Christ is Risen! A brief commentary on St. Augustine's Sermon 228b

Jan Van Eyck's The Adoration of the Lamb of God

Today I would like to offer a commentary on one of St. Augustine’s sermons purported to have been given during the Resurrection of the Lord perhaps prior to 411 AD. This would have placed the sermon between the first 16 years of his episcopate, and we place this cutoff point because it was at the Council of Carthage in 411 AD that St. Marcellinus (a Roman official) and the Catholic bishops exiled the Donatists from northern Africa and seized their properties, which eliminated much of St. Augustine’s need to address questions of the unity of the Church and Donatism. It is disputed by some scholars that this sermon is a true sermon of St. Augustine, but some (like Edmund Hill OP, whose work I’ve used before) believe it to be a true sermon and so I will proceed anyway in presenting it.

The Self-Effacement of Love, the Impotency of Despair, and Man's Destiny in Eternity

Rose-window of Notre Dame in Paris

This is an ambitious post in that I want to lay the groundwork for some very theoretical and abstract ideas of mine on the meaning of love, the role of despair, and how this reflects the mystery of God. I aim to investigate the image of God from how I have come to understand human love, and hopefully reach upwards to reflect on God’s love for mankind. You must forgive me first for the shallowness of my own soul and the inability with which I am able to comprehend these topics. This post is not so much a form of philosophical proof as an exposition and exploration of opinion, and perhaps in a certain sense persuasion.

God grant me faith. God grant me grace. God grant me hope. God, lay the foundation of my heart in love.

Judgment, Fraternal Correction, and Modern Lexicon

Icon of St. Paul preaching to the philosophers of Athens

I am coming back to write here at Cor-Inquietum (I know, the misspelling on the URL, it hurts, I know, I know - ) as part of a Lenten resolve to reflect more deeply on the Catholic faith, and life in the light of the Lord, or rather the light of the Lord on life. In this post I would like to briefly consider the modern lexical shift in the philosophy of judgment, from one human being on to another, and then from God’s relationship as Judge to the human soul. I will try and construct my brief meditations from the readings of the Mass for Sunday March 2^nd. These were Isaiah 49:14-15; Psalm 62: 2-3, 6-7, 8-9; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6: 24-34. It is with humility that we must approach the throne of the Lord, though we do so with the renewed confidence that we can boldly approach the Throne of Grace through the mediation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of all Creation. Humility because we cannot be presumptuous of God’s mercy as if it were all from our merit, and confidence because it is on account of Christ’s merit and God’s condescending love that we know we are loved unconditionally.

Holy Days of Obligation and Liturgical Realism

O Lord grant me wisdom and Your holy guidance in the path I walk. Grant that I, Your unworthy servant, might speak well on Your behalf. In my speculation and contemplation grant that I might stand by Your side and not be confounded with error.

In this article I would like to speak on the topic of Holy Days of Obligation within the Catholic Church and in separate dioceses of the Catholic Church. What is the rationale behind Holy Days of Obligation besides those which reside on the Lord’s day? How do we move forward in our own lives as we strive to make our entire life a liturgy of praise and worship to God?

What ought we expect of men considering the priesthood?

La Santa Cena by Juan de Juanes

A friend recently asked me what sorts of qualities I would consider to be valuable in a priest, or what sort of things would lend a man towards becoming a priest, so I thought I might right a post on this topic. Lord, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedech, grant us wisdom and an increase in vocations to the priesthood. At the outset I said to my friend he ought to be a man, a father, and a follower of Christ. I am inclined to add to my brief comments and of course state that he must be a pastor to the many sheep of the Church, acknowledging that he is also a sheep before God. There is much more to be said of the Catholic priesthood and I only have lightly tread into the deep theology of the Church’s wisdom on the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

It is a fearsome thing to become a priest or feel the desire to become a priest, but for all those who feel God’s call forward to serve them let them not say, “I do not know how to speak. I am too young!” (Jeremiah 1:6), but rather understand with the entire heart to Jesus’ words, “take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Thoughts on the maxim: Know Thyself

Christ the Light of the World
by William Holman Hunt

I've been on hiatus for quite some time and so I apologize for my long withdrawal from blogging. However, I've come up with a few categories that I’d like to talk about; namely, I have been struggling with a post that hopes to address something I call the poverty of love and more fully the Divine Poverty of Christ (or the Trinity, which is a far higher ideal). This sort of grandiose essay has escaped me for far too long and my love falls far too short to make any honest progress other than what amounts to straw and hot air. In this topic I’d like to just ease back into blogging with the question of whether a man (or woman) ought to strive to know himself very thoroughly or whether it is better to profess a certain form of ignorance surrounding one’s self. Or is there perhaps a dualism by which we ought to know ourselves well in one way but not in another.

"Catch hold of God’s Lowliness", excerpt of St. Augustine's Sermon 117

This excerpt comes from St. Augustine’s Sermon 117, which is an anti-Arian sermon thought to have been written somewhere between 418 and 420 AD. The sermon in its entirety is an attempt to give a sermon on the relation between the Father and the Son so as to show that the Son is both divine and human. St. Augustine strives in the sermon to explain and come to a deeper understanding of what it means for Christ to be human and divine, and what sort of distinctions will be helpful to make in order to further penetrate into this divine mystery. Near the end of the sermon, St. Augustine strives to make clear that humility is the key to entering into God’s mystery, and humility as an entrance into love, which as always is humility to enter into Love Himself.

Lord and Savior of all mankind, come grant us Your Holy Spirit to guide us in the perfection of holy charity.