End of Summer Holidays


Summer holidays are nearly over and many return to work this week or next. 
 
It has been better weather here in the UK than for several years and I am glad and grateful that I am retired and able to continue enjoying the welcome late summer sunshine. 
 

I pray that those who are returning to work will find renewed energy, happiness  and vitality in what they do. 
 

Living The Liturgy :The Benedictine Monks of Clear Creek, Oklahoma

Eternal Word Television Network
The following video, "Living the Liturgy: Clear Creek Monastery", in Oklahoma  is so beautifully done. 

It  has  been made available through EWTN.
We are led through the hours of counter-cultural monastic life and their days of prayer  are seen through the lens of sacred liturgy which is interspersed with the interviews.


While the video is below is a full 52 minutes in length, I hope you can make the time to watch it at some point. 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Celibacy Debate on BBC Radio 4 is 2 days before Pope's UK Visit

Comedian Frank Skinner is to defend priestly celibacy alongside a Catholic bishop in a debate two days before the Pope’s visit. 

Mr Skinner, a practising Catholic, will argue that celibacy should continue to be a requirement for Catholic priests.

He will be joined by Jack Valero, a spokesman for Opus Dei and for the Cause of Cardinal Newman, Fr Stephen Wang, dean of studies at Allen Hall seminary, and Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham.

They will be debating against theologian Tina Beattie, 
human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy and Carmelite Fr John McGowan. 

The event takes place at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square and will follow a screening of Conspiracy of Silence, a controversial film about a priest who wishes to marry.  

The debate will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

This looks interesting and further  information and comment can be obtained  from  here 
and  also here

The list of speakers engaged in it  promise to be high quality.



Enhanced by Zemanta

Music for The Weekend

It is the August Bank holiday this weekend in the UK, and for many the last holiday for some time as many are returning to work ...

I have three soulful songs from the Staple Singers for all my fellow bloggers and visitors and the last one is a party one especially  for my sister whose birthday it is today. 

I hope you enjoy them and and remember to dance (like no-one is watching) even if you are not from the UK !!
 









Thursday 21st Week in Ordinary Time Gospel Reflection

All the Mass Readings for today can be found here
Reflections are on the Gospel. Mt 24 :42-51. 


Jesus said to his disciples:
“Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

Be sure of this:
if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.

So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,
whom the master has put in charge of his household
to distribute to them their food at the proper time?

 






Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.

But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”


My Reflection


When I was a child I remember that the last sentence of this Gospel passage really frightened the hell out of me and even now I find  the image scary in the stark image it conveys.
There are not many people I  know who can live their lives as if the kingdom of heaven was likely to be nigh at every waking moment. Maybe it is only in a truly contemplative and monastic life that the literal sense of the message of constant awareness and celebration of God can be  fulfilled. 

Annie Dillard wrote, "How we spend our days, is of course how we spend our lives." 

But there are many who are subtly aware at a subliminal level that the life we lead is far from the sort of life we should be living. We often crave for the change that will allow us to live the authentic life in the light and grace of the love of God we were surely meant to live. 

Earning a living, working for social justice, caring for the environment, having time for a personal life ...... so little time, so much to do and so on it goes.......like whirling dervishes we spin constantly through the hours and the days and the years,, twisting and turning the word of God to suit our motives, to rationalise our efforts or idling the time and lay waste to the gifts we have been given.
But unlike the Sufi dancers our dance is often not one of faith and so our lives boil down to a choice :  to work-  or to dance. On the best days if we are lucky , they become one and the same...............
but as Henry David Thoreau noted 
"Most "men " lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."

What about the "good ones" who go through their lives wanting more to centre it in God  but accepting less and in doing so gradually accept a life that is lacking passion and their ideals wither on the vine ?


There are those wanting to do more but  are torn inside, resigning themselves to accepting the status quo and not taking any action to make  life and the lives of those around them full of the peace and grace that only God can give.

