Saint Augustine :
a life in search of truth
Keep walking on the way !
With his fervent desire to know himself and understand the purpose of his life, Augustine is very much like other human beings, of the 21st century or any century, asking questions about happiness, evil, good, love …
His life was a quest for Truth together with his close friends and in his study of the philosophers. Some of these put him on the path of Wisdom, but still he was dissatisfied. A natural orator, he also pursued “the phantasm of glory”. He experienced the many diversions of false pleasures, metaphysical, intellectual and carnal, and unsatisfactory encounters with the Bible, astrology, sects …
On several occasions he was “touched” by God. But he was still torn. And then one day, there was the blinding flash of light, when he understood that the two processes of “knowing the self” and “knowing others” define each other in a Love freely given, making of Augustine a “participant” in God.
He became the greatest champion of the God of Love, Creator and Saviour, of the “Inner Master” who taught him humility and mercy, of the person as the “image of God”. A pastor with a “heart of fire”, he drew all his people to join him in tasting the Word of God, the Spirit of God, the Church as communion.
“To be free”, he said, “is to love”, bringing together God and neighbour in one love. This is at the heart of the Rule which he wrote, modelled on the lives of the Apostles with Jesus and on their participation in his mission. It is this Rule which inspires our Congregation: “Live together in unity, with one mind and one heart turned to God …”. “To each according to his needs” and “The common good before personal interests”: these typically Augustinian priorities are an inspiration to our world of today.
Love and you will run
Let us love each other, be parched with the same thirst, and together we will run to the source