This is a brief reflection on the Feast of Saint Augustine of Hippo, to which Father Francis X. Weninger's reflection about the great convert to the Holy Faith has been appended.
For the moment, though, I want to include the sixth of Father Wenginger's practical considerations on the life of Saint Augustine of Hippo:
VI. From a hardened heretic, St. Augustine became not only a fervent Catholic, but also a teacher and protector of the true faith. The gift of the Catholic faith he prized above everything, and offered frequently to God most humble thanks for it. "There is no greater treasure," he writes, "no greater honor, no greater good, in this world, than the Catholic faith." From the period of his conversion, he was eager in his endeavors to convert the heretics from their errors, and bring them back into the pale of the true Church, both, by word of mouth, and also by his pen. His most fervent wish was, that all might be Catholics. May you esteem the gift of the Catholic faith more than you have heretofore done. Give thanks to God that He has bestowed this gift upon you. Seek, by words as well as by a truly Christian life, to convert others to the true faith. And, finally, learn from St. Augustine, how you should pass the time which God gives you, when he sends you sickness before your end. Guard yourself against frivolous and idle conversations, do not permit them at your sick bed. Use the time to repent of your iniquities. Let others read to you from a devout book, that you may constantly be occupied with good thoughts. The last days of your life are precious; use them rightly; they never return. Cease not to repent of your sins and to pray God to forgive you, until your last breath; for, the words of St. Augustine are and ever will remain true: " No Christian, however piously he may have lived, should die without repentance." (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., On the Feast of Saint Augustin of Hippo, August 28.)
We must always treasure our Catholic Faith and never lose our zeal for helping to bring non-Catholics to the bosom of Holy Mother Church, to correct error in a spirit of a true love of God and for the eternal and temporal good of others, and to never give into any kind of naturalistic view about our own lives or the events of society. We are to view everything through the eyes of the true Faith at all times without any exception whatsoever. Keep it Catholic. Keep it Catholic all the time.
A commentary about yesterday's tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was posted early last evening and underwent a few revisions thereafter: In the Direct Grip of the Adversary.
Work on another original article has begun and should be completed by late this afternoon.
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.
Saint Augustine of Hippo, pray for us.
Saint Hermes, pray for us.