Sometimes we think we have the ability and the grace to make the changes we want, but despite our hopes and desires we are simply too tired, drained, burnt out and discouraged to do so and so we do not stay awake and end up " sleeping on the job", God's job.
 
above :Untitled painting by Ben Shahn
and below same artist

The words of William Wordsworth ring out the message 
"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon" !

The Gospel passage today shows that God has no time for the people who are actively working against the love of God and who explicitly exploit others but I think that there are more subtle messages we can take away for we all are "sleeping on the job" we have been given.











Prayer 

My prayer today is that I will put  God at the centre of my life at every moment and not relegate Him to the margins and only from time to time giving and paying attention when it suits me.
I pray that my faith will be patient and my vision clear even if I cannot see the approach of God or even the right path to take to meet Him on.

May God help me to believe that this pathway I am on today and everyday really does lead to eternal life and that I may renew my vision and do His will and not mine !! 





I pray that God will give me the 
courage and tenacity
to not let me and all those I can help
"  go to the grave with the song still in us."


As for the wailing and grinding of those teeth .............. it still gives me the shivers to think about it.











Composition for Clarinets and Tin Horn, 1951,Ben Shahn

The Word of The Lord Came to Me

This somehow got buried as a draft and should have gone with last Wednesday's readings so it is out of kilter with the liturgical weeks ... this Sunday is the 22nd in Ordinary Time.
My post from here dealt with the Gospel for , Wednesday 20th Week in Ordinary Time and this one deals with the First Reading and the Psalm. (23)
Given the recent goings on it is a significant one to reflect on.  
When we  sometimes feel we are on the margins of  our church community and when we  feel scattered and "out of place"-  when we are complacent and find it easy to lord it over others because they don't fit our picture of what sheep should be,  it is good to know that the Lord is our  shepherd who will gather us in and we will not want for anything......
"The word of the Lord came to me:
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel,
in these words prophesy to them to the shepherds:
Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel
who have been pasturing themselves!
Should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep?"

You have fed off their milk, worn their wool,
and slaughtered the fatlings,
but the sheep you have not pastured.


You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick
nor bind up the injured.
You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost,
but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.


So they were scattered for the lack of a shepherd,
and became food for all the wild beasts.

My sheep were scattered
and wandered over all the mountains and high hills;
my sheep were scattered over the whole earth,
with no one to look after them or to search for them.

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
As I live, says the Lord GOD,
because my sheep have been given over to pillage,
and because my sheep have become food for every wild beast,
for lack of a shepherd;
because my shepherds did not look after my sheep,
but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep;
because of this, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

Thus says the Lord GOD:
I swear I am coming against these shepherds.
I will claim my sheep from them
and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep
so that they may no longer pasture themselves.

I will save my sheep,
that they may no longer be food for their mouths.
For thus says the Lord GOD:
I myself will look after and tend my sheep.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness will follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Some Humour For a Dull and Rainy Day

Some humorous aphorisms to brighten a very dull and rainy day.

 If God is watching us, the least we can do is be entertaining.

 I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.
Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening', and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
 A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.
I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.
Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
Why do Americans choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. He said okay, you're ugly too.
Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.

I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
I always take life with a grain of salt, ...plus a slice of lemon, ...and a shot of tequila.
When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.
Knowledge is power, and power corrupts. So study hard and be evil.
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
Some people hear voices. Some see invisible people. Others have no imagination whatsoever.

Prayers for Peace in the Middle East

Prayers for Success of Peace Talks in the Middle East
Click on link here for more prayers from United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Two peoples, one land,
Three faiths, one root,
One earth, one mother,
One sky, one beginning, one future, one destiny,
One broken heart,
One God.
We pray to You:
Grant us a vision of unity.
May we see the many in the one and the one in the many.

May you, Life of All the Worlds, Source of All Amazing Differences
Help us to see clearly.
Guide us gently and firmly toward each other,
Toward peace. Amen.

Rabbi Sheila Weinberg
Jewish Community of Amherst, Amherst, MA

Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta

Overcoming Polarisation in The Church

This article posted August 16th  by John L.Allen Jr from the NCR plus the ensuing comments is worth a read.

