a year of prayer: 365 Rosaries

"Lord, let me know myself, let me know thee."



"Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O Lord"

Today, August 28, we celebrate the feast day of Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430), bishop, confessor, Doctor of the Church, and one of the Four Great Fathers of the Latin Church. He is at times referred to as the Doctor of Grace. One of the most influential thinkers and writers of the Church, Augustine’s legacy in written works numbers at over 100 books, and 5,000,000 words! Within those words, the philosophy and virtues of our faith are revealed, inspiring us to a closer relationship with the Lord. The conversion of Saint Augustine, following years of sinful living, reminds us that we, too, are called to daily conversion… and that it is never too late to fully turn to the Lord!

From the Confessions of Saint Augustine:

“Too late have I loved you, O Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! Too late I loved you! And behold, you were within, and I abroad, and there I searched for you; I was deformed, plunging amid those fair forms, which you had made. You were with me, but I was not with you. Things held me far from you—things which, if they were not in you, were not at all. You called, and shouted, and burst my deafness. You flashed and shone, and scattered my blindness. You breathed odors and I drew in breath—and I pant for you. I tasted, and I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for your peace”

For selected quotations of Saint Augustine of Hippo, click here.

Born Aurelius Augustinus in Tagaste, North Africa, Augustine was raised by his pious mother, Saint Monica (whose feast we celebrated yesterday) and a pagan father, Patricius, a city official. Though Augustine received thorough education in the Christian faith, and a solid Christian upbringing at the hands of his saintly mother, he led a dissolute life as a youth and young man. (His account may be found in the first nine Books of the “Confessions,” his most famous work chronicling his spiritual development and conversion.)

At age fifteen, Augustine took a mistress who bore him a son named Adoedatus (“the gift of God). At age 18, along with a friend, Augustine left the Christian faith and joined the Manichean heretical sect—a group which accepted the dual principle of good and evil. Considered a “religion of reason,” the Manichean gnosticism was popular with students of higher education, and as Augustine continued his studies in Carthage, he became increasing convinced of the truth and reason of the group’s beliefs. Manichaeism aimed to synthesize all known religions. Its basic dualistic tenet was that there are two equal and opposed Principles ("gods") in the universe: Good (Light/Spirit) and Evil (Darkness/Matter). As the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen explained, Augustine was attracted to the heresy for “practical” reasons: “The conflict between flesh and spirit in him was resolved by the heresy of Manichaeism because it enabled him to pursue a voluptuous life without ever being held accountable for it. He could say that the evil principle within him was so strong, so deep, and intense that the good principle could not operate.”

Augustine left his studies of law, and turned to literary endeavors. In the academic community, he won poetic tournaments and made a name for himself in the world of philosophy.

Augustine’s mother, Monica, was deeply bereft by his departure from the Christian faith, and prayed incessantly for his conversion and salvation. After nearly ten years as a Manichean, Augustine (now teaching in Milan) happened upon Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, and began regularly attending his homilies. Through the moving preaching of Saint Ambrose, and the continued prayers of Saint Monica, Augustine came to believe in the truth of Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation. However, he was not ready to change his life and turn from his worldly lusts, praying (as he recounts), “Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.”

Augustine felt more and more torn between his lifestyle and the realization that Christ was the answer. Yet, he was convinced that he could not lead a pure and holy life, that he was slave to his bodily desires and worldly lusts. One day, however, after speaking with Pontitianus, an acquaintance who told him of the life of Saint Antony—a hermit who lived in the desert for over 70 years. After hearing the story, Augustine said: "Manes is an impostor. The Almighty calls me. Christ is the only way and Paul is my guide.”

Feeling ashamed of his life, Augustine exclaimed to his friends, "What are we doing? Unlearned people are taking Heaven by force, while we, with all our knowledge, are so cowardly that we keep rolling around in the mud of our sins!"

Full of sorrow and regret, Augustine fled to the garden, eager to be alone, warring within himself. He cried out to God, "How long more, O Lord? Why does not this hour put an end to my sins?"

