Several times Pope Leo XIV has called himself “son of Sant’Agostino”. Who was Augustine? What did he write and what spiritual inheritance does he leave today? We offer you a trip to four episodes Posted on Believe n. 28/2018 To find out more closely this giant of the history of the Church and its spirituality which deeply marks that of the American Pontiff. Let’s read some of his thoughts together.
by Fratel Michael Davide Semeraro
“Stimulated to return to myself, under your guide, I entered the intimacy of my heart, and I could do it because you made me help. I entered and saw with the eye of my soul, whatever it could be, an unalterable light over my own inner gaze and above my intelligence. It was not an earthly and visible light that shines before the gaze of every man. Indeed, I would still say little if I said that it was only a stronger light than the common one, or even so intense as to penetrate everything. It was another light, very different from all the lights of the world created. It was not above my intelligence almost like the oil that floats on the water, nor like the sky that spreads over the earth, but a higher light. It was the light that created me»(Confessions, 7,10,16).
“Loves and does what you want: if you keep silent, keep silent for love; If you speak, speak for love; If correct, correct for love; If you forgive, forgive for love; deep in your heart there is the root of love: from this root it can only be born»(Comment on Giovanni’s first letter, VII, 8).
“We were urged to sing the Lord a new song. The new man knows the new song. The singing is a sign of Letizia and, if we consider the thing most carefully, also an expression of love. So the one who knows how to love new life, knows how to sing the new song. What this new life is, we must know in view of the new song. In fact, everything belongs to a single kingdom: the new man, the new song, the new will. There is no one who does not love, but you have to see what he loves. We are not urged not to love, but to choose the object of our love. But what will we choose, if we don’t be chosen before? Since we do not love if we are not loved before»(Speeches, 34.1-3).
“Two loves built two cities: self -love not to God’s contempt has built the terrestrial city; The love of God no to self -contempt has built the celestial city. One gets glory of itself; the other, in God»(The city of God, XIV, 28).
