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Posts Tagged ‘Augustine’

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Apostolate of Faith

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/05/16 at 7:42 AM

“Our faith in the risen Christ impels us to go out to other and announce to them that Christ is alive, that we unite ourselves to Him by faith and love every day, that He guides us and gives meaning to our lives.

It is essential that our faith in Jesus Christ increases every day, that we learn to look upon happenings and persons as He looks on them, that our activity in the middle of the world be animated by Jesus’ doctrine.

St. Gregory the Great says ‘for we have not seen Him in the flesh but know Him in the mind.’  (St. Gregory, Homilies on the Gospel, 26, 7)

The Resurrection of Our Lord is a call to us to show with our lives that He lives. The deed of a Christian should be the fruit and the manifestation of his love for Christ.

St. Augustine also comments that: ‘Let the Creed be for you as a reminder of your faith and a mirror….Look at yourself, then, in it; check to see if you continue believing all the truths that you say in words that you believe, and rejoice daily in your faith.’

Show with you behavior and your words that Christ is alive.”

(Fernandez, Francis IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD, Vol.II, 54.1, 2,3.)

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Generosity

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2011/04/20 at 7:01 PM
St. Thomas Aquinas:
In order to obtain grace in giving, one must first be acceptable to God for if one is not pleasing to God, neither will one’s gifts be acceptable.
Mercy is more useful to the person who gives, for he who exercises it thereby makes a spiritual gain, whereas the recipient makes only a temporary gain.
Almsgiving is called a blessing because it is the cause of eternal blessing.  For by the action of giving, the person is blessed by God and by men.
St. John Chrysostom:
If you do not believe that poverty is enriching, picture your Lord and you will doubt me no longer.  For had he not become poor, you would not have become rich.
The holy apostle, St. Paul, gives two principles: in temporal things one should limit oneself to what is necessary; but in in spiritual things one should seek as much as possible.
St. Augustine:
If you put your hand out to give, but do not have pity in your heart, you have done nothing; whereas if you have pity in your hear, even if you have nothing to give with you hand, God accepts your alms.

Your Lord says this to you: give to me and receive.  In due course, I will give back what is due to you.  What will I give back?  You gave little to me, you will receive a great deal; you gave me earthly things, I will give back heavenly things; you gave me temporal things, you will receive eternal things; you gave me what was mine, you will receive me, myself.  See who you have lent to.  He nourishes other and yet He Himself suffers hunger for your sake; He gives and is needy.  When He gives, you wish to receive; when He is needy, you are unwilling to give.  Christ is needy when a poor man is needy.  He who is disposed to give eternal life to all His own has deigned to receive temporal thing in the person of anyone who is needy.

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Early Church History Reading

In 14 Book Corner on 2011/04/16 at 11:39 PM
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Wallace, Lew BEN HUR; A Tale of Christ (Roman Galley slave's conversion)

Sienkiewicz, Henryk QUO VADIS (St. Peter in Nero's Rome)

The Last Days of Pompeii

Bulwer-Lytton, Baron Edward LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (Eruption of Vesuvius 79 AD)

Caldwell, Taylor DEAR PHYSICIAN AND GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN (St. Luke)

CALLISTA: A Sketch of The Third Century

Newman, Cardinal John Henry CALLISTA (St.Cyprian)

Fabiola, or the Church of the Catacombs (Reprint of 1854 publication in the Popular Catholic Library series)

Weisman, Cardinal Nicolas FABIOLA

Rivers, Francine MARK OF THE LION TRILOGY: Voice in the Wind, Echo in Darkness, As Sure as Dawn (Starts with Fall of Jerusalem through to Roman Empire's expansion into barbarian lands).

CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE (autobio; last days of Roman Empire)

Augustine CITY OF GOD Fall of Rome