As he spoke, Augustine heard a child in a neighboring house singing, "Take up and read!" Thinking that God intended him to hear those words, he picked up the book of the Letters of Saint Paul, and read the first passage his gaze fell on: the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans (13:13):

"Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh."

In that one moment, the carnal passions, which had for sixteen years he had believed to be invincible, were annihilated. Augustine described the events in the Confessions:

“I was greatly disturbed in spirit, angry at myself with a turbulent indignation because I had not entered thy will and covenant, O my God, while all my bones cried out to me to enter, extolling it to the skies. The way therein is not by ships or chariots or feet--indeed it was not as far as I had come from the house to the place where we were seated. For to go along that road and indeed to reach the goal is nothing else but the will to go. But it must be a strong and single will, not staggering and swaying about this way and that--a changeable, twisting, fluctuating will, wrestling with itself while one part falls as another rises.


I was ... weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when suddenly I heard the voice of a boy or a girl I know not which--coming from the neighboring house, chanting over and over again, "Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it." Immediately I ceased weeping and began most earnestly to think whether it was usual for children in some kind of game to sing such a song, but I could not remember ever having heard the like. So, damming the torrent of my tears, I got to my feet, for I could not but think that this was a divine command to open the Bible and read the first passage I should light upon. ...


So I quickly returned to the bench where Alypius was sitting, for there I had put down the apostle's book [Paul's letter to the Romans] when I had left there. I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof."[Romans 13:13] I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away.”

At 33, Augustine came to Christ, after 17 years of prayer by his mother. "Too late, O Ancient Beauty, have I loved Thee,” he cried out, firm in his new convictions. Several weeks later, he resigned his professorship, and devoted himself to Christian philosophy—the only true belief system he could conceive of. He was baptized by Saint Ambrose, and following his full initiation into the Church, decided to return to North Africa with his mother. Saint Monica, as we read yesterday, died in Ostia, the port of Rome, and following her burial, Augustine returned to North Africa.

Augustine committed himself to living a life of poverty, prayer, and scriptural study. It was in Hippo that the majority of his works were written, including:

“Lord, before whose eyes the abyss of man’s conscience lies naked, what thing within me could be hidden from you, even if I would not confess it to you? I would be hiding you from myself, not myself from you. But now, since my groans bear witness that I am a thing displeasing to myself, you shine forth, and you are pleasing to me, and you are loved and longed for, so that I may feel shame for myself, and renounce myself, and choose you, and please neither you nor myself except because of you.


Therefore, before you, O Lord, am I manifest, whatever I may be. With what profit I may confess to you, I have already said. When I am evil, to confess to you is naught else but to be displeased with myself; when I am upright of life, naught else is it to confess to you but to attribute this in no wise to myself. For you bless the just man, O Lord, but first you justify him as one who has been ungodly. Hence my confession is made in silence before you, my God, and yet not in silence. As to sound, it is silent, but it cries aloud with love. Nor do I say any good thing to men except what you have first heard from me; nor do you hear any such thing from me but what you have first spoken to me.”


Despite it never being Augustine’s intention to become a priest, he was ordained by the local bishop as he was praying in church. Living in Tagaste, the city of his birth, he founded a monastery according to the Augustinian Rule, and preached against heresy with great impact. At the young age of forty-two, he was appointed bishop of Hippo, a position he served for thirty-four years.

Saint Augustine died at the age of seventy-five. His contribution to and influence on Catholic doctrine and thought-- and on Christian belief and piety-- is incalculable. Survived by his written works—among them the Confessions and City of God—Augustine continues to challenge, captivate, and inspire us nearly sixteen hundred years after his death.

"Great art thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is thy power, and infinite is thy wisdom." And man desires to praise thee, for he is a part of thy creation; he bears his mortality about with him and carries the evidence of his sin and the proof that thou dost resist the proud. Still he desires to praise thee, this man who is only a small part of thy creation. Thou hast prompted him, that he should delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us for thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee. Grant me, O Lord, to know and understand whether first to invoke thee or to praise thee; whether first to know thee or call upon thee. But who can invoke thee, knowing thee not? For he who knows thee not may invoke thee as another than thou art. It may be that we should invoke thee in order that we may come to know thee. But "how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe without a preacher?" Now, "they shall praise the Lord who seek him," for "those who seek shall find him," and, finding him, shall praise him. I will seek thee, O Lord, and call upon thee. I call upon thee, O Lord, in my faith which thou hast given me, which thou hast inspired in me through the humanity of thy Son, and through the ministry of thy preacher.