Below is the opening section of the article to give you a flavour...........

"Overcoming polarization in the church often feels like the Catholic equivalent of bringing peace to the Middle East.
Everybody pays lip service to it, and from time to time some bold new initiative is rolled out, but longtime combatants who have watched such efforts come and go generally feel in their bones that the reality is permanent war.
If peace is going to break out, therefore, it probably won’t be those veterans who make it happen.
That’s more or less the instinct behind the Fordham Conversation Project, a group of younger Catholic theologians that wants to think beyond the polarization in American Catholic life. I spent part of this past weekend in the Bronx with roughly 17 young Catholic intellectuals brought together under the project’s rubric."

Enhanced by Zemanta

August 27th Feast of St Monica and 28th August St Augustine.

At the end of this coming week on Friday 27th and and Saturday 28th August, the church celebrates the feast of two major saints. Apart from two cracking good biographies, there is so much to learn from them so this is reflected in a lengthier than normal blog.

Mass readings for St Monica's feast day can be found here 
and the day after for her son, St Augustine here

If ever there were two saints for our times then these two, St Monica and her son St Augustine certainly fit the bill..... except for a pretty austere renunciation of all earthly pleasures by Monica when she became a widow.


Monica was born in North Africa, a tribal African woman who lived in the 4th Century (331-487) and the circumstances of her life have made her the patron saint of a whole whack of causes : lapsed Catholics, difficult marriages, abused women, and the patron saint of Mothers.............
Not a time consuming job there then .......
Saint Monica - Patron Saint of Alcoholics 

Monica was not a drunk;but  her non-Christian husband Patricius was.

There are very few realistic paintings of St Monica but this one by John Nava (link here ) is a beautiful one.





Although she was a Christian, her parents arranged a marriage to a government official, Patricius, much older than her who lived in her hometown of Tagaste in North Africa. 
Patricius had some redeeming features, but he was a difficult man with a violent temper, who drank a lot and was licentious. Monica also had to bear with a cantankerous mother-in-law who lived in her home. Patricius criticized his wife because of her faith.
So, not only is she the patron saint of alcoholics, she is the patron saint of those who have to put up with them.
Saintly she must have been, for she was reportedly able to successfully nag him into sobriety, even without the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
 Monica’s prayers and example finally paid off and her husband and mother-in-law both converted to Christianity. Her husband died in 371, one year after his Baptism.
 

Although it may seem to be a modern phenomenon, Catholics who have given up practicing the faith have always been with us. 
Monica had at least three children who survived infancy. The eldest, Augustine, is the most famous. The other two were Navigius and a daughter Perpetua.


When widowed about 371 A.D., at the age of 40, Monica vowed to belong wholly to God, renounced all worldly pleasures, and worked with the poor and orphaned while still a mother.
Augustine had left home, and on one level although he  found something attractive about Christ, in the short run he was more interested in the attractions of sex, fame, and pride in his own cleverness. 
After a moderate amount of running around as a teen-ager, he met a girl and they had a son when he was about eighteen. Theirs was a long-term relationship, with faithfulness on both sides, and we never find out  why they did not marry.
 
The family was relatively poor, but a rich citizen of Tagaste met Augustine's educational expenses at the university in Carthage. Monica hoped studying philosophy and science would bring him back  to God, but she did not realize Carthage was a seething mass of iniquity.
 

St. Monica  experienced  first-hand the pain of motherhood when rebellious Augustine, at the time of his father's death at the age of 19  became a Manichee, a member of a non - Christian sect that believed there were two gods—one good, the other evil—locked in eternal conflict for human souls. 





I wonder if Philip Pullman's latest book, The controversial  Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ  may have taken a quasi- Manichean theme?

