We can learn from the Saints!

[koralstratz]

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St. Augustine of Hippo
Patron of Brewers
(Feast Day Aug 28 )



St. Augustine of Hippo is the patron of brewers because of his conversion from a former life of loose living, which included parties, entertainment, and worldly ambitions. His complete turnaround and conversion has been an inspiration to many who struggle with a particular vice or habit they long to break.

This famous son of St. Monica was born in Africa and spent many years of his life in wicked living and in false beliefs. Though he was one of the most intelligent men who ever lived and though he had been brought up a Christian, his sins of impurity and his pride darkened his mind so much, that he could not see or understand the Divine Truth anymore. Through the prayers of his holy mother and the marvelous preaching of St. Ambrose, Augustine finally became convinced that Christianity was the one true religion. Yet he did not become a Christian then, because he thought he could never live a pure life. One day, however, he heard about two men who had suddenly been converted on reading the life of St. Antony, and he felt terrible ashamed of himself. "What are we doing?" he cried to his friend Alipius. "Unlearned people are taking Heaven by force, while we, with all our knowledge, are so cowardly that we keep rolling around in the mud of our sins!"

Full of bitter sorrow, Augustine flung himself out into the garden and cried out to God, "How long more, O Lord? Why does not this hour put an end to my sins?" Just then he heard a child singing, "Take up and read!" Thinking that God intended him to hear those words, he picked up the book of the Letters of St. Paul, and read the first passage his gaze fell on. It was just what Augustine needed, for in it, St. Paul says to put away all impurity and to live in imitation of Jesus. That did it! From then on, Augustine began a new life.

He was baptized, became a priest, a bishop, a famous Catholic writer, Founder of religious priests, and one of the greatest saints that ever lived. He became very devout and charitable, too. On the wall of his room he had the following sentence written in large letters: "Here we do not speak evil of anyone." St. Augustine overcame strong heresies, practiced great poverty and supported the poor, preached very often and prayed with great fervor right up until his death. "Too late have I loved You!" he once cried to God, but with his holy life he certainly made up for the sins he committed before his conversion. His feast day is August 28th.

[koralstratz]

[petite fleur]

"Take up and read!" ~ "Tolle lege"

The Confessions of Saint Augustine

~Chap 6 (9)
And, behold, my infancy died long ago, but I am still living. But thou, O
Lord, whose life is forever and in whom nothing dies--since before the world was,
indeed, before all that can be called “before,” thou wast, and thou art the God and
Lord of all thy creatures; and with thee abide all the stable causes of all unstable
things, the unchanging sources of all changeable things, and the eternal reasons of
all non-rational and temporal things--tell me, thy suppliant, O God, tell me, O
merciful One, in pity tell a pitiful creature whether my infancy followed yet an
earlier age of my life that had already passed away before it. Was it such another
age which I spent in my mother’s womb? For something of that sort has been
suggested to me, and I have myself seen pregnant women. But what, O God, my
Joy, preceded that period of life? Was I, indeed, anywhere, or anybody? No one can
explain these things to me, neither father nor mother, nor the experience of others,
nor my own memory. Dost thou laugh at me for asking such things? Or dost thou
command me to praise and confess unto thee only what I know?

CHAPTER IX
14. O my God! What miseries and mockeries did I then experience when it
was impressed on me that obedience to my teachers was proper to my boyhood
estate if I was to flourish in this world and distinguish myself in those tricks of
speech which would gain honor for me among men, and deceitful riches! To this end
I was sent to school to get learning, the value of which I knew not--wretch that I
was. Yet if I was slow to learn, I was flogged. For this was deemed praiseworthy by
our forefathers and many had passed before us in the same course, and thus had
built up the precedent for the sorrowful road on which we too were compelled to
travel, multiplying labor and sorrow upon the sons of Adam.

~If you are interested I have a PDF file of the Confessions

Blessed Feast of St. Augustine

[petite fleur]

St. Monica ~The Mother of St. Augustine of Hippo

St. Monica
Model of Christian Motherhood ~from the Confessions of St. Augustine

Saint Monica | Model of Christian Catholic Motherhood | St. Augustine on the life of his Mom, Saint Monica | Biography -Welcome to The Crossroads Initiative

One day during her illness she lapsed into unconsciousness and for a short time was unaware of her surroundings. We all came running, but she quickly returned to her senses, and, gazing at me and my brother as we stood there, she asked in puzzlement, “Where was I?”

