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A profound desire to love

by OAR

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By getting closer to the writings of Saint Augustine, «we find him alive» as his first biographer Possiudius said, and Benedict XVI recalled. In his writings «we see the permanent actuality of his faith, from whose faith comes Christ, the Incarnate eternal Word, Son of God and Son of Man. And we can see that this faith is not something of yesterday, even though he might have preached yesterday; he is always presently relevant, because Christ is truly yesterday, today and forever ».(1)

Augustine is known as a man of prayer. If we unite our hearts with the heart of Saint Augustine and we allow his words, his profound desire to love influence us, we will experience prayer as a gift of the Spirit and presence of Christ. Prayer creates a dialogue of faith, praise and longing for God. In prayer, man is understood as a being in relationship. It unites us to the Body of Christ and fills the heart with peace and hope. In this way, the book of the Confessions begins:

«Great are you, O Lord, and very worthy of praise;
Great is your power, your wisdom knows no measure.
And man assumes to praise you,
A little piece