HOPE not in thyself, but in thy God. For if thou hope in thyself, thy soul is troubled within thee, since it hath not yet found that whereby it may be confident concerning thee. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 354 - 430 )
THE virtue of Patience is so great a gift of God, that we even preach the patience of Him who bestows it upon us. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 354 - 430 )
MARY was raised to the dignity of Mother of God rather for sinners than for the just, since Jesus Christ declares that He came to call not the just, but sinners. - Saint Anselm of Canterbury - ( 1033 - 1109 )
O HOLY Mary! my Mother; into thy blessed trust and special custody, and into the bosom of thy mercy, I this day, and everyday, and in the hour of my death, commend my soul and my body. To thee I commit all my anxieties and sorrows, my life and the end of my life, that by thy most holy intercession, and by thy merits, all my actions may be directed and governed by thy will and that of thy Son. Amen. - Saint Aloysius Gonzaga - ( 1586 - 1591 )
And finally, we receive Christ Jesus, Himself from her loving hands.
God could have given us the redeemer of the human race, and the Founder of the Faiths in another way than through the Virgin, but since Divine providence has been pleased that we should have the Man - God through Mary, who conceived Him by the Holy Spirit and bore Him in her womb, it only remains for us to receive Christ Jesus from the hands of Mary. - Saint Pius X - ( 1835 - 1914 )
Down through the ages, the Saints have vied with each other in singing the praises of Mary, the Mother of God and the Mother of men. To the modern world, she is, perhaps, best represented as an intercessor between God and man. During her recent apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, we see her in the role of peacemaker and return to her Divine Son and thus spare the world from the horrors of nuclear war. "If men do what I ask, there will be peace in the world and Russia will be converted." The lines below give eloquent testimony to her maternal concern for every member of the human family.
O MARY, I wish always to be thy child. I give thee my heart; keep it shine forever. O Jesus, O Mary, be always my friends. I pray, both to let me die rather than commit a sin. Amen. - Saint Dominic Savio - ( 1842 - 1857 )
"Behold thy Mother" - John 19:26 - By these words, Mary by reason of the love she bore them, became the Mother, not only of Saint John, but of all men. - Saint Bernardine of Siena - ( 1380 - 1444 )
The Saints warn us against the dangers of presumption. If we are carried away by self-confidence at the expense of God, we are lost. Finally, we should never cease to pray for the necessary grace which will enable us to triumph over every difficulty.
LET us understand that God is a Physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 353 - 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 Seven - But we, O Lord, lo, we are your little flock. Possess us as yours. Stretch your wings over us, and let us take refuge under them. Be our glory. Let us be loved for your sake and let your Word be reverence in us. Those who desire to be praised by the men you condemn will not be defended by men when you judge, nor delivered when you pass sentence. But when - not as when the sinner is praised in the desires of his/her soul, nor when the unrighteous is blessed in his/her ungodliness - but when a man/woman is praised for some gift which you have given him/her, and he/she is more gratified by the praise for himself/herself than he/she possesses the gift for which he/she is praised, such a one also is praised while you blame. Truly, the man/woman who praised him/her is better than the one being praised. For the one took pleasure in the gift of God in man, while the other was better pleased with the gift of man than of God.
We are assaulted by these temptations daily, O lord; without ceasing we are tried. Our daily furnace is the human tongue. And in this respect, too, you command continence [self-mastery] of us. Give what you command what you will. You know the groanings of my heart on this matter, and the rivers that flood my eyes. For I cannot ascertain how far I am clean of this plague, and I stand in great fear of my secret faults which your eyes perceive but mine do not. For in other kinds of temptation I have some way of examining myself; in this, hardly any. For in keeping my mind from the pleasures of the flesh and from idle curiosity, I see how much I have been able to do without them, either voluntarily foregoing them or not having them available. Then I ask myself how much more or less troublesome it is to me not to have them. Riches may be desired that they may serve some one of these lusts, or two, or all three of them. If the soul cannot tell whether it despises riches when it has them, it may cast them aside so that it may prove itself in this way. But to be without praise and to test our abilities in that regard, must we live wickedly, or lead a life so abandoned and atrocious that no one could know us without detesting us? What greatest madness could be said or thought? But if praise is usual, and if it ought to accompany a good life and good works, we ought to forego its company as little as we would the good life itself. Yet I cannot tell whether I shall be contented or troubled by being without something unless I am deprived of it.