The contribution of Saint Augustine to the Catholic faith is beyond description. His writings on free will and grace have shaped the doctrine of the Church for centuries. Over the course of the next week, I will post daily writings of Saint Augustine, Great Doctor of the Church!


Lord, renew in your Church the spirit you gave Saint Augustine.
Filled with this spirit, may we thirst for you alone as the fountain of wisdom and seek you as the source of eternal love.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Writings of Saint Augustine:

Grace Comes Before Works

A Prayer for Those in Tribulation

His Death is Our Hope

Late Have I Loved You

Lord, You Know Me

One Mediator between God and Man: The Man Jesus Christ

On the Lord's Prayer

The City of the Lord is the Church

On the Blessed Virgin Mary and Evangelization




Year 2: Day 240 of 365
Prayer Intentions: True daily conversion; For those who have converted in faith, or are considering joining the Church.

Today, August 23, we celebrate the feast of the first canonized saint of the Americas, Saint Rose of Lima (1586-1617). A beautiful flower of the saints of the Church, Satin Rose is remembered for her inexhaustible love for the Lord, her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and Our Blessed Mother, and her life of harsh penances and mortifications. Once having said, “Lord, increase my sufferings, and with them increase Your love in my heart,” Saint Rose lived a life of difficulty and suffering on the earth, receiving the crown of sainthood in heaven.


Below, an excerpt from her writings, entitled, “The Beauty of Divine Grace.”


Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: “Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven”.


When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people of every age, sex and status: “Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips: We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions.


We must heap trouble upon trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the sons of God and perfect happiness of soul”.


That same force strongly urged me to proclaim the beauty of divine grace. It pressed me so that my breath came slow and forced me to sweat and pant. I felt as if my soul could no longer be kept in the prison of the body, but that it had burst its chains and was free and alone and was going very swiftly through the whole world saying:


“If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men”.

Today, March 25, we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation, the first Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary. The Annunciation, the message of the Lord delivered by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary, is the first step that Jesus takes towards earth. It is the first step in the reclaiming of sin, sin which began with Eve, the first mother of the nations. It is the miraculous precursor to the Incarnation, the life and death of Christ, and our eternal salvation.


In his General Audience, delivered September 1996, Pope John Paul II cites Our Blessed Mother as a sublime model of service, beginning with her acceptance of Archangel Gabriel’s message, and her “fiat of total obedience.”



1. Mary's words at the Annunciation "I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38), indicate an attitude characteristic of Jewish piety. At the beginning of the Old Covenant, Moses, in response to the Lord's call, proclaims himself his servant (cf. Ex 4:10; 14:31). With the coming of the New Covenant, Mary also responds to God with an act of free submission and conscious abandonment to his will, showing her complete availability to be the "handmaid of the Lord".


In the Old Testament, the qualification "servant" of God links all those who are called to exercise a mission for the sake of the Chosen People: Abraham (Gn 26:24), Isaac (Gn 24:14) Jacob (Ex 32:13; Ez 37:25), Joshua (Jos 24:29), David (2 Sam 7, 8, etc.). Prophets and priests, who have been entrusted with the task of forming the people in the faithful service of the Lord, are also servants. The Book of the Prophet Isaiah exalts, in the docility of the "suffering Servant", a model of fidelity to God in the hope of redemption for the sins of the many (cf. Is 42:53). Some women also offer examples of fidelity, such as Queen Esther who, before interceding for the salvation of the Jews, addresses a prayer to God, calling herself many times "your servant" (Est 4:17).


