August 19, 2026 St. Augustine seems to keep popping up. Five or six years ago, I attempted to read St. Augustine’s famous book, “Confessions.” It’s heavy stuff, and I struggled to stay engaged with the text. To be honest, I found it to be a slog, or at least I found large sections of it to be slogs. I gave up on the “book on dead trees,” as I like to say – the paper/written text. I found it somewhat easier to consume “Confessions” as an audio book, though even in that format, I can’t say it consistently captured and held my attention. I didn’t give it much thought after that. Enter Pope Leo XIV. Our current Holy Father is a member of the Order of St. Augustine, and he regularly talks about and writes about St. Augustine, a doctor of the Church. While I find a lot of beauty in those summaries of St. Augustine’s writing, nothing Pope Leo said or wrote intrigue me enough to make me consider engaging with St. Augustine’s text again. Now, Father Bill Muench has jumped on the St. Augustine train, and he’s reading and reflecting on “Confessions.” He talks about the work in both this week’s and last week’s columns (they can be found here). Then, on Thursday, a dear friend messaged me trying to peer pressure me into joining a program he’s doing on the Catholic prayer app, Hallow. The theme of the program? You guessed it! St. Augustine’s “Confessions.” I often say that God beats me over the head with messages because He knows I’m too dense to get them when He’s subtle. I feel like He’s now beating me over the head with St. Augustine’s “Confessions.” While I have no problem resisting my friend’s peer pressure, I try not to resist when God is beating me over the head with something. So, I’m doing the program with my friend. Maybe it’ll even convince me to consider trying to read “Confessions” again. Then maybe St. Augustine will stop popping up. |
|||||
|
|||||||||
