Sayings Of The Saints
Showing posts with label Testing GOD's Patience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Testing GOD's Patience. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Perseverance Overcomes...
August 27 Saint of the Day Profile
August 27 Saint of the Day Profile Saint Augustine
The perseverance of Saint Augustine's mother Saint Monica's prayers for her son, touched God and He brought about the total conversion of Saint Augustine.
Son of a pagan father who converted on his death bed, and of Saint Monica, a devout Christian. Raised a Christian, he lost his faith in youth and led a wild life. Lived with a Carthaginian woman from the age of 15 through 30. Fathered a son whom he named Adeotadus, which means the gift of God. Taught rhetoric at Carthage and Milan, Italy. After investigating and experimenting with several philosophies, he became a Manichaean for several years; it taught of a great struggle between good and evil, and featured a lax moral code. A summation of his thinking at the time comes from his Confessions: "God, give me chastity and continence - but not just now."
Augustine finally broke with the Manichaeans and was converted by the prayers of his mother and the help of Saint Ambrose of Milan, who baptized him. On the death of his mother he returned to Africa, sold his property, gave the proceeds to the poor, and founded a monastery. Monk. Priest. Preacher. Bishop of Hippo in 396. Founded religious communities. Fought Manichaeism, Donatism, Pelagianism and other heresies. Oversaw his church and his see during the fall of the Roman Empire to the Vandals. Doctor of the Church. His later thinking can also be summed up in a line from his writings: Our hearts were made for You, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you.
Born
13 November 354 at Tagaste, Numidia, North Africa (Souk-Ahras, Algeria) as Aurelius Augustinus
Died
28 August 430 at Hippo, North Africa
Patronage
• against sore eyes• against vermin
• brewers
• printers
• theologians
• 7 dioceses
• 7 cities
Representation
• child• dove
• eagle
• pen
• shell
• flaming heart, an allusion to a passage in his Confessions
Readings:
God has no need of your money, but the poor have. You give it to the poor, and God receives it. - Saint Augustine
The honors of this world, what are they but puff, and emptiness and peril of falling? - Saint Augustine
What do you possess if you possess not God? - Saint Augustine
Unhappy is the soul enslaved by the love of anything that is mortal. - Saint Augustine
The love of worldly possessions is a sort of bird line, which entangles the soul, and prevents it flying to God. - Saint Augustine
This very moment I may, if I desire, become the friend of God. - Saint Augustine
God bestows more consideration on the purity of the intention with which our actions are performed than on the actions themselves. - Saint Augustine
I will suggest a means whereby you can praise God all day long, if you wish. Whatever you do, do it well, and you have praised God. - Saint Augustine
This is the business of our life. By labor and prayer to advance in the grace of God, till we come to that height of perfection in which, with clean hearts, we may behold God. - Saint Augustine
God in his omnipotence could not give more, in His wisdom He knew not how to give more, in His riches He had not more to give, than the Eucharist. - Saint Augustine
God does not command impossibilities, but by commanding admonishes you do what you can and to pray for what you cannot, and aids you that you may be able. - Saint Augustine
Our life and our death are with our neighbor. - Saint Augustine
Blog post courtesy:
http://catholicsaints.info/saint-augustine-of-hippo/
Monday, August 26, 2019
Testing GOD's Patience
August 26 Saint of the Day Profile
August 26 Saint of the Day Profile Saint Monica
Saint Augustine before his conversion put God's patience to the test. The ceaseless prayers of his mother Saint Monica was heard by God and Saint Augustine turned away from his wild ways.
Saint Monica
Profile
Raised in a Christian family, she was given in marriage to a
bad-tempered, adulterous pagan named Patricius. Mother of two, one of
whom is Saint Augustine of Hippo whose writings about her are the
primary source of our information about Monica. She prayed constantly
for the conversion of her husband (who converted on his death bed), and
of her son (who converted after a wild life). Spiritual student of Saint
Ambrose of Milan. Reformed alcoholic.
Born
322 at Tagaste (Souk Ahrus), Roman North Africa (modern Algeria)
Died
387 at Ostia, Italy
Patronage
• alcoholics, alcoholism• difficult marriages
• disappointing children
• homemakers, housewives
• married women, wives
• mothers
• victims of adultery or unfaithfulness
• victims of verbal abuse
• widows
• Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers
• Bevilacqua, Italy
• Mabini, Bohol, Philippines
Representation
• cincture, girdle• tears
Readings
Son, nothing in this world now affords me delight. I do not know what there is now for me to do or why I am still here, all my hopes in this world being now fulfilled. - Saint Monica, about the conversion of Augustine
The day was now approaching when my mother Monica would depart from this life; you know that day, Lord, though we did not. She and I happened to be standing by ourselves at a window that overlooked the garden in the courtyard of the house. At the time we were in Ostia on the Tiber. And so the two of us, all alone, were enjoying a very pleasant conversation, "forgetting the past and pushing on to what is ahead.." We were asking one another in the presence of the Truth - for you are the Truth - what it would be like to share the eternal life enjoyed by the saints, which "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, which has not even entered into the heart of man." We desired with all our hearts to drink from the streams of your heavenly fountain, the fountain of life. That was the substance of our talk, though not the exact words. But you know, O Lord, that in the course of our conversation that day, the world and its pleasures lost all their attraction for us. My mother said, "Son, as far as I am concerned, nothing in this life now gives me any pleasure. I do not know why I am still here, since I have no further hopes in this world. I did have one reason for wanting to live a little longer: to see you become a Catholic Christian before I died. God has lavished his gifts on me in that respect, for I know that you have even renounced earthly happiness to be his servant. So what am I doing here?" I do not really remember how I answered her. Shortly, within five days or thereabouts, she fell sick with a fever. Then one day during the course of her illness she became unconscious and for a while she was unaware of her surroundings. My brother and I rushed to her side, but she regained consciousness quickly. She looked at us as we stood there and asked in a puzzled voice: "Where was I?" We were overwhelmed with grief, but she held her gave steadily upon us, and spoke further: "Here you shall bury your mother." I remained silent as I held back my tears. However, my brother haltingly expressed his hope that she might not die in a strange country but in her own land, since her end would be happier there. When she heard this, her face was filled with anxiety, and she reproached him with a glance because he had entertained such earthly thoughts. Then she looked at me and spoke: "Look what he is saying." Thereupon she said to both of us, "Bury my body wherever you will; let not care of it cause you any concern. One thing only I ask you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be." Once our mother had expressed this desire as best she could, she fell silent as the pain of her illness increased. - from the Confessions of Saint Augustine
Blog post courtesy:
http://catholicsaints.info/saint-monica/
Monday, March 11, 2019
Testing GOD's Patience
Ecclesiastes 8:
11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
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