According to the Manichees, throughout history many different “Jesuses” had come to earth to assist humankind in the struggle against evil, 
but none of them had ever managed to conquer the powers of darkness and save humankind. 
The Manichees as they moved west into the Roman Empire adopted many traits of what is generically called Gnosticism. In particular, they advertised themselves as being not an alternative to Christianity but as the advanced version of Christianity, as the faith for the spiritually mature, the intellectually gifted. 
They claimed that their beliefs were based on reason rather than authority, and that they had answers for everything, at least as soon as the learner was sufficiently advanced to comprehend them. 
They differed from the classical Gnostics by not contrasting spirit with matter. In their view, everything was composed of material particles, but these were either light or dark. Since the mind was composed of light particles, imprisoned in the body, a cage made of 
dark particles, something like the Gnostic contrast between spirit and matter was there. 


Members were divided into an inner circle, the "elect," who were expected to be celibate and vegetarian, so as to avoid all those dark particles, and the "learners," of whom considerably less was expected. Augustine signed up as a learner. 
He was at first completely captivated, but then met with a series of disappointments. The rank and file of the movement did not seem to be very clear thinkers. He met the leaders, who were advertised as the Towering Intellects of the Ages, and was not impressed.
The Manichean doctrine also held that bodily actions had no moral significance and so Augustine lived a hedonistic self centred life.
Monica was so hurt and angry when she learned that Augustine had become a Manichee that she barred the door and refused to let her son in the house.

Then one night she had a vision that assured her Augustine would return to the faith. From that time on she stayed close to her son, praying and fasting for him. In fact, she often stayed much closer than Augustine wanted. 

After completing his studies, Augustine opened a school of oratory in Carthage and instructed his disciples in the principles of Manicheism. In doing so, he discovered that the Manicheans were more adept in attacking Catholicism than in establishing the truth of their own theories. 
  


Augustine tells us that Monica shed "more tears for my spiritual death than other mothers shed for the bodily death of a son." Monica prayed for her son's conversion for 17 years. To add power to her prayers, she fasted, making Holy Communion her daily food. An unnamed bishop comforted her that her son was young and stubborn, but that God's time would come because "The son of so many tears cannot possibly be lost."

 

When he was 29, Augustine tired of the frivolity of Carthage and decided to go to Rome to teach rhetoric. Monica was determined to go along. One night he told his mother that he was going to the dock to say goodbye to a friend. Instead, he set sail for Rome.

Soon after his arrival he became deathly ill. He recovered and opened his school.
Monica was heartbroken when she learned of Augustine’s trick, but she still followed him to Rome after selling her few remaining possessions. In the meantime, Saint Symmachus offered Augustine a chair in rhetoric in Milan, after he won a competition and so when Monica arrived in Rome Augustine  had already left for Milan !!


Although travel was difficult, Monica pursued him to Milan.
In Milan, Augustine met the bishop Ambrose, and was startled to find in him a reasonableness of mind and belief, a keenness of thought, and an integrity of character far in excess of what he had found elsewhere. For the first time, Augustine saw Christianity as a religion fit for a philosopher.

Soon after his arrival in Milan, Augustine was plunged into two crises.
First, his mother arrived from Africa, and persuaded him that he ought to give up his mistress and get married. He agreed to a betrothal to a suitable young lady; but his betrothed was too young for immediate marriage, and so the actual wedding was postponed for two years. Meanwhile the mistress had been sent back to Africa. 
Augustine, not ready for two years of sexual abstinence, lapsed back into promiscuity.

The second crisis was that Augustine became a neo-Platonist  which taught that only God is fully real, and that all other things are degenerations in varying degrees from the One----- things are progressively less good, less spiritual, and less real as one goes rung by rung down the cosmic ladder.


By contemplating spiritual realities, directing one's attention to one's own mind and then moving up the ladder rung by rung to the contemplation of God, one acquires true wisdom, true self-fulfilment, true spirituality, and union with God. 







Augustine took this approach, and believed that he  had an experience of the presence of God, but found that this only made him more aware of the gulf between what he was and what he realized that he ought to be.