What, then, do I confess to you, O Lord, in this kind of temptation? What, but that I am delighted with praise, but with truth itself more than with praise? For if it were proposed to me, whether I would rather, being mad or in error on all things, be praised by all men, or being consistent and well assured in the truth, be blamed by all, I see which I would choose. Yet I would rather that the approval of another should not even increase my joy for any good in me. I admit, though, that it does increase it, and more than that, that criticism diminishes it.
When I am troubled at this misery of mine, an excuse presents itself to me - of what value it is, only you know, O God, for it leaves me uncertain. Here it is: It is not self-control [continency] alone which you have commanded of us (that is, that we should hold back our love from certain things), but also righteousness as well (that is, upon what to bestow our love), and have wished us to love not only you but also our neighbour. Often when I am gratified by intelligent praise, I appear to myself to be pleased by the competence or insight I see in my neighbour. In the same way, I seem to be sorry for the defect in him when I hear him criticize either what he does not understand or what is good. For I am sometimes grieved at the praise I get, either when those things are praised in me which I dislike in myself, or when lesser or trifling goods are more valued than they ought to be. But again, how do I know whether I am affected like this because I do not want him who praises me to differ from me about myself - not being influenced by consideration for him, but because those same good things which pleases me in myself please me more when they please someone else as well? For, in a sense, I am not praised when my judgement of myself is not praised, whenever either those things which displease me are praised, or those which please me less are praised more. It seems then that I am uncertain about myself in this matter.
Behold, O Truth, in you I see that I ought not to be moved at my own praises for my own sake, but for the good of my neighbour. And whether this is so with me, I do not know. For concerning this I know less of myself than you do. I beseech you now, O my God, reveal me to myself, too, that I may confess to my brethren who are to pray for me where I find myself weak. Once again, let me examine myself more diligently. If, in the praise I receive I am moved with consideration for the good of my neighbour, why am I less moved if someone else is unjustly criticized than if it be myself? Why am I more irritated by reproach cast upon me than at that cast upon another in my presence with the same injustice? Do I not know this also? Or is it finally that I deceive myself, and do not the truth before you in my heart and speech? Put such madness far from me, O Lord, lest my own mouth be to me the sinner's oil to anoint my head.
I am poor and needy; yet I am better when in secret groanings I am displeased with myself and seek mercy until what is lacking in my defective condition is renewed and made complete in that peace which the eye of the proud does not know.
The word which comes out of the mouth, and the actions known to men brings with them a most dangerous temptation from the love of praise, which, to establish a certain glory of our own solicits and collects men's compliments. It tempts, even when I reprove myself for it within myself, on the very ground that it is reproved. Often a man glories even more vainly in his very scorn of praise. And so he is no longer avoiding vainglory when he glories in his scorn of vainglory.
Within us, also, is another evil, arising out of the same kind of temptation, by which men become vain, pleasing themselves in themselves, though they do not please nor displease nor aim at pleasing others. But by pleasing themselves they greatly displease you. They do not merely take pleasure in things that are not good as if they were good, but take pleasure in your good things as if they were their own; or if, acknowledging the good things to be yours, they think they deserve them, or even if they regard them as from your grace, they do not use them with brotherly rejoicing, but begrudge that same grace to others. In all these and similar perils and labours, you see the trembling of my heart. It is not so much that I never inflict these wounds on myself, as that they are ever anew healed by you.
Where have you not walked with me, O Truth, teaching me what to avoid and what to desire when I submitted to you what I could see here below and asked your counsel? With my external senses I surveyed the world as I was able, and observed the life which my body derives from me and from these senses themselves. From this I advanced inwardly into the recesses of memory - those various and spacious chambers, wonderfully filled with unnumbered wealth. I considered and was afraid, and could discern none of these things without you, and found none of them to be you. It was not I, myself, who discovered these things, I, who went over them all and laboured to distinguish and evaluate everything according to its worth, taking some things from the report of my senses, asking questions about others which I felt to be mixed up with myself, numbering and distinguishing the reporters themselves. Then, in the vast storehouse of my memory I examined some things carefully, relegating others to the background, taking out others into the light. Yet it was not myself who did these things - that is, the power by which I did them was not my own. Nor was it you, for you are the unfailing light which I consulted concerning all these things, as to whether they were, what they were, and what their real value was. And I heard you teaching and commanding me. And these I often do. It delights me, as far as I can be freed from necessary duties, to have recourse to this pleasure.