Mary's 'fiat' expresses total obedience


2. Mary, "full of grace", by proclaiming herself "handmaid of the Lord" intends to commit herself to fulfil personally and in a perfect manner the service God expects of all his people. The words: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord", foretel1 the One who will say of himself: "The Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45: cf. Mt 20:28). Thus the Holy Spirit brings about a harmony of intimate dispositions between the Mother and the Son which will allow Mary to assume fully her maternal role to Jesus, as she accompanies him in his mission as Servant. In Jesus' life the will to serve is constant and surprising: as Son of God, he could rightly have demanded to be served. Attributing to himself the title "Son of Man", whom, according to the Book of Daniel, "all peoples, nations, and languages should serve" (Dn 7:14), he could have claimed mastery over others. Instead, combating the mentality of the time which was expressed in the disciples' ambition for the first places (cf. Mk 9:34) and in Peter's protest during the washing of the feet (cf. Jn 13:6), Jesus does not want to be served, but desires to serve to the point of totally giving his life in the work of redemption.


3. Furthermore, Mary, although aware of the lofty dignity conferred upon her at the angel's announcement spontaneously declares herself "the handmaid of the Lord". In this commitment of service she also includes the intention to serve her neighbour, as the link between the episodes of the Annunciation and the Visitation show: informed by the angel of Elizabeth's pregnancy, Mary sets out "with haste" (Lk 1:39) for Judah, with total availability to help her relative prepare for the birth. She thus offers Christians of all times a sublime model of service.


The words: "Let it be to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38), show in her who declared herself handmaid of the Lord, a total obedience to God's will. The optative genoito, "let it be done", used by Luke, expresses not only acceptance but staunch assumption of the divine plan, making it her own with the involvement of all her personal resources.


By conforming to God's will, Mary anticipates attitude of Christ


4. By conforming to the divine will, Mary anticipates and makes her own the attitude of Christ who, according to the Letter to the Hebrews, coming into the world, says: "Sacrifice and offerings you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me ... Then I said ... 'Behold I come to do your will, O God'" (Heb 10:5-7; Ps 40 [39]: 7-9).


Mary's docility likewise announces and prefigures that expressed by Jesus in the course of his public life until Calvary. Christ would say: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work" (Jn 4:34). On these same lines, Mary makes the Father's will the inspiring principle of her whole life, seeking in it the necessary strength to fulfil the mission entrusted to her.


If at the moment of the Annunciation, Mary does not yet know of the sacrifice which will mark Christ's mission, Simeon's prophecy will enable her to glimpse her Son's tragic destiny (cf. Lk 3:34-35). The Virgin will be associated with him in intimate sharing. With her total obedience to God's will, Mary is ready to live all that divine love may plan for her life, even to the "sword" that will pierce her soul.

Today, March 25, we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation, the first Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary. The Annunciation, the message of the Lord delivered by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary, is the first step that Jesus takes towards earth. It is the first step in the reclaiming of sin, sin which began with Eve, the first mother of the nations. It is the miraculous precursor to the Incarnation, the life and death of Christ, and our eternal salvation.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux wrote of Our Blessed Mother’s consent to the Archangel Gabriel’s request, her gracious fiat: “Let it be done to me according to your word!”


You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.


The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.


Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.


Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.


Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.

Today, March 25, we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation, the first Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary. The Annunciation, the message of the Lord delivered by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary, is the first step that Jesus takes towards earth. It is the first step in the reclaiming of sin, sin which began with Eve, the first mother of the nations. It is the miraculous precursor to the Incarnation, the life and death of Christ, and our eternal salvation.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux wrote of Our Blessed Mother as the only woman who was able to serve as the vessel of the Incarnation-- as she was so filled with the grace of the Lord from before the moment of her conception.



Mary, a Virgin Full of Grace

There was only one mode of birth that was worthy of God, and that was to be born of a Virgin. Equally, who could come from a Virgin birth except God himself? The maker of mankind, if he was to be made man and destined to be born of man, would have to choose, to create a mother whom he knew to be worthy of him, who he knew would be pleasing to him.


It was his will that she should be a virgin, so that he could proceed from an unstained body, stainless, to purify mankind of its stains.


