{"id":42,"date":"2014-08-28T10:59:10","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T14:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/?p=42"},"modified":"2015-08-19T11:58:29","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T15:58:29","slug":"sero-te-amavi-the-endurance-of-saint-augustine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/?p=42","title":{"rendered":"Sero te amavi…The endurance of Saint Augustine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"saint<\/a>Sero te amavi<\/em>… \u201cLate have I loved Thee, O beauty ever ancient and ever new…\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So wrote Saint Augustine in the opening pages of his Confessions<\/em>, in Latin prose that has scarcely ever been matched, before or since.\u00a0 His classic work is seen as the first real autobiography, offering a sometimes brutally honest glimpse inside the intellectual and spiritual struggles of this great soul.\u00a0 That is what makes Augustine\u2019s works eternally enduring, for they speak through the ages to each of our own individual souls.\u00a0 His thoughts are in many ways our thoughts, his temptations, his doubts and fears, and, hopefully, many of his conclusions, are also ours.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Augustine is a \u2018modern\u2019 man in that many of the questions pondered in articles, essays, books and university courses have already been discussed, and to some extent resolved, by him:\u00a0 Atheism, agnosticism, the nature of God, the question of evil, the scope of eternity and time, the human soul, educational policies, astrology, the role of fate, the relationship between \u2018grace\u2019 (the work of God) and \u2018free will\u2019 (which Augustine termed liberum arbitrium<\/em>, or free choice on the part of man), the proper interpretation of Scripture, the alliance of faith and reason.\u00a0 Almost all of the subsequent writers and thinkers in the Church, not least Saint Thomas Aquinas, owe an near-infinite debt to Augustine, a giant on whose shoulders we all stand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Augustine, whose life spans the final days of the Roman Empire (he died in 430 as the Vandals were pillaging the Roman territories of North Africa, where Augustine was bishop), is seen as a bridge between the classical and the mediaeval world.\u00a0 As perhaps the greatest \u2018Father of the Church\u2019, he provided the spiritual and intellectual foundational for that era that has, for better or worse, been termed the \u2018middle\u2019, between Greco-Roman and the modern. \u00a0He wrote voluminously, with an almost-miraculous output over his 40 or so active years as a Catholic priest and bishop (he converted at the age of 31, and died at the age of 75), Augustine\u2019s works give us an invaluable insight into the mind of the early Church, but these thoughts apply also to the Church in the modern age; \u00a0for Augustine\u2019s description of God as \u2018ever ancient and ever new\u2019 also applies to His Church, which is eternally youthful, always providing fresh spiritual and intellectual energy for every age in which she finds herself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yet the Church is not an abstract invisible entity, but one with living people, traditions and teachings that flow from persons chosen by God to instantiate her traditions.\u00a0 That is why it is incumbent upon us to read and delve into these teachings, insofar as we are able.\u00a0 The Fathers, Popes, saints, scholars are there for our continued benefit.\u00a0 Saint Augustine stands out amongst them.\u00a0 Read a small sample of his work; perhaps begin with today\u2019s Office of Readings, itself a brief excerpt from his Confessions<\/em>.\u00a0 Then, if intrigued, begin reading the book itself.\u00a0 Your life may be changed, and all for the better.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

August 28, 2014<\/p>\n

Saint Augustine of Hippo<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sero te amavi… \u201cLate have I loved Thee, O beauty ever ancient and ever new…\u201d   So wrote Saint Augustine in the opening pages of his Confessions, in Latin prose that has scarcely ever been matched, before or since.\u00a0 His classic work is seen as the first real autobiography, offering a sometimes brutally honest glimpse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":852,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}