The devil is only permitted to tempt thee as much as is profitable for thy exercise and trial, and in order that thou, who didst not know thyself, mayest find out what thou art. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 354 - 430 )

THERE is no doubt that through the reading of the Sacred Scriptures the soul is set aflame in God and becomes purified from all vices. - Saint Jerome - ( 342 - 420 ) 

The greatest of all evils is not to be tempted, because there are then grounds for believing that the devil looks upon us as his property. - Saint John Vianney - ( 1786 - 1859 )

Grace prevents the wicked, that he/she may become just. It follows the just, that he/she may not become wicked. - Saint Fulgentius - ( 468 - 533 )

GRACE can do nothing without the will and the will can do nothing without grace. - Saint John Chrysostom - ( 347 - 407 )

GRACE will not act without us, in order that we may will to do right. But when we will, it works along with us. Grace prevents him/her who is not willing, that he/she may will. It accompanies him/her who wills, lest he/she will in vain. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 354 - 430 )

If we have obtained the grace of God, none shall prevail against us, but we shall be stronger than all who oppose us. - Saint John Chrysostom - ( 347- 407 )

IT is impossible for a soul to cross the dreadful ocean of sins, and to keep God's commandments and be saved, unless it is aided by the Spirit of Jesus Christ and borne along in the vessel of Divine grace. - Saint Macarius - ( 314 - 35 ) 

WHO is so strong as never to be overcome by temptation, except he/she who has the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ for his/her helper? - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 354 - 430 )

LET us ask for Divine grace. He/She who asks for anything else asks for nothing; not because all things are nothing, but because, in comparison of such a thing, all else that can be desired is nothing at all. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 354 - 430 )

-   THE  EXAMINED  LIFE   - The Confessions changes focus at this point and becomes more philosophical and theological. Here we begin to hear the self-examination of the Bishop of Hippo - Saint Augustine - and his interpretation of the nature of knowledge and of creation itself. - 

- Page Four - Somehow we have it, but how I do not know. There is indeed a way in which one has it and then is happy, and there are some who are happy in the hope of having it. These have it in a lesser way than those who have it in very fact; yet they are better off than those who are neither happy in fact nor in hope. Yet even these, if they did not have it in some way, would not so greatly desire to be happy - and that they do desire it is most certain. How they have known it then. I do not know. By what sort of knowledge that have it, I do not know, and I am perplexed whether it is in the memory - for in that case, we would have been happy once.

I do not now inquire as to whether everyone was happy separately, or happy in that man who first sinned, in whom also we all died, and from whom we are all born with misery. I only ask whether the happy life is in the memory. For we could not love it if we did know it. We hear the name, and we all confess that we desire the thing, for we are not delighted with the mere sound. When a Greek hears it in Latin, he is not delighted, not knowing what is being spoken. But we Latins are delighted, as he would be too, if he heard it in Greek; because the thing itself which Greeks and Latins and men of all other tongues long for so earnestly is neither Greek nor Latin. It is therefore known to all, for could they with one voice be asked. "Do you want to be happy?" they would answer, without doubt, "We do." And this could not be unless happiness itself, signified by the name, were retained in their memory.

But is it the same as when one has seen Carthage remembers it? No. For a happy life is not seen with the eye, because it is not a body. Is it the same as when we remember numbers? No. For the one who has these in his knowledge does not have to look further to reach them. But a happy life we have in our knowledge and therefore love it, and yet we still desire to attain it, so that we may be happy. Is it the same as when we remember eloquence, then? No. For upon hearing this name, some who are not yet eloquent and desire to be so, call it to mind. Through their bodily senses they have observed others to be eloquent, and were delighted by it and wanted to be like them, though actually they would not have been delighted without some inward knowledge of eloquence, nor want to be like them unless they were delighted by it. But in the case of the happy life, we do not experience it in others through any bodily sense.

Do we remember happiness then in the same way we remember joy? Possibly. For I remember my joy even when I am sad, as I remember a happy life even when I am unhappy. Nor did I ever see, hear, smell, taste, or touch my joy with my bodily senses, but I experienced it in my mind when I rejoiced, and the knowledge of it stuck in my memory, so that I can recall it - at times with disgust, at other times with longing, according to the nature of the things which I remember having enjoyed. For I have been immersed in a sort of joy even from foul things which I now abhor and utterly detest when I recall them. At other times I rejoiced in good and honest things which I recall with longing, although they may no longer be present. In that case I recall former joy with sorrow.

Where then, and when, did I experience my happy life that I should remember and love and long for it? Mine is not an isolated case, nor is it that of some few besides me, but all of us desire to be happy. Unless by some certain knowledge we knew what a happy life is, we could not desire it with such certainty. But how is this, that if two men are asked whether they would go to the wars, one might answer that he would and the other that he would not? But if they were asked whether they wanted to be happy, they would instantly, without any hesitation, say they would; and for no other reason would the one choose to go to the wars and the other not, but to be happy. Is it possible that as one looks for his joy in one thing, another in another, all agree in their the desire to be happy? In the same way, if they were asked, they would agree that they wished to have joy, and would they call this joy a happy life? Then, although one obtains joy by one means, another by another, both have the same goal that try to reach - joy. Since joy is a thing which all must say they have experienced, it is therefore found in the memory and recognized whenever the name of a happy life is mentioned.