It was his will that she should be meek and humble of heart, since he was to become the outstanding example of these virtues, so necessary for the health of humanity. He granted childbirth to her, having first inspired her vow of virginity and filled her with the virtue of humility.


To put it another way, how could the Angel have addressed her as full of grace if any, even a little, of these virtues had been present in her already and not given to her by grace? It was given to her to be made holy. She, who was to conceive and give birth to the Holy of holies, was made holy in body by the gift of virginity and holy in mind by the gift of humility.


Adorned with the jewels of such virtues and radiant in both mind and body, the royal Virgin’s beauty draws the attention of the citizens of heaven itself, and its King is filled with desire for her and sends his messenger to her from on high.


The Angel was sent to the Virgin, it says. A virgin in body and a virgin in mind, a virgin by her own choice, a virgin, as the Apostle describes her, holy in mind and body. Not someone just now found by chance, but chosen from the beginning of time, foreseen and prepared by the Most High, waited upon by the angels, prefigured by the patriarchs, preached by the prophets.

Below, an excerpt written by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Doctor of the Church, regarding The Mission of the Twelve Apostles. Read on the feast of Saints Simon and Jude, we are reminded of the gift of grace and holiness bestowed not only on the apostles by the Lord—but on each of us. Regardless of what we have done, we are saved by the grace of God.



Our Lord Jesus Christ has appointed certain men to be guides and teachers of the world and stewards of his divine mysteries. Now he bids them to shine out like lamps and to cast out their light not only over the land of the Jews but over every country under the sun and over people scattered in all directions and settled in distant lands. That man has spoken truly who said: No one takes honor upon himself, except the one who is called by God, for it was our Lord Jesus Christ who called his own disciples before all others to a most glorious apostolate. These holy men became the pillar and mainstay of the truth, and Jesus said that he was sending them just as the Father had sent him.


By these words he is making clear the dignity of the apostolate and the incomparable glory of the power given to them, but he is also, it would seem, giving them a hint about the methods they are to adopt in their apostolic mission. For if Christ thought it necessary to send out his intimate disciples in this fashion, just as the Father had sent him, then surely it was necessary that they whose mission was to be patterned on that of Jesus should see exactly why the Father had sent the Son. And so Christ interpreted the character of his mission to us in a variety of ways. Once he said: I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance. And then at another time he said: I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. For God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Today, August 30, we celebrate the feast of the first canonized saint of the Americas, Saint Rose of Lima (1586-1617). A beautiful flower of the saints of the Church, Satin Rose is remembered for her inexhaustible love for the Lord, her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and Our Blessed Mother, and her life of harsh penances and mortifications. Once having said, “Lord, increase my sufferings, and with them increase Your love in my heart,” Saint Rose lived a life of difficulty and suffering on the earth, receiving the crown of sainthood in heaven.


Below, an excerpt from her writings, entitled, “The Beauty of Divine Grace.”


Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: “Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven”.


When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people of every age, sex and status: “Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips: We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions.


We must heap trouble upon trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the sons of God and perfect happiness of soul”.


That same force strongly urged me to proclaim the beauty of divine grace. It pressed me so that my breath came slow and forced me to sweat and pant. I felt as if my soul could no longer be kept in the prison of the body, but that it had burst its chains and was free and alone and was going very swiftly through the whole world saying:


“If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men”.

Today, August 28, we celebrate the feast day of Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430), bishop, confessor, Doctor of the Church, and one of the Four Great Fathers of the Latin Church. He is at times referred to as the Doctor of Grace. One of the most influential thinkers and writers of the Church, Augustine’s legacy in written works numbers at over 100 books, and 5,000,000 words! Within those words, the philosophy and virtues of our faith are revealed, inspiring us to a closer relationship with the Lord. Below, an excerpt from a homily by Saint Augustine: Grace comes Before Works



Happy are we if we do the deeds of which we have heard and sung. Our hearing of them means having them planted in us, while our doing them shows that the seed has borne fruit. By saying this, I wish to caution you, dearly beloved, not to enter the Church fruitlessly, satisfied with mere hearing of such mighty blessings and failing to do good works.


