do); and weakness (we find no joy or delight in doing what is right and good). As Augustine explains, God's grace operates in us in two ways: enlightening our minds in knowing the good, and delighting our hearts in doing it.