Today the Church remembers St. Augustine Of Hippo, who has had and continues to have a profound influence in the Church through his corpus of work.
Whist preparing for today I went down the rabbit warren of St. Augustine quotes on the internet. I did discover on the way that people do not always cite their sources and just boldly assert that a quote is from St. Augustine, much to my annoyance. However there is a rich trove of St. Augustine’s material available and I discovered some of his sermons for the first time and “re-read” some of his books that I have on my shelves.
When I read his ninth homily on the 1st Epistle of St. John I came across this quote:
"Beauty grows in you to the extent that love grows, because charity itself is the soul's beauty.” (Paragraph 9 as translated by Boniface Ramsey (2008) Augustinian Heritage Institute)
St. Augustine deepens our sense of beauty in his reflection on this passage. Beauty is revealed when true Love is shown to others and to us.
What beauty have you encountered because of an act of Love you have witnessed?
I witnessed beauty this week when I saw some members of the Church providing 200+ packs of personal hygiene products to a public school in North St. Louis.
Thank you for all that you are doing to share beauty in the world as we seek new ways to show the Love of Christ in this community.
God bless-
Tom+