For we have been saved by his grace, says the Apostle, and not by our works, lest anyone may boast; for it is by his grace that we have been saved. It is not as if a good life of some sort came first, and that thereupon God showed his love and esteem for it from on high, saying: “Let us come to the aid of these men and assist them quickly because they are living a good life”. No, our life was displeasing to him. He will, therefore, condemn what we have done but he will save what he himself has done in us.


We were not good, but God had pity on us and sent his Son to die, not for good men but for bad ones, not for the just but for the wicked. Yes, Christ died for the ungodly. Notice what is written next: One will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. Perhaps someone can be found who will dare to die for a good man; but for the unjust man, for the wicked one, the sinner, who would be willing to die except Christ alone who is so just that he justifies even the unjust?


And so, my brothers, we had no good works, for all our works were evil. Yet although men’s actions were such, God in his mercy did not abandon men. He sent his Son to redeem us, not with gold or silver but at the price of his blood poured out for us. Christ, the spotless lamb, became the sacrificial victim, led to the slaughter for the sheep that were blemished - if indeed one can say that they were blemished and not entirely corrupt. Such is the grace we have received! Let us live so as to be worthy of that great grace, and not do injury to it. So mighty is the physician who has come to us that he has healed all our sins! If we choose to be sick once again, we will not only harm ourselves, but show ingratitude to the physician as well.


Let us then follow Christ’s paths which he has revealed to us, above all the path of humility, which he himself became for us. He showed us that path by his precepts, and he himself followed it by his suffering on our behalf. In order to die for us - because as God he could not die - the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The immortal One took on mortality that he might die for us, and by dying put to death our death. This is what the Lord did, this the gift he granted to us. The mighty one was brought low, the lowly one was slain, and after he was slain, he rose again and was exalted. For he did not intend to leave us dead in hell, but to exalt in himself at the resurrection of the dead those whom he had already exalted and made just by the faith and praise they gave him. Yes, he gave us the path of humility. If we keep to it we shall confess our belief in the Lord and have good reason to sing: We shall praise you, God, we shall praise you and call upon your name.

"Lord, let me know myself, let me know thee."



"Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O Lord"

Today, August 28, we celebrate the feast day of Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430), bishop, confessor, Doctor of the Church, and one of the Four Great Fathers of the Latin Church. He is at times referred to as the Doctor of Grace. One of the most influential thinkers and writers of the Church, Augustine’s legacy in written works numbers at over 100 books, and 5,000,000 words! Within those words, the philosophy and virtues of our faith are revealed, inspiring us to a closer relationship with the Lord. The conversion of Saint Augustine, following years of sinful living, reminds us that we, too, are called to daily conversion… and that it is never too late to fully turn to the Lord!

From the Confessions of Saint Augustine:

“Too late have I loved you, O Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! Too late I loved you! And behold, you were within, and I abroad, and there I searched for you; I was deformed, plunging amid those fair forms, which you had made. You were with me, but I was not with you. Things held me far from you—things which, if they were not in you, were not at all. You called, and shouted, and burst my deafness. You flashed and shone, and scattered my blindness. You breathed odors and I drew in breath—and I pant for you. I tasted, and I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for your peace”

Born Aurelius Augustinus in Tagaste, North Africa, Augustine was raised by his pious mother, Saint Monica (whose feast we celebrated yesterday) and a pagan father, Patricius, a city official. Though Augustine received thorough education in the Christian faith, and a solid Christian upbringing at the hands of his saintly mother, he led a dissolute life as a youth and young man. (His account may be found in the first nine Books of the “Confessions,” his most famous work chronicling his spiritual development and conversion.)

At age fifteen, Augustine took a mistress who bore him a son named Adoedatus (“the gift of God). At age 18, along with a friend, Augustine left the Christian faith and joined the Manichean heretical sect—a group which accepted the dual principle of good and evil. Considered a “religion of reason,” the Manichean gnosticism was popular with students of higher education, and as Augustine continued his studies in Carthage, he became increasing convinced of the truth and reason of the group’s beliefs. Manichaeism aimed to synthesize all known religions. Its basic dualistic tenet was that there are two equal and opposed Principles ("gods") in the universe: Good (Light/Spirit) and Evil (Darkness/Matter). As the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen explained, Augustine was attracted to the heresy for “practical” reasons: “The conflict between flesh and spirit in him was resolved by the heresy of Manichaeism because it enabled him to pursue a voluptuous life without ever being held accountable for it. He could say that the evil principle within him was so strong, so deep, and intense that the good principle could not operate.”