Far be it, Lord, far be it from the heart of your servant who is confessing here to you, far be it from me to think that I am happy, be the joy what it may be. For there is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love you for your own sake, whose joy is you yourself. And this is the happy life: to rejoice in you, of you, for you. This is the true joy and there is no other. They who think there is another seek some other, and not the true joy. Yet their will is not turned except by some semblance of joy. 

Is it, then, not certain that all wish to be happy, inasmuch as they who do not wish to joy in you (which is the only happy life) do not truly desire the happy life? Or do all men desire this, but the flesh strives against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, so that they cannot do what they wish to do? Do they then settle on that which they can do, and are content with that, because they do not desire strongly enough what they cannot do to make them able to do it? Do they then settle on that they cannot do what they wish to do? Do they then settle on that which they can do, and are content with that, because they do not desire strongly enough what they cannot do to make them able to do it? For if I ask anyone if he would rather rejoice in truth or in falsehood, he will hesitate as little to say "In the truth" as he would to say that he desires to be happy. But a happy life is joy in the truth, for this is rejoicing in you, who are the Truth, O God, my Light, the Health of my countenance and my God. This happy life all desire; all desire this life which is the only happy life, for all desire to rejoice in the truth. I have met with many who would deceive others; none who want to be with many who would deceive others; none who want to be deceived. And when they love a happy life, which is nothing else than rejoicing in the truth, then they also love the truth - which they could love if there were not some knowledge of it in their memory. Why then, do they not rejoice in it? Why are they not happy? Because they are more strongly occupied with other things which have more power to make them miserable that which they so dimly remember has to make them happy. For there is yet a little light in men; let them walk, let them walk, lest the darkness overtake them.

But why does truth generate hatred, and why does your servant, preaching the truth, become their enemy, since a happy life is loved, which is nothing else but rejoicing in the truth? How is this so unless the truth is loved in such a way that those who love something else want what they love to be the truth? And because they do not want to be deceived, they do not want to be convinced that they are. Therefore they hate the truth, for the sake of the thing they love instead of the truth.

They love the truth when it enlightens, they hate it when it reproves. Since they would not be deceived, yet they would deceive, they love it when it reveals itself to them, but hate it when it reveals them to themselves. Thus the truth shall repay them, by exposing those who do not wish to be exposed by it, and yet not revealing itself to them. Thus, thus, yes, thus does the mind of ma - blind, sick, foul and ill-behaved - wish to be hidden, but does not want anything hidden from it. But the very opposite happens. The mind is not hidden from the truth, while the truth remains hidden from it. Happy then will it be, when without any other distraction, it shall rejoice in that sole Truth by which all things are true.

See what a space I have covered in my memory in seeking you, O Lord! And I have not found you outside it, nor have I found anything concerning you but what I retained in my memory ever since I learned of you. Since I learned of you I have not forgotten you. Where I found truth, there I found my God, the Truth itself. And since I learned this I have not forgotten it. Thus since the time I learned of you, you have resided in my memory. There I find you when I call you to remembrance, and delight in you. These are my holy delights which you have given me in your mercy, being mindful of my poverty. 

But where do you abide in my memory, O Lord? Where do you abide there? What kind of dwelling place have you made for yourself there? What kind of sanctuary have you built there for yourself? You have given this honour to my memory, to abide in it; but in what part of it you dwell - that I am pondering. For in thinking about you, I passed beyond such parts of it as the animals have, for I did not find there among corporeal things. And I came to those areas in which I stored the affections of my mind, and did not find you there. Then I entered into the inner-most seat of my mind - which the mind has in my memory, since the mind remembers itself - but you were not there. For as you are not a corporeal image, nor the affection of a living being (as when we rejoice, sympathize with, desire, fear, remember, forget, or the like) so neither are you the mind itself. Because you are the Lord God of the mind, and all these things change, but you remain unchangeable over them all - and yet you have vouchsafed to dwell in my memory ever since I learned of you. So why do I now seek to know the part of my memory in which you dwell, as if there were places in the mind? Assuredly, you dwell in it since I have remembered you ever since I learned of you, and since I find you there when I call you to remembrance.

Where then did I find you that I might learn of you? You were not in my memory before I learned of you, Where did I find you, that I might learn of you, but in yourself, above myself. Place there is none; we go backward and forward, and there is no 'place' [location]. Everywhere, O Truth, you hear those who ask counsel of you, and answer all of them at once, though they ask your counsel on many different things. You answer them clearly, though they do not all hear clearly. All consult you on whatever they wish, though they do not always hear back what they wish. He is your best servant who looks not so much to hear what he desires from you, as to desire that which he hears from you. 

Too late have I loved you, O Beauty, ancient yet ever new. Too late have I loved you! And behold, you were within, but I was outside, searching for you there - plunging, deformed amid those fair forms which you had made. You were with me, but I was not with you. Things held me far from you, which, unless they were in you did not exist at all. You called and shouted, and burst my deafness. You gleamed and shone upon me, and chased away my blindness. You breathed fragrant odours on me, and I held back my breath, but now I pant for you. I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and now I yearn for your peace.

When I come to be united with you with my whole self, I shall have no more sorrow or labour, and my life shall be wholly alive, being wholly full of you! You lift up the one you fill, but I am still a burden to myself, because I am not full of you. Lamentable joys strive with joyous sorrows: and on which side the victory will be I do not know. Woe is me! Lord, have mercy on me. My evil sorrows strive with my good joys; and I do not know on which side the victory may be. Woe is me! Lord, have mercy on me! .............. - Page Four -             

-     WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY     - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -