Catholic Thought discussion

And now we are coming to the end of our seven week journey with St. Augustine, The Days of Creation, and Prophecy of the Church.

Augustine gives us his own synopsis of this chapter in paragraph 49:

”And in your Word, your only Son, we saw them severally as good and collectively as exceedingly good; for what we saw was heaven and earth, the Head and the body of the Church which you predestined before time began, when there was neither morning nor evening.
But when you began to give effect in time to your predetermined plan, when you purposed to bring you hidden decrees to light and give form to our unformed state (formless it was because with our sins weighing us down we had been dragged away from you into the darkness of the deep, but your good Spirit was hovering overhead to help us in our time of need), then you justified the godless, marked them out from the wicked, and established the vault of your authoritative scripture between the upper creatures who were docile to you, and the lower who were subject to them.
Then you gathered the great horde of unbelievers into a cohesive mass, which would throw into relief the zealous efforts of the faithful who were to bear fruit for you in works of mercy, even to the point of distributing their worldly goods to the por and so winning wealth in heaven.
After this you kindled special lamps in the vault; these are your saints, entrusted with the word of life, whose sublime authority was attested by their spiritual gifts. Through them you drew forth sacraments from corporeal matter, palpable miracles and doctrine in harmony with your overarching scripture, all designed to instill faith into unbelieving Gentiles, though apt to shed their benediction upon the faithful as well.
Then you gave form to the believing soul, the soul truly alive because by robust self-control it had reduced its impulses to good order. Its mind was now subject to you alone, and needed no human norm to imitate, for you made it new after your own image and in your likeness, and subordinated its rational activity to the sovereignty of intellect, as woman to man.
Finally you willed that all your ministers, whose work is necessary in this present life to bring your faithful to maturity, should be provided for in the temporal sphere by these same faithful, whose services will bear fruit for the life to come.
All these things we see to be exceedingly good, because you see them in us, you who have given us the Spirit to enable us to see them, and in them to love you.”

In the beginning paragraph of The Confessions Augustine wrote, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you”, he ends the book with “But you, the supreme Good, need no other good and are eternally at rest, because you yourself are your rest.”

And finally, what did you think of the book overall?
What surprised you?
What touched you?
What made you laugh?
What inspired you?

I think the book is one of the great works of Western civilization, like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Leonardo's The Last Supper. This is a quotation from one of Augustine's sermons. The beautiful language and spiritual longing echo The Confessions:

"Give me a man in love; he knows what I mean.
Give me one who yearns; give me one who is hungry;
Give me one far away in this desert, who is thirsty
and sighs for the spring of the Eternal Country.
Give me that sort of man; he knows what I mean."

OK, I'm going to admit that I’ve ended my reading having read only through Book X. As Irene says, the last four Books are a slog. They are just too philosophical for me. It took me almost three weeks to get Book X—and I’m not even sure I got it—so three more of the same would just wipe me out. But in my defense, I have read the whole thing before. I probably didn’t get the philosophy back then either, and if I persevered I still wouldn’t get the philosophy this time around either. If I were in school and being tested on it, I would have buckled down. One of the graces of not being in school is I can slack off when I have been overwhelmed.

The first nine Books are brilliant, revolutionary, both as a confession and as theology. I wish Augustine had ended it there, and I wish someone could explain why he doesn’t end it there. But given I’m a slacker, I guess I don’t deserve an explanation. I’m sure it’s what I said before: “It probably all relates to the nature of humanity, the nature of God, the nature of His creation, and the nature of sin, all in the context of Augustine's early life and conversion. I just don't understand it...lol.”

I do like Kerstin’s final questions. Let me take a crack at them.

What did you think of the book overall?

Brilliant, difficult, insightful, revolutionary, honest, unlike anything in its day. Finally I think holy. His voice of continuous prayer just exudes holiness.

What surprised you?

How the entire book was one long, continuous prayer to God. An actual confession.

What touched you?

His relationship with his mother. We all know how much she loved him through her constant prayer for his conversion, but he apparently had the same love for her, and in his times I’m not sure how common that was. That moment after his conversion and just before she dies where they sit in the garden and contemplate heaven is very striking. And of course his prayer for her soul at the end of chapter nine was most touching.

What made you laugh?

I don’t know if this is funny (probably not) but a heck of a lot of his friends kept dying from fever. If I ever read Confessions again I’m going to have to count how many.

What inspired you?

The continuous prayer. His prayerful voice just entered my ear and has stayed there. It’s a wonderful way to speak to God, an almost constant confession, with praise and blessings thrown in.

The first chapter of Book XIII is as fine a prayer of gratitude and praise to God as I ever will find. In this same prayerful frame of mind St. Augustine turns again to the mystery of God’s creation. He sees the Trinity in Genesis and contemplates on God as spirit moving over the waters of His creation.

I read Confessions seven years ago and my overall thoughts have not changed after reading it again now:

This is a classic because it’s an intimate revealing autobiography that shows us the mentality of ancient times, a better view than most of what we have from that long ago. We get to see the effects of paganism, Christianity, Platonism, Manichaeism on basically a young man and how he comes to espouse fervent Christianity. St. Augustine deals with evil, sin, body, and soul. I wish we heard something about St. Augustine’s concubine with whom he had a child. The confession is both a confession of sin, and a praise and acknowledgement of God.

Warren Carroll, citing two sources, wrote in Vol. 2 of “The Building of Christendom” that St. Augustine died in a besieged Hippo by the Vandals who had crossed the strait of Gibraltar from Spain in May 429 and overran all of North Africa to this point. St. Augustine died on August 28, 430. As a bishop he remained at his post as he had earlier advised other African bishops to do when Vandals occupied their country. (p. 102)

I have not done well with keeping up with the reading schedule and I think these are my first comments on this book since we stated it. I have enjoyed reading this beloved classic. However, I have only been able to read a little bit at a time. I find that for me to truly appreciate it, I must spend time absorbing it and using it as a challenge to think about what my own confession would look like. I also have had to take breaks to read lighter books at the same time. The holidays have been very hard for me this year.

Lisa wrote: "I have not done well with keeping up with the reading schedule and I think these are my first comments on this book since we stated it. I have enjoyed reading this beloved classic. However, I have ..."

Thank you for commenting Lisa. It also need slow reading and reflection to absorb writing of this sort. I read “Confessions” last only a few years ago but a second unhurried reading was quite welcome. I agree with comments above and I would skip the last three chapters if I read it again. I wish you a peaceful and blessed Christmas.