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For I Wondered That Others, Subject To Death, Did Live, Since He Whom I Loved, As If He Should Never Die, Was Dead; And I Wondered Yet More That Myself, Who Was To Him A Second Self, Could Live, He Being Dead. Well Said One Of His Friend, "thou Half Of My Soul"; For I Felt That My Soul And His Soul Were "one Soul In Two Bodies": And Therefore Was My Life A Horror To Me, Because I Would Not Live Halved. And Therefore Perchance I Feared To Die, Lest He Whom I Had Much Loved Should Die Wholly.

-Saint Augustine

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For I Wondered That

Saint Augustine

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For I Wondered That Others, Subject To Death, Did Live, Since He Whom I Loved, As If He Should Never Die, Was Dead; And I Wondered Yet More That Myself, Who Was To Him A Second Self, Could Live, He Being Dead. Well Said One Of His Friend, "thou Half Of My Soul"; For I Felt That My Soul And His Soul Were "one Soul In Two Bodies": And Therefore Was My Life A Horror To Me, Because I Would Not Live Halved. And Therefore Perchance I Feared To Die, Lest He Whom I Had Much Loved Should Die Wholly.

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O Sacrament Of Love! O Sign Of Unity! O Bond Of Charity! He Who Would Have Life Finds Here Indeed A Life To Live In And A Life To Live By.

A Christian Is: A Mind Through Which Christ Thinks, A Heart Through Which Christ Loves, A Voice Through Which Christ Speaks, And A Hand Through Which Christ Helps.

A Person Can Do Other Things Against His Will, But Belief Is Possible Only In One Who Is Willing.

Because A Thing Is Eloquently Expressed It Should Not Be Taken To Be As Necessarily True; Nor Because It Is Uttered With Stammering Lips Should It Be Supposed False.

Let Us Leave A Little Room For Reflection In Our Lives, Room Too For Silence. Let Us Look Within Ourselves And See Whether There Is Some Delightful Hidden Place Inside Where We Can Be Free Of Noise And Argument. Let Us Hear The Word Of God In Stillness And Perhaps We Will Then Come To Understand It.

Blessed Is He Who Devotes His Life To Great And Noble Ends, And Who Forms His Well-considered Plans With Deliberate Wisdom.

For Where I Found Truth, There Found I My God, The Truth Itself; Which Since I Learnt, I Have Not Forgotten.

This Entire Most Beautiful Order Of Good Things Is Going To Pass Away After Its Measure Has Been Exhausted; For Both Morning And Evening Were Made In Them.

Let Those Who Think I Have Said Too Little And Those Who Think I Have Said Too Much, Forgive Me; And Let Those Who Think I Have Said Just Enough Thank God With Me.

I Became Evil For No Reason. I Had No Motive For My Wickedness Except Wickedness Itself. It Was Foul, And I Loved It. I Loved The Self-destruction, I Loved My Fall, Not The Object For Which I Had Fallen But My Fall Itself. My Depraved Soul Leaped Down From Your Firmament To Ruin. I Was Seeking Not To Gain Anything By Shameful Means, But Shame For Its Own Sake.

In All Your Movements, Let Nothing Be Evident That Would Offend The Eyes Of Another.

Grace Alone Brings About Every Good Work In Us.

Your Persistent Longing Is Your Persistent Voice. But When Love Grows Cold, The Heart Grows Silent. Burning Love Is The Outcry Of The Heart! If You Are Filled With Longing All The Time, You Will Keep Crying Out, And If Your Love Perseveres, Your Cry Will Be Heard Without Fail.

He Indeed Possesses The Character Imposed On Him, But He Wanders As A Renegade.

God Does Not Give Heed To The Ambitiousness Of Our Prayers, Because He Is Always Ready To Give To Us His Light, Not A Visible Light But An Intellectual And Spiritual One; But We Are Not Always Ready To Receive It When We Turn Aside And Down To Other Things Out Of A Desire For Temporal Things.

Put No Faith In Salvation Through The Political Order.

The Sufficiency Of My Merit Is To Know That My Merit Is Not Sufficient.

Symbols Are Powerful Because They Are The Visible Signs Of Invisible Realities.

I Have Said Before, And I Shall Say Again, That I Write This Book For Love Of Your Love.

Let Our Lives Be Good, And The Times Are Good. We Make Our Times; Such As We Are, Such Are The Times.

Custom Is Second Nature.

Whoever Seems To Himself To Have Understood The Scriptures In Such A Way That He Does Not Build Up That Double Love Of God And Neighbor Has Not Yet Understood.

If You Excuse Yourself In Confession, You Shut Up Sin Within Your Soul, And Shut Out Pardon.

Peace In Society Depends Upon Peace In The Family.

It Will Not Be Held Against You That You Are Ignorant Against Your Will, But That You Neglect To Seek Out What It Is That Makes You Ignorant; Not That You Cannot Bring Together Your Wounded Limbs, But That You Reject Him That Would Heal Them.

