5. IS IT TRUE THAT POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI HAS A SPECIAL ATTACHMENT TO THE THOUGHT OF ST. AUGUSTINE?
Yes. In his autobiography, Milestones, he wrote: [Augustine] in his Confessions had struck me with the power of all his human passion and depth. By contrast, I had difficulties in penetrating the thought of Thomas Aquinas, whose crystal-clear logic seemed to me to be too closed in on itself, too impersonal and ready-made. Later, as pope, he said: As you know, I too am especially attached to certain Saints: among them (in addition to St Joseph and St Benedict, whose names I bear) is St Augustine whom I have had the great gift to know, so to speak, close at hand through study and prayer and who has become a good "travelling companion" in my life and my ministry [General Audience, Aug. 25, 2010]. 4. HOW DID HE BECOME A DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH—AND WHY? Together with Gregory the Great, Ambrose, and Jerome, Augustine was one of the original four doctors of the Church. He was proclaimed a doctor by Pope Boniface VII in 1298. He was named a doctor because of the extraordinarily high value of his writings, which include major theological, philosophical, and spiritual works. Among his most famous works are: The Confessions (his spiritual autobiography) The City of God On Christian Doctrine Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love This is just a tiny selection of what he wrote though.The guy could not stop writing. 3. HOW DID HE DEVELOP RELIGIOUSLY? Despite his Christian upbringing, Augustine left abandoned the Faith and became a Manichean, which crushed his mother. Manicheanism was a Gnostic, dualistic sect founded in the A.D. 200s by an Iranian man named Mani. 2. WHAT OTHER SINS DID HE COMMIT IN YOUTH? St. Augustine participated in what St. Paul delicately calls “youthful passions” (2 Tim. 2:22). He wrote about this in the Confessions, noting a prayer of his at the time that later became famous and reflects the experience of many people. He said: I, miserable young man, supremely miserable even in the very outset of my youth, had entreated chastity of You [O God], and said, “Grant me chastity and continence . . . but not yet.” For I was afraid lest You should hear me soon, and soon deliver me from the disease of concupiscence, which I desired to have satisfied rather than extinguished [Confessions 8:7]. When he was 19, he began a long-term affair with a woman. We do not know her name, because Augustine deliberately did not record it, perhaps out of concern for her reputation. She was not of Augustine’s social class, and he never married her, perhaps because St. Monica objected to him marrying a woman of a lower class. She did, however, give Augustine a son, who was named Adeodatus (Latin, “By God Given” or, more colloquially, “Gift of God”). This naming indicates an awareness that, no matter how a child is conceived, and even if the parents did something very wrong, every child is a gift of God. 1. HOW DID HE BECOME AWARE OF SIN? As a boy he became conscious of sin in a special way when he participated in a pointless act of theft. This made a profound impression on him and he later wrote about and regretted it. In his spiritual autobiography, the Confessions, he described the incident: In a garden nearby to our vineyard there was a pear tree, loaded with fruit that was desirable neither in appearance nor in taste. Late one night—to which hour, according to our pestilential custom, we had kept up our street games—a group of very bad youngsters set out to shake down and rob this tree. We took great loads of fruit from it, not for our own eating, but rather to throw it to the pigs; even if we did eat a little of it, we did this to do what pleased us for the reason that it was forbidden. Behold my heart, O Lord, behold my heart upon which you had mercy in the depths of the pit. Behold, now let my heart tell you what it looked for there, that I should be evil without purpose and that there should be no cause for my evil but evil itself. Foul was the evil, and I loved it [Confessions 2:4:9]. (Credits: ncregister.com) Did you like reading "The Confessions" ? Yes.Then most readers loved reading these 3 books on Amazon as well.
Gentle Note:
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5 Surprising Facts About "Plato". Click here.
3. The Prince
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