Keeping Us Connected Newsletter

August 29, 2025

“You have made us for yourself,

and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

- St. Augustine

Dear Saint Mary Friends,

(This Newsletter went to press just as we learned of the Catholic school shooting in Minneapolis. The grief and suffering of those families and community are hard to imagine. Unlike the remarks of some too glib politicians, we do offer prayers for all concerned – all concerned. Related to this, parishioners should know that last year we enhanced security at St. Mary School – Msgr. Royal)

Pope Leo XIV is a priest of the Ordo Fratrum Sancti Augustini, the Order of Saint Augustine. Yesterday was Augustine’s feast. He is one of the great Fathers and Doctors of the Church and Patron of our Diocese.

Born in what is now Algeria, then a vibrantly Christian center, he lived at a time not too dissimilar from our own: the seeming collapse of the centuries long civil and social order, the destructive surge of the barbarians, and the confusion of varied, contradictory and competing philosophies.

Augustine’s life (354-430) intersects with saints, pagan intellectuals, and above all, the battle between sin and grace. For this he was given the title doctor gratiae (doctor of grace).

Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne, 1645

He is best known for his Confessions – often called the first modern autobiography – a must read. One of the very first sentences contain the oft quoted : “[Y]ou have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” (I, 1)

And then there’s this:

Late have I loved Thee, Beauty ever ancient ever new; late have I loved Thee! For behold Thou were within me, and I outside; and I sought Thee outside and in my unloveliness fell upon those lovely things Thou hast made. Thou were with me and I was not with Thee. I was kept from Thee by those things, yet had they not been in Thee, they would not have been at all. Thou didst call and cry to me and break open my deafness: and Thou didst send forth Thy beams and shine upon me and chase away my blindness: Thou didst breathe fragrance upon me, and I drew in my breath and do now pant for Thee: I tasted Thee, and now hunger and thirst for Thee: Thou didst touch me, and I have burned for Thy peace. (X,27)

His relationship with his mother, St. Monica, is well known. She prayed tearfully for years that her son would know Christ and his Church. St. Ambrose first told her, ““Speak less to Augustine about God and more to God about Augustine.” He then assured her: "It is impossible that the son of so many tears should perish!" (III,12)

St. Augustine and St. Monica by Ary Scheffer, 1855

Augustine recounts her last words before going to the Lord:

“There was indeed one thing for which I wished to tarry a little in this life, and that was that I might see thee a Catholic Christian before I died. My God has exceeded this abundantly….“Lay this body anywhere, let not the care for it trouble you at all. This only I ask, that you will remember me at the Lord’s altar, wherever you be.” (IX,10-11)

Augustine not only had self-knowledge, but also keen insight into human behavior. Take for example: “[M]en are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticize, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.” (Sermon 19)

He knew the Gospels and the Church were intimately connected and together reveal the truth of Christ and ourselves. Thus, he fights against self-deception: “If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Church already moved me.” (Against the Letter of Mani)

If you know Augustine already, I hope this sends you back to him; if you have never read him, give him a try. Untold numbers of men and women have done so through the centuries and been amply rewarded.

Blessings,