“You, (O Lord), had pierced our heart with the

arrow of your love, and our mind was pierced

with the arrow of your words” (Confessions,
IX.2.3).
Letter 128: “Right reason demands a change in what was
right to do at some earlier time if the time or
circumstance is changed. Therefore when objectors say
it is not right to make a change, truth answers with a
shout that is not to make a change.”
Sermon 311, 8: “You say, the times are troublesome, the
times burdensome, the times are miserable. Live
rightly and you will change the times. The times have
never hurt anyone. Those who are hurt are human
beings; those whom they hurt are human beings. So,
change human beings, and the times will be changed.”
 Our Restless Heart
From experience: it is not easy to find peace and
tranquility in life. Why? The answer lies in our desire.
Desire is always stronger than satisfaction.

Augustine has a restless heart which prompted him to

search for the truth and committed himself to the love
of God.
1. The heart, for Augustine, is the metaphor for all that is
deepest, truest and personal in one’s self. The heart is
the seat of one’s decision in life. The heart is the
affective aspect of our faith in God.
2. Augustine was converted at the age of 33. Be patient
with yourself. Augustinian spirituality reflect the
actual life story of Augustine and his experience of
conversion. He pursued a long and painful search for
truth.
3. The best virtue for Augustine is humility. He found
direction through humility, as though an arrow from
God had transfixed his heart.
“You have pierced our hearts with the arrow of your love
and our minds were pierced with the arrows of your
words.” (Conf. 9, 2).
4. Community life. The great spiritual events of
Augustine’s life took place in the company of others.
Augustine greatly valued relationships with others. He
reached out to people and touched them. For
Augustine, only a shared , communal vision is worth
having/living.
5. In Augustinian spirituality, love of God is experienced
as love for one another. Where love for another person
is present, God is present too. “Honour God in each
other.” Love for a human being is much more concrete
than love for God (whom we cannot see).
6. The warmth of friendship is essential for Augustine.
Life shared with others culminates in friendship-the
gift of loving and being in loved. “Without a human
being who is our friend, nothing in the world appears
friendly to us.”
7. Augustine model for us-prayer of the heart, longing to
know and see God. In prayer we progress to God who is
human happiness itself. “You have made us and
directed us toward yourself and our heart is restless
until we rest in you.” (Conf. 1, 1).
Meaning of Spirituality
1. Spirituality-from Hebrew word ruah (spirit, breath,
wind).
-from Latin noun spiritus (as is evident, spirit)
“Spirituality is a lived experience, the effort to apply
relevant elements in the Christian faith to the
guidance of all toward their spiritual growth, the
progressive development of their persons.”
3. Augustinian spirituality-lived experienced with the
spirit of Augustine, the charism of Augustine. This
spirituality finds it center in – unitas – caritas – veritas.
-our spirituality is: individual – communal –
institutional.
2. Christian spirituality-lived encounter with Jesus in the
spirit.
Spirituality is attention combined with intention.

The cycle of spirituality: attending – inquiring –

interpreting – acting.
Get one fourth sheet of
paper for the Quiz !
“You, (O Lord), had pierced our ___1___with the
arrow of your love, and our mind was pierced
with the arrow of your___2____” (Confessions,
IX.2.3).
Letter 128: “____3____demands a change in what was
right to do at some earlier time if the time or
circumstance is changed. Therefore when
____4_____say it is not right to make a change, truth
answers with a shout that is not to make a change.”
Sermon 311, 8: “You say, the times are______5_____, the
times ,______6_________ the times are miserable. Live
rightly and you will change the times. The times have
never hurt anyone. Those who are hurt are human
beings; those whom they hurt are human beings. So,
change human beings, and the times will be changed.”
1. The ____7____, for Augustine, is the metaphor for all
that is deepest, truest and personal in one’s self. The
heart is the seat of one’s decision in life. The heart is
the affective aspect of our faith in God.
2. Augustine was converted at the age of 33.
____8____with yourself. Augustinian spirituality
reflect the actual life story of Augustine and his
experience of conversion. He pursued a long and
painful search for truth.
3. The best virtue for Augustine is _____9_____. He
found direction through humility, as though an arrow
from God had transfixed his heart.
“You have pierced our hearts with the arrow of your love
and our minds were pierced with the arrows of your
words.” (Conf. 9, 2).
4. Community life. The great spiritual events of
Augustine’s life took place in the________10_______.
Augustine greatly valued relationships with others. He
reached out to people and touched them. For
Augustine, only a shared , communal vision is worth
having/living.
Pass your paper to the front.
Models of Spirituality
1. Scriptural model of the person: the Self – in – God.
a) God initiates and person responds.
b) Grace is transformation of the total person
c) Focus is on love of God through others.
d) Emphasis is on internal attitudes (self –
motivated).
2. Western model of the person: the Self – outside –
God.
a) Person initiates and God rewards.
b) Grace is treasury of merit stored up in heaven and
earned by good deeds.
c) Focus is on reward for self now or in heaven after
death.
d) Emphasis is on sporadically performed external
deeds.
Meanings of Biblical Spirituality
1. Biblical spirituality refers to the spiritualities that
come to expression in the bible and witness to patterns
of relationship with God that instruct and encourage
our own religious experience.
2. Biblical spirituality designates a pattern of Christian
life deeply imbued with spirituality of the Bible.