Augustine left his studies of law, and turned to literary endeavors. In the academic community, he won poetic tournaments and made a name for himself in the world of philosophy.

Augustine’s mother, Monica, was deeply bereft by his departure from the Christian faith, and prayed incessantly for his conversion and salvation. After nearly ten years as a Manichean, Augustine (now teaching in Milan) happened upon Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, and began regularly attending his homilies. Through the moving preaching of Saint Ambrose, and the continued prayers of Saint Monica, Augustine came to believe in the truth of Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation. However, he was not ready to change his life and turn from his worldly lusts, praying (as he recounts), “Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.”

Augustine felt more and more torn between his lifestyle and the realization that Christ was the answer. Yet, he was convinced that he could not lead a pure and holy life, that he was slave to his bodily desires and worldly lusts. One day, however, after speaking with Pontitianus, an acquaintance who told him of the life of Saint Antony—a hermit who lived in the desert for over 70 years. After hearing the story, Augustine said: "Manes is an impostor. The Almighty calls me. Christ is the only way and Paul is my guide.”

Feeling ashamed of his life, Augustine exclaimed to his friends, "What are we doing? Unlearned people are taking Heaven by force, while we, with all our knowledge, are so cowardly that we keep rolling around in the mud of our sins!"

Full of sorrow and regret, Augustine fled to the garden, eager to be alone, warring within himself. He cried out to God, "How long more, O Lord? Why does not this hour put an end to my sins?"

As he spoke, Augustine heard a child in a neighboring house singing, "Take up and read!" Thinking that God intended him to hear those words, he picked up the book of the Letters of Saint Paul, and read the first passage his gaze fell on: the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans (13:13):

"Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh."

In that one moment, the carnal passions, which had for sixteen years he had believed to be invincible, were annihilated. Augustine described the events in the Confessions:

“I was greatly disturbed in spirit, angry at myself with a turbulent indignation because I had not entered thy will and covenant, O my God, while all my bones cried out to me to enter, extolling it to the skies. The way therein is not by ships or chariots or feet--indeed it was not as far as I had come from the house to the place where we were seated. For to go along that road and indeed to reach the goal is nothing else but the will to go. But it must be a strong and single will, not staggering and swaying about this way and that--a changeable, twisting, fluctuating will, wrestling with itself while one part falls as another rises.


I was ... weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when suddenly I heard the voice of a boy or a girl I know not which--coming from the neighboring house, chanting over and over again, "Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it." Immediately I ceased weeping and began most earnestly to think whether it was usual for children in some kind of game to sing such a song, but I could not remember ever having heard the like. So, damming the torrent of my tears, I got to my feet, for I could not but think that this was a divine command to open the Bible and read the first passage I should light upon. ...


So I quickly returned to the bench where Alypius was sitting, for there I had put down the apostle's book [Paul's letter to the Romans] when I had left there. I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof."[Romans 13:13] I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away.”

At 33, Augustine came to Christ, after 17 years of prayer by his mother. "Too late, O Ancient Beauty, have I loved Thee,” he cried out, firm in his new convictions. Several weeks later, he resigned his professorship, and devoted himself to Christian philosophy—the only true belief system he could conceive of. He was baptized by Saint Ambrose, and following his full initiation into the Church, decided to return to North Africa with his mother. Saint Monica, as we read yesterday, died in Ostia, the port of Rome, and following her burial, Augustine returned to North Africa.

Augustine committed himself to living a life of poverty, prayer, and scriptural study. It was in Hippo that the majority of his works were written, including:

“Lord, before whose eyes the abyss of man’s conscience lies naked, what thing within me could be hidden from you, even if I would not confess it to you? I would be hiding you from myself, not myself from you. But now, since my groans bear witness that I am a thing displeasing to myself, you shine forth, and you are pleasing to me, and you are loved and longed for, so that I may feel shame for myself, and renounce myself, and choose you, and please neither you nor myself except because of you.