Every City Is A Living Body.

I Was Looking For Something To Love, For I Was In Love With Loving, And I Hated Security And A Smooth Way, Free From Snares.

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When I Am Completely United To You, There Will Be No More Sorrow Or Trials; Entirely Full Of You, My Life Will Be Complete.

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Then Assuredly The World Was Made, Not In Time, But Simultaneously With Time.

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You Have Enemies. For Who Can Live On This Earth Without Them? Take Heed To Yourselves: Love Them. In No Way Can Your Enemy So Hurt You By His Violence, As You Hurt Yourself If You Love Him Not.

Eternity Is The Now That Does Not Pass Away.

Consequently, If The Republic Is The Weal Of The People, And There Is No People If It Be Not Associated By A Common Acknowledgment Of Right, And If There Is No Right Where There Is No Justice, Then Most Certainly It Follows That There Is No Republic Where There Is No Justice.

My Weight Is My Love.

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The Rich Are Like Beasts Of Burden, Carrying Treasure All Day, And At The Night Of Death Unladen; They Carry To Their Grave Only The Bruises And Marks Of Their Toil.

To Withhold Forgiveness Is To Take Poison And Expect The Unforgiven To Die.

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Except He Be Willing, Man Cannot Believe.

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When Large Numbers Of People Share Their Joy In Common, The Happiness Of Each Is Greater Because Each Adds Fuel To The Other's Flame.

One Can't Reach The Truth But Through Love.

No One Can Begin A New Life, Unless He Repent Of The Old.

You Are What You Love.

This World's A Bubble.

For If God Is Man's Chief Good, Which You Cannot Deny, It Clearly Follows, Since To Seek The Chief Good Is To Live Well, That To Live Well Is Nothing Else But To Love God With All The Heart, With All The Soul, With All The Mind.

Do You Wish To Be Great? Then Begin By Being. Do You Desire To Construct A Vast And Lofty Fabric? Think First About The Foundations Of Humility. The Higher Your Structure Is To Be, The Deeper Must Be Its Foundation.

Things Are Solved By Walking Around.

Man Has Been Naturally So Created That It Is Advantageous For Him To Be Submissive, But Disastrous For Him To Follow His Own Will, And Not The Will Of His Creator.

All Diseases Of Christians Are To Be Ascribed To Demons; Chiefly Do They Torment Freshly-baptized Christians, Yea, Even The Guiltless New-born Infants.

O Holy Spirit, Descend Plentifully Into My Heart. Enlighten The Dark Corners Of This Neglected Dwelling And Scatter There Thy Cheerful Beams.

God Without Us Will Not As We Without God Cannot.

It Is Not Earthly Riches Which Make Us Or Our Sons Happy; For They Must Either Be Lost By Us In Our Lifetime, Or Be Possessed When We Are Dead, By Whom We Know Not, Or Perhaps By Whom We Would Not.

Hear, O God. Alas, For Man's Sin! So Saith Man, And Thou Pitiest Him; For Thou Madest Him, But Sin Is In Him Thou Madest Not. Who Remindeth Me Of The Sins Of My Infancy? For In Thy Sight None Is Pure From Sin, Not Even The Infant Whose Life Is But A Day Upon The Earth.

What Can Be Hoped For Which Is Not Believed?

The Bible Was Composed In Such A Way That As Beginners Mature, Its Meaning Grows With Them.

No One Reaches The Kingdom Of Heaven Except By Humility

Often The Contempt Of Vainglory Becomes A Source Of Even More Vainglory, For It Is Not Being Scorned When The Contempt Is Something One Is Proud Of.

For A Sentence Is Not Complete Unless Each Word, Once Its Syllables Have Been Pronounced, Gives Way To Make Room For The Next...they Are Set Up On The Course Of Their Existence, And The Faster They Climb Towards Its Zenith, The More They Hasten Towards The Point Where They Exist No More.

Do Not Follow Any Road, But That Which Christ Trod. This Road Seems Hard, But It Is Safe.

Every Day My Conscience Makes Confession Relying On The Hope Of Your Mercy As More To Be Trusted Than Its Own Innocence.

Let The Lord Your God Be Your Hope – Seek For Nothing Else From Him, But Let Him Himself Be Your Hope. There Are People Who Hope From Him Riches Or Perishable And Transitory Honours, In Short They Hope To Get From God Things Which Are Not God Himself.

Temperance Is A Disposition That Restrains Our Desires For Things Which It Is Base To Desire.

Some People, In Order To Discover God, Read Books. But There Is A Great Book: The Very Appearance Of Created Things. Look Above You! Look Below You! Read It. God, Whom You Want To Discover, Never Wrote That Book With Ink. Instead, He Set Before Your Eyes The Things That He Had Made. Can You Ask For A Louder Voice Than That?

And I Will Ask The Father, And He Shall Give You Another Paraclete, Seeing He Saith This Of The Holy Spirit, Whom Except We Have, We Can Neither Love God, Nor Keep His Commandments?