We were bewildered with grief, but she looked keenly at us and said, “You are to bury your mother here”. I (St. Augustine) was silent, holding back my tears, but my brother said something about his hope that she would not die far from home but in her own country, for that would be a happier way. On hearing this she looked anxious and her eyes rebuked him for thinking so; then she turned her gaze from him to me and said, “What silly talk!” Shortly afterwards, addressing us both, she said, “Lay this body anywhere, and take no trouble over it. One thing only do I ask of you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be”. Having made her meaning clear to us with such words as she could muster, she fell silent, and the pain of the disease grew worse.

[wenlove24]

St. Augustine, pray for my father. I hope it's nothing but an excisable or shrinkable lump.

[wenlove24]

"If you learn everything except Christ, you learn nothing; if you learn nothing except Christ, you learn everything." - St. Bonaventure

[IMG]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OZEW1KPpFOI/TD6ICmlQcvI/AAAAAAAADco/S57g4nJpfAY*******bonaventure.jpg[/IMG]

In Islamic thought

St. Bonaventure was widely regarded as one of the greatest Christian theologians by early Muslim thinkers. Hossein Nasr, in his A Young Muslim's Guide to the Modern World mentions Bonaventure amongst the outstanding saints, saying:

St. Bonaventure was one of the greatest theologians and philosophers of Christianity. An Italian Franciscan, he was declared one of the Doctors of the Church and remains to this day as one of the most important authorites on the interpretation of Christian thought among Catholics. He entered the University of Paris where he joined the Franciscan order and studied theology, in which he soon became a notable figure. He is especially well known for his insistence that the pursuit of truth is part of divine worship. He wrote commentaries on the Bible as well as the Sentences of Peter Lombard and was well versed in the philosophies of Augustine of Hippo and Aristotle as well as Islamic philosophy...Saint Bonaventure was also a great mystic and wrote one of the most famous treatises of mysticism in the Middle Ages, The Journey of the Mind to God...

[koralstratz]

Memorial of the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist
(August 29 )



The Church, having celebrated the earthly birthday of St. John the Baptist on June 24, today honors the anniversary of his martyrdom. Besides our Lord and our Lady, St. John the Baptist is the only one whose birth and death are thus celebrated. Today's Gospel relates the circumstances of his execution. He had the courage to blame Herod to his face for the scandal of his illegal union with his sister-in-law Herodias, whose husband was still alive. Herodias contrived to make Herod imprison him and took advantage of an unexpected oppportunity to obtain through her daughter Salome the beheading of the saint.



There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him. His persecutor had demanded not that he should deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ not say: "I am the truth"? Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ.

Through his birth, preaching and baptizing, he bore witness to the coming birth, preaching and baptism of Christ, and by his own suffering he showed that Christ also would suffer.

Such was the quality and strength of the man who accepted the end of this present life by shedding his blood after the long imprisonment. He preached the freedom of heavenly peace, yet was thrown into irons by ungodly men. He was locked away in the darkness of prison, though he came bearing witness to the Light of life and deserved to be called a bright and shining lamp by that Light itself, which is Christ.

To endure temporal agonies for the sake of the truth was not a heavy burden for such men as John; rather it was easily borne and even desirable, for he knew eternal joy would be his reward.

— Saint Bede the Venerable

[koralstratz]

St. Augustine, pray for my father. I hope it's nothing but an excisable or shrinkable lump.

Sis wen,, naunsa diay imo dad?? I hope and pray that everything will be OK.

May the angels and saints in heaven intercede for him

[wenlove24]

Sis wen,, naunsa diay imo dad?? I hope and pray that everything will be OK.

May the angels and saints in heaven intercede for him

I came by the house yesterday to greet him a Happy birthday and found out he has this lump on his left upper thigh. It's quite big and he's gonna see a doctor today. I think he's had it for quite some time but never really told us. Thank you so much bro. Please help us pray.

[Gone_rouge]

have anyone seen "There will be Dragons"... its mostly about the strory of Catholic priest saint St. Josemaría Escrivá, and close childhood friend ..... the founder of organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity, other wise call "Opus Dei"

Opus Dei was famous since portrayed by ill famous controversial Movie by fictional Novel of Dan brown.... the Da Venci Code...

for info lang.....