3. Biblical spirituality is a transformative process of

personal and communal agreement with the biblical
text.
 Reading of Scriptures
1. Listening = through preaching of the Word.
2. Practicing biblical spirituality through the Liturgy.
3. Faith sharing
4. Actual practice of transformative action in the
world.
5. Lectio Divina
 Lectio Divina
1. Reading (lectio) and re-reading
2. Rumination or Meditation (meditatio)
3. Prayer (oratio)
4. Contemplation (contempolatio)
 The World of Augustine
1. The Place
Augustine was born in the town of Thagaste in the
Roman Province of Numidia in North Africa. The
coastal region was fertile producing crops and
vegetables. Peasant country. (Equivalent to our rural
areas today)
2. The People
The native North Africans were Berbers. The people
had a taste for wine, women and song. They were
sociable and gregarious. At the very top were the
landowners and high government officials. At the
second level were merchants, lawyers and teachers.
The third level were peasants, fishermen and day
laborers.
3. The Political Environment
Rome was the one controlling the area.
When Augustine died, the environment was different.
The barbarians were active coming from the north. In
410 they captured Rome. By 430 they were in Hippo
where Augustine lay dying.
4. The Religious Environment
The North African people were greatly attracted by
mystery. They had many rituals and practices. They
like magic and to discusses the unseen mystery.
By the time of Augustine, Christianity was the
approved religion of the Empire but in North Africa
there were two factions: the Roman Catholic and the
Donatists
 Confessiones
Confessiones –is one of Augustine’s three major works,
the other two being De Trinitate and De Civitate Dei.

Books 1-9 = deal with Augustine’s past life

Book 10 = deal with Augustine’s present life
Book 11-13 =commentary on Genesis 1
Contents:
Book 1- Infancy and Boyhood
Book 2- Adolescence
Book 3- Student years at Carthage
Book 4- Augustine the Manichee
Book 5 – Faustus at Carthage, Augustine to Rome and
Milan
Book 6- Milan 385: progress, friends, perplexeties
Book 7- Neoplatonism frees Augustine’s mind
Book 8 - Conversion
Book 9- Death and Rebirth
Book 10- Memory
Book 11- Time and Eternity
Book 12- Heaven and Earth
Book 13- The days of creation, Prophesy of the Church
 Augustine’s Spiritual Guide
Letter 266- written after 393
-addresses to Florentina, a young lady who
dedicated herself to the Lord.

There are three headings:

a. The Master as Pupil
b. A Movement towards freedom
c. The Primacy of Christ as the Interior Teacher
The Master as Pupil: “I am not offering myself as an
accomplished teacher, but one who should progress
along with those whom he is called to enlighten.”

Augustine the spiritual director and master realized

personally that he would always remain a “pupil.”
 A movement towards freedom: “Certainly, in the
very matters that I happen to have knowledge of, I
would desire to have you already acquainted with them,
rather than be in need of me. For we should not wish
others to be ignorant so that we might teach them what
we know. It is better if we are all disciples of God.”
Christ the Interior Teacher: openness and receptivity
do not consist in a “listen to me” of the director, but
rather, “Let us together listen to the Lord.” Augustine
emphasized the correct and necessary interior
dispositions within the guide.
Elements of Augustinian spirituality
a) The Search for God
b) Community
c) Service to the Church

THE SEARCH FOR GOD:

The Journey: Augustine’s Spiritual Vision
Note: It is the notion of ‘the journey’ (peregrinatio)
that one finds a key to understanding and living the
Augustinian spirituality.
For Augustine, journey means preparations: mapping,
provisioning, security, choice of companions and, most
importantly, knowledge of destination.

Much of what we understand today as ‘spirituality’ can

be summed up by the tension and energy, risk and
excitement, reluctance and expectation.
 The Christ Journey
1. Christ the Word (Christus Verbum) –taken from
Johannine prologue.
- affirmation of the full divinity and humanity of
Christ.
- striking image at the ‘Last Supper’

What is the meaning of Eucharist for Augustine?

a) Eucharist as Sacrifice (Sacrificium)
-see City of God 10
-does God need sacrifice?
 Eucharist as sacrifice is centered on Christ as
mediator of the new covenant.

Augustine speaks clearly of Christ’s death as the

one true sacrifice.

In the City of God Augustine demonstrates that

Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is the true sacrifice.
 b) Eucharist as constituting the unity of the
church.
Christ in His compassion gives the church his
body and blood.

“Anyone who receive the sacrament of unity and

do not hold the bond of peace, do not receive the
sacrament for their benefit, but as a testimony
against themselves.”
 c) The sacramental quality of the Eucharist.
Sacramentum as a species of sign: “signs are
called sacraments when they have reference to
divine things.”
Sacramental rites as signs.
2. Christ the healer (Christus medicus)
Words that touch, delight, and transfigure the human
heart suggest a powerful Christological title for
Augustine.
It is in the astonishing healing power of Christus
medicus that Augustine proposes we encounter the
divinity of Christ. He suffered from poor health
throughout his life.
The incarnation is god’s medicine for humanity- a
drastic divine intervention.
Christ’s humanity is the only saving medicine.
3. The poor Christ (Christus pauper)
- read Mt. 25: 31-46.
-Christ becoming poor and humble demanded that
Christians take seriously the broken hungry Christ in
the midst of every human community; it is the poor
Christ who is constantly knocking at our door.
- Augustinian spirituality is “solidarity with the poor.”
How come we shut the door of our hearts?
4. The whole Christ (Christus totus)
-there is no separation in loving of God and loving
one’s neighbor.
- “Love of God takes priority in the order of command,
love of neighbor in the order of execution.”
(Tractates on the Gospel of John 17, 8)