Beauty Grows In You To The Extent That Love Grows, Because Charity Itself Is The Soul's Beauty.

All Plenty Which Is Not My God Is Poverty To Me.

Overconsumption

Where Was My Heart To Flee For Refuge From My Heart? Whither Was I To Fly, Where I Would Not Follow? In What Place Should I Not Be Prey To Myself?

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Sin Is Believing The Lie That You Are Self-created, Self-dependent And Self-sustained.

Such Is The Strength Of The Burden Of Habit. Here I Have The Power To Be But Do Not Wish It. There I Wish To Be But Lacks The Power. On Both Grounds, I'm In Misery.

The Devil Often Transforms Himself Into An Angel To Tempt Men, Some For Their Instruction, Some For Their Ruin.

Cyprian Was Not Issuing A New Decree But Was Keeping To The Most Solid Belief Of The Church In Order To Correct Some Who Thought That Infants Ought Not Be Baptized Before The Eighth Day After Their Birth. . . . He Agreed With Certain Of His Fellow Bishops That A Child Is Able To Be Duly Baptized As Soon As He Is Born.

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What Are Kingdoms Without Justice? They're Just Gangs Of Bandits.

If You Would Attain To What You Are Not Yet, You Must Always Be Displeased By What You Are. For Where You Are Pleased With Yourself There You Have Remained. Keep Adding, Keep Walking, Keep Advancing.

You Never Go Away From Us, Yet We Have Difficulty In Returning To You. Come, Lord, Stir Us Up And Call Us Back. Kindle And Seize Us. Be Our Fire And Our Sweetness. Let Us Love. Let Us Run.

My Mind Withdrew Its Thoughts From Experience, Extracting Itself From The Contradictory Throng Of Sensuous Images, That It Might Find Out What That Light Was Wherein It Was Bathed... And Thus, With The Flash Of One Hurried Glance, It Attained To The Vision Of That Which Is.

We Are Certainly In A Common Class With The Beasts; Every Action Of Animal Life Is Concerned With Seeking Bodily Pleasure And Avoiding Pain.

God's Faithful Servant Has No Desire For People To Say Or To Give To Him, Or What He Likes To Hear Or See, For His First And Greatest Aim Is To Hear What Is Most Pleasing To God.

Faithful Servants

Dilige Et Quod Vis Fac. (love And Then What You Will, Do.)

By Means Of Corporal And Temporal Things We May Comprehend The Eternal And The Spiritual.

This Awful Catastrophe Is Not The End But The Beginning. History Does Not End So. It Is The Way Its Chapters Open.

He Loves Thee Too Little, Who Loves Anything Together With Thee, Which He Loves Not For Thy Sake.

He Who Has God Has Everything; He Who Has Everything But God Has Nothing.

What Then, Is Correctness Of Speech But The Maintenance Of The Practice Of Others, As Established By The Authority Of Ancient Speakers? But The Weaker Men Are, The More They Are Troubled By Such Matters. Their Weakness Stems From A Desire To Appear Learned, Not With A Knowledge Of Things, By Which We Are Edified, But With A Knowledge Of Signs, By Which It Is Difficult Not To Be Puffed Up In Some Way; Even A Knowledge Of Things Often Makes People Boastful, Unless Their Necks Are Held Down By The Lord's Yoke.

When, Therefore, Man Lives According To Man, Not According To God, He Is Like The Devil.

Desire Only God, And Your Heart Will Be Satisfied.

To My God A Heart Of Flame; To My Fellow Man A Heart Of Love; To Myself A Heart Of Steel.

Temperance Is Love Surrendering Itself Wholly To Him Who Is Its Object; Courage Is Love Bearing All Things Gladly For The Sake Of Him Who Is Its Object; Justice Is Love Serving Only Him Who Is Its Object, And Therefore Rightly Ruling; Prudence Is Love Making Wise Distinction Between What Hinders And What Helps Itself.

In The House Of God There Is Never Ending Festival; The Angel Choir Makes Eternal Holiday; The Presence Of God's Face Gives Joy That Never Fails.

He Who Devoutly Hears Holy Mass Will Receive A Great Vigor To Enable Him To Resist Mortal Sin, And There Shall Be Pardoned To Him All Venial Sins Which He May Have Committed Up To That Hour.

A Wanton Eye Is A Messenger Of An Unchaste Heart.

You Don't Love In Your Enemies What They Are, But What You Would Have Them Become By Your Prayers.

The Greatest Evil Is Physical Pain.

A Man May Lose The Good Things Of This Life Against His Will; But If He Loses The Eternal Blessings, He Does So With His Own Consent.

Six Is A Number Perfect In Itself, And Not Because God Created The World In Six Days; Rather The Contrary Is True. God Created The World In Six Days Because This Number Is Perfect, And It Would Remain Perfect, Even If The Work Of The Six Days Did Not Exist.

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