Meanwhile, he continued to hear Bishop Ambrose. Augustine came to love the bishop as a father and went every Sunday to hear Ambrose as he preached. At the age of 30, Augustine began to see the folly of Manicheism and its gross misrepresentation of the Church, but he still did not believe. 
When Monica arrived in Milan, her first visit was also to Ambrose and he became her spiritual director. Often when he saw Augustine he would break out in praise of her, congratulating him on having such a mother." And Augustine wryly notes: "He little knew what sort of a son she had."
 







Monica became a leader of the devout women in Milan as she had been in Tagaste.


Monica and Augustine began to attend Mass together and to discuss the bishop's sermons afterwards. Monica had deeply studied philosophy and theology so that she might be able to deal intelligently with Augustine. He began to realize how many things he believed that he could not prove, but accepted on the testimony of others. 
Augustine  attributed his conversion primarily to Monica. When his instruction was over, he was baptized by Ambrose on Holy Saturday, 387.
As St. Augustine said, "Late have I loved thee."

"You have made us for Yourself, O God.
And our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."
About 12 years later he wrote an account of his life up to a time shortly after his conversion, a book called the Confessions. Ostensibly an autobiography, it is more an outpouring of penitence and thanksgiving.
Augustine describes his conversion. His intellectual objections had lost their force, and he was at a point where the difficulty was that he seemed unable to make a commitment to living chastely, or unable to make a commitment, period. 
He heard of a group of young men, Christians, one of whom decided to become a desert hermit, and the others made the same commitment, encouraged and inspired by the examples of those in the group who had already done so. Augustine went aside to ponder the question, "How is it that these young men can make so drastic a commitment, and I cannot take even the first step of declaring myself a Christian?"
He heard what seemed to be a child's voice coming from next door, saying over and over, "Tolle, lege; tolle, lege," or, "Pick up and read; pick up and read." 
Since he could not think of any reason why a child would be saying that, he took it as an omen, and picked up a copy of Paul's Epistle to The Romans As he opened it, his eye fell on the end of the thirteenth chapter:











The night is far gone, the day is at hand.
Let us then cast off the works of darkness
and put on the armour of light;
let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day,
not in reveling and drunkenness,
not in debauchery and licentiousness,
not in quarreling and jealousy.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh,
to gratify its desires.




As he read, he experienced this as God speaking directly to him, convicting him of his past sins, and offering him forgiveness; calling him to amend his life, and promising him the grace and power to do it. He burst into tears....Later, he wrote :
Late have I loved Thee, O Lord; and behold,
Thou wast within and I without, and there I sought Thee.
Thou was with me when I was not with Thee.
Thou didst call, and cry, and burst my deafness.
Thou didst gleam, and glow, and dispell my blindness.
Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace
For Thyself Thou hast made us,
and restless our hearts until in Thee they find their ease.
Late have I loved Thee, Thou Beauty ever old and ever new.
Thou hast burst my bonds asunder;
unto Thee will I offer up an offering of praise.
After his conversion, Augustine went back to his native Africa in 387, where he was ordained a priest in 391 and consecrated bishop of Hippo in 396. It was not his intention to become a priest. He was visiting the town of Hippo now Annaba,was in church hearing a sermon, and the bishop, without warning, said, "This congregation is in need of more priests, and I believe that the ordination of Augustine would be to the glory of God." 

Willing hands dragged Augustine forward, and the bishop together with his council of priests laid hands on Augustine and ordained him to the priesthood. (The experience may have coloured Augustine's perception of such questions as, "Does a man come to God because he has chosen to do so, or because God has chosen him, and drawn him to Himself?") A few years later, when the Bishop of Hippo died, Augustine was chosen to succeed him.
Augustine's writings were vast. His surviving works (and it is assumed that the majority did not survive) include 113 books and treatises, over 200 letters, and over 500 sermons. 
A second great work of his is the book, The City of God. This was written after Rome had been sacked by invaders led by Alaric the Visigoth. It is a reply to those who said that the Roman Empire was falling apart because the Christians had taken over; he discusses the work of God in history, and the relation between the Christian as citizen of an earthly commonwealth and the Christian as citizen of Heaven.
His third great work is his On The Trinity where he discusses the doctrine of the Trinity  by undertaking to compare the mind of man with the mind of God, since man is made in the image of God.