Therefore, before you, O Lord, am I manifest, whatever I may be. With what profit I may confess to you, I have already said. When I am evil, to confess to you is naught else but to be displeased with myself; when I am upright of life, naught else is it to confess to you but to attribute this in no wise to myself. For you bless the just man, O Lord, but first you justify him as one who has been ungodly. Hence my confession is made in silence before you, my God, and yet not in silence. As to sound, it is silent, but it cries aloud with love. Nor do I say any good thing to men except what you have first heard from me; nor do you hear any such thing from me but what you have first spoken to me.”


Despite it never being Augustine’s intention to become a priest, he was ordained by the local bishop as he was praying in church. Living in Tagaste, the city of his birth, he founded a monastery according to the Augustinian Rule, and preached against heresy with great impact. At the young age of forty-two, he was appointed bishop of Hippo, a position he served for thirty-four years.

Saint Augustine died at the age of seventy-five. His contribution to and influence on Catholic doctrine and thought-- and on Christian belief and piety-- is incalculable. Survived by his written works—among them the Confessions and City of God—Augustine continues to challenge, captivate, and inspire us nearly sixteen hundred years after his death.

"Great art thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is thy power, and infinite is thy wisdom." And man desires to praise thee, for he is a part of thy creation; he bears his mortality about with him and carries the evidence of his sin and the proof that thou dost resist the proud. Still he desires to praise thee, this man who is only a small part of thy creation. Thou hast prompted him, that he should delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us for thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee. Grant me, O Lord, to know and understand whether first to invoke thee or to praise thee; whether first to know thee or call upon thee. But who can invoke thee, knowing thee not? For he who knows thee not may invoke thee as another than thou art. It may be that we should invoke thee in order that we may come to know thee. But "how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe without a preacher?" Now, "they shall praise the Lord who seek him," for "those who seek shall find him," and, finding him, shall praise him. I will seek thee, O Lord, and call upon thee. I call upon thee, O Lord, in my faith which thou hast given me, which thou hast inspired in me through the humanity of thy Son, and through the ministry of thy preacher.

The contribution of Saint Augustine to the Catholic faith is beyond description. His writings on free will and grace have shaped the doctrine of the Church for centuries. Over the course of the next week, I will post daily writings of Saint Augustine, Great Doctor of the Church!


Lord, renew in your Church the spirit you gave Saint Augustine.
Filled with this spirit, may we thirst for you alone as the fountain of wisdom and seek you as the source of eternal love.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.



Inspired by the origins and spiritual history of the Holy Rosary, we continue our meditation on the psalms, one each day, in order, for 150 days.
Psalm: Psalm 125: The Lord the Protector of Israel

1 Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be shaken but endures forever.
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds his people
both now and forevermore.
3 The scepter of the wicked will not remain
over the land allotted to the righteous,
for then the righteous might use
their hands to do evil.
4 Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
to those who are upright in heart.
5 But those who turn to crooked ways
the LORD will banish with the evildoers.
Peace be upon Israel.


Day 240 of 365
Prayer Intentions: True daily conversion; For those who have converted in faith, or are considering joining the Church.
Requested Intentions: For employment and health of mother (G); Successful employment (M); Restoration of a family, End to brother's addiction, Successful marriage (R); Employment (I); Successful recovery of a mother; for all stroke victims (D); Improved relationship with daughter (P); Restoration of health and successful marriage (A); Health and employment for a friend (G); Restoration of health (M); Answers to prayers (A); Conversion of son and family (S); Successful business, home purchase, health of brother (SJ); Successful delivery of a baby girl (U); Successful return to the faith (A); Emotional, physical, and financial healing (D); Diagnosis and recovery (A); For a successful relationship (J); Those suffering from depression (J); Successful adoption (S); Healing of a father battling cancer (S).
Psalm: Psalm 125: The Lord the Protector of Israel