Tag: Augustine
God Knows Our Hearts
Mammon is the Hebrew word for “riches;’ just as in Punic the word for “profit” is mammon. What are we to do? What did the Lord command? “Make yourselves friends with the mammon of iniquity [dishonest wealth], so that they too, when you begin to fail, may receive you into eternal shelters:” It is easy,… Read More ›
You cannot be a judge and a sifter of hearts
“It is easy, of course, to understand that we must give alms and a helping hand to the needy, because Christ receives it in them…We can understand that we have to give alms and that we must not really pick and choose to whom we give them, because we are unable to sift through people’s… Read More ›
St. Monica, Mother of St. Augustine
August 27, one day before the feast of her son St. Augustine, the Catholic Church honors St. Monica, whose holy example and fervent intercession led to one of the most dramatic conversions in Church history. Monica was born into a Catholic family in 332, in the North African city of Tagaste located in present-day Algeria…. Read More ›
Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul
This day has been consecrated for us by the martyrdom of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. It is not some obscure martyrs we are talking about. “Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Psalm 19). These martyrs had seen what they proclaimed, they… Read More ›
The Eucharist unites us
… Saint Augustine helps us to understand the dynamics of Holy Communion when referring to a kind of vision he had, in which Jesus said to him: “I am the food of the mature: grow, then, and you shall eat me. You will not change me into yourself like bodily food; but you will be… Read More ›
Save me once again, Lord
Those offences which be contrary to nature are everywhere and at all times to be held in detestation and punished; such were those of the Sodomites, which should all nations commit, they should all be held guilty of the same crime by the divine law, which hath not so made men that they should in… Read More ›
There is no injustice in God
Why does God make certain men sheep and not others, since there is no partiality in him? This is the question which certain people pose with more curiosity than mental capacity, and the blessed Apostle answers, Who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Does the clay pot say to its maker: Why… Read More ›
Late have I loved you . . .
O Eternal truth, true love and beloved eternity. You are my God. To you do I sigh day and night. When I first came to know you, you drew me to yourself so that I might see that there were things for me to see, but that I myself was not yet ready to see… Read More ›
Return to your heart and hold fast to Him
If physical things please you, then praise God for them, but turn back your love to Him who created them, lest in the things that please you, you displease Him. If souls please you, love them in God; for in themselves they are changeable, but in Him they are firmly established. Without Him they pass… Read More ›
Divine humility alone can lift you up
With what words shall we bless the love of God and how can we express our thanks? He has loved us so much that for our sake He, who is eternal and older than the universe itself, has become younger than most of his servants in the world! Like an infant, he cried speechlessly, even… Read More ›