Augustine begins by pointing out a Trinitarian structure in the act of knowing something. 
He continues by pointing out a Trinitarian structure in the act of self-awareness.
He concludes by pointing out a Trinitarian structure in the act of religious contemplation by which man sees himself as made in the image of God.

According to a legend, while he was thinking about the Holy Trinity, Augustine met a child on the beach who was attempting to use a spoon to transfer the waters of the ocean into a small hole. 



When Augustine explained to him that this was not possible, the child replied that it was far more foolish to try to find an explanation for the mystery of the Trinity. 

The painting by Botticelli depicts the scene ( from St Barnaba altarpiece in Florence).





Augustine and the Donatists.

Almost a century before Augustine was born, the Church in Africa had been torn apart by the Donatist controversy. During the persecution of the Church by the Emperor Decius, some Christian clergymen in Africa, or so it was alleged, had stood firm against threat of torture, imprisonment and death more consistently and nobly than others. 
The Donatists maintained that their clergy derived their ordinations from clergy with very good records of constancy under persecution, and that they were the Church of the Martyrs, as opposed to the Church of the Sell-outs, which was everybody else. 
They further held that sacraments received at the hands of unworthy ministers were of no value. 




Augustine had a long correspondence and controversy with them, and at one point they apparently replied that they did not hold this, to which Augustine replied, "In that case, will you kindly tell me what the controversy is all about, and what you and I have been debating for the last eighteen months, and what your bishops and ours have been out of fellowship with each other about for the last century?" 


The controversy dragged on, with part of the dispute historical (whether Bishop so-and-so, now seventy years dead, had really done what he was accused of doing), and part theological. It seems clear that the Donatists, at least most of the time, argued that the holiness of the Church depended on the holiness of its members, especially its clergy. 
Against them, Augustine maintained that the holiness of the Church is not derived from the average level of virtue of its individual members, but is derived from the Holiness of its Head, who is Christ. 
The argument is something we have heard again in the current crisis of the church . 

Augustine and the Pelagians
In Augustine's day, a man from Britain named Morgan, or in Latin Pelagius began to preach, denouncing what he saw as a slackening of moral standards. He saw professed Christians living less than exemplary lives, and offering human frailty as an excuse.
Pelagius reply was: "Nonsense. God has given you free will. You can choose to follow the example of Adam, or you can choose to follow the example of Christ. God has given everyone the grace he needs to be good. If you are not good, you simply need to try harder." 
Augustine asked him about original sin, and he replied that there is no such thing. Augustine asked him why, in that case, it was the universal custom to baptize infants, and he had no answer.
Augustine saw the teaching of Pelagius as totally undermining the doctrine that God is the ultimate source of all good, and encouraging the virtuous and well-behaved Christian to feel that he had earned God's approval by his own efforts.
Monica's faith purchased for the Catholic Church " its keenest philosopher, most comprehensive theologian, most persuasive apologist, and most far-seeing moralist, a wise administrator, a powerful preacher, and a penetrating mystic."
Augustine eventually became a Doctor of the Church , meaning one of the few people who's writings are recognized as foundational teachings.
Countless now live under the Augustinian rule. 


Four years after their arrival in Milan, during a stop at Ostia en route back to Tagaste, Monica told her son: "What I am still to do, or why I still linger in this world, I do not know. There was one reason, one alone, for which I wish to tarry a little longer: that I might see you a Catholic Christian before I die. God has granted me this, and more, for I see you his servant, spurning all earthly happiness. What is left for me to do in this life?" 








Saint Monica died about two weeks later at the age of 56, Augustine was then 33.
Saint Monica's relics are enshrined at Saint Augustine's Church in Rome near the Piazza Navona.

Almost all we know about St. Monica is in the writings of St. Augustine, especially his "Confessions." (From Saints.org) 
Enhanced by Zemanta