But in all these which I go over in consultation with you, I can find no safe place for my soul but in you, in whom all my scattered members may be gathered, so that nothing about me may depart from you. And sometimes you introduce me to a most rare affection in my inmost soul, an inexplicable sweetness that seems to have nothing in it that would not belong to the life to come if it were perfected in me. But by these wretched weights of mine, I relapse again into these lower things, am swept back by my old customs, and am held. I weep greatly, yet I am greatly held. To such an extent does the burden of bad habits weigh us down. I can stay in this condition, but I would not; I would stay there, but I cannot; in both ways, I am miserable.
And thus I have reflected on the weariness of my sins in that threefold lust, and have called your right hand to my help. For with a wounded heart I have seen your brightness, being beaten back, I said, "Who can attain to it? I am cut off from before your eyes!" You are the Truth who presides over all things, but I, through my covetousness, would not indeed forego you, but wished to possess a lie along with you, as no one wishes to speak so falsely as to be ignorant of the truth itself. So then, I lost you, because you do not deign to be enjoyed along with a lie.
Whom could I find to reconcile me to you? Was I to solicit angels? By what prayers? By what sacraments? Many seeking to return to you, and not able of themselves, have, as I hear, tried this, have fallen into a desire for curious visions, and have been deemed worthy to be deluded. For they, being exalted, sought you by the pride of learning, thrusting themselves forward instead of beating their breasts. And so, by a correspondence of heart, they drew to themselves the princes of the air, as conspirators and allies of their pride, by whom, through the power of magic they were deceived - seeking a mediator by whom they might be cleansed and there was none. For it was the devil himself, transforming himself into an angel of light. And he allured proud flesh all the more in that he was without a fleshly body. For they were mortal and sinful; but you, Lord, to whom they proudly sought to be reconciled, are immortal and sinless. But a mediator between God and a man must have something in him like God, something in him like men, lest being only like a man, he should be far from God, and being only like God, should be too unlike man and so not a mediator. In your secret judgement, then, pride deserved to be deluded by that deceitful mediator who has one thing in common with man: that is sin. Another he would appear to have in common with God: not being clothed with the mortality of flesh, and so would boast himself to be immortal. But since the wages of sin is death, this he has in common with mankind, that with them he is condemned to death.
But the true Mediator, whom you have pointed out to the humble in your secret mercy, and sent, that by his example they too might learn that same humility - that Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, appeared between mortal sinners and the immortal just One - mortal, as men are mortal; just, as God is just; so that because the wages of righteousness is life and peace, he might cancel the death of justified sinners by a righteousness united with God. He was willing to undergo death in common with them. Hence he was shown forth to holy men of old, so that they, through faith in his Passion to come, even as we through faith in it as already past, might be saved. For as Man, he was Mediator; but as the Word. he was not in the middle between God and man, because he was not equal to God, and God with God, and together with the Holy Spirit, one God.
How you loved us, good Father, who spared not your only Son, but delivered him up for us wicked ones! How you have loved us, for whom he did not count it robbery to be equal with you, but became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross! He alone was free among the dead, having power to lay down his life and power to take it up again. For us he was both Victor and Victim, Victor because he was the Victim. He was Priest and Sacrifice for us, and Priest because he was Sacrifice, making us sons to you instead of slaves, by being born himself your Son [in his incarnation] and becoming our slave. Rightly, then, is my hope strongly fixed in him that you will heal all my infirmities by him who sits at your right hand and makes intercession for us. Otherwise I should despair. For many and great are my infirmities, many they are and great! But your medicine is greater. We might think that your Word was far from any union with mankind and despair of ourselves if he had not been made flesh and dwelt among us.
Terrified by my sins and the load of my misery, I had resolved in my heart and had purposed to flee into the wilderness. But you forbade me and strengthened me, saying, Since Christ died for all, they who live should no longer live unto themselves but unto him who died for them. See, Lord, I cast all my care upon you, that I may live and behold wondrous things out of your law. You know my unskillfulness and my infirmities: teach me and heal me. He, your only Son, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, has redeemed me with his blood. Let not the proud speak evil of me, because I consider my ransom, and eat and drink and minister it to others. And being poor, I desire to be satisfied with that Food together with those who eat and are satisfied. And they that seek him shall praise the Lord. - Page Seven -
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 -
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