St. Augustine of Hippo is, by far, Pope Benedict's favorite, well, you name it: Saint, Doctor of the Church, Theologian, Christian writer, etc. You can bet there's a party going on in the Appartamento Pontificio (for as much as a party can happen there). Want to know what B16 thinks St. Augustine has to offer us? This passage comes from talk two:
"When I read St Augustine's writings, I do not get the impression that he is a man who died more or less 1,600 years ago; I feel he is like a man of today: a friend, a contemporary who speaks to me, who speaks to us with his fresh and timely faith. In St Augustine who talks to us, talks to me in his writings, we see the everlasting timeliness of his faith; of the faith that comes from Christ, the Eternal Incarnate Word, Son of God and Son of Man. And we can see that this faith is not of the past although it was preached yesterday; it is still timely today, for Christ is truly yesterday, today and for ever. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Thus, St Augustine encourages us to entrust ourselves to this ever-living Christ and in this way find the path of life."
Amongst his Wednesday General Audience addresses, the Holy Father has dedicated no less than five of them to the topic of Sant'Agostino. If you want a concise précis of St. Augustine, click on the following for the addresses:
Talk one - January 9, 2008 (Augustine's life)
Talk two - January 16, 2008 (Augustine's later life)
Talk three - January 30, 2008 (faith & reason)
Talk four - February 20, 2008 (Augustine's writings)
Talk five - February 27, 2008 (Augustine's conversions)
I just downloaded & printed them myself, and now I'm going to cram in preparation for tonight's homily at Mass.
2 comments:
I like the fact that he is from Hippo :). St. Augustine is one of the saints who seems so human pre conversion and so awesomely saintly after that which is why I like him too.
http://dayofwrathdiesirae.blogspot.com
I love St. Augustine, and am reading him this semester for my Ave Maria class in Spiritual Theology. In college I had to read "Confessions" and just wasn't engaged. But now...wow. Incredible. What treasures! And now, as I read, I think, "Wow...he's lived my life...he would understand me..no WONDER he's interceeding for me!"
And how many of us feel the same way? No, I haven't exactly lived his life (I'm not a guy, for example...) But he speaks to us and for us, and his wisdom was quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas throughout the Summa.
This is a Saint for all of us, in every time.
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