St Monica and St Augustine and St Aidan of Lindisfarne 2013


 Click here for my 2010 post from the archives
 for the feast days of St Monica and her son, St Augustine on 27th and 28th August respectively. 

Click here for my 2012 post on St Augustine.


Click here for my 2012 post, "Wanderers for The Love of Christ," which incorporates some other Saints feast days in late August, including the Celtic St Aidan of Lindisfarne on August 31st.

 
St Monica by John Nava Source
Source

 This picture of St Monica holding the words she said
 on her death bed to her two sons.
recorded in the Confessions of St Augustine.

Augustine Window at Saint Norbert Abbey in De Pere, Wisconsin
Augustine Window at Saint Norbert Abbey in De Pere, Wisconsin
 Augustine Window at Saint Norbert Abbey in De Pere, Wisconsin
 Image source.

 St. Augustine holds the book of his Confessions. The flame surmounting the book depicts the zeal of his works, and the thistle bush before him symbolizes his great repentance.


St Augustine holding the words of his famous prayer
In the opening paragraph of the Confessions, he declares,


 “You have made us, O Lord, for Yourself, 
and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”


I can certainly relate to having a restless heart, 
as can be seen in my earlier post here today.

 In a wonderful reflection from Fr. Ron Rolheiser he begins with this quote from Ruth Burrows :

 "I was born into this world with a tortured complexity. For long time I have puzzled over the causes of my psychological anguish.

Ruth Burrows, the renowned Carmelite writer, begins her autobiography with those words and, like the famous words with which St. Augustine opens his Confessions, they too set the tone for a very mature spiritual reflection."

Fr. Rolheiser ends with this wonderful passage....

 "There's a sad irony in all this: So many people who want to be honest to their own experience distance themselves from religion precisely because they feel that religion makes things too simple, that it doesn't understand, and especially that it can't honor their experience. 

 For many people, religion, all of it, is too simplistic to respect human experience because it doesn't take into account our tortured complexity. 

 But the irony is that, ultimately, it is the only place where we are fully understood."
Click here to to read the rest of his article.

As the Deer Pants For The Water 
Robin Marks

 

Audrey Assad sings Restless
Beautiful song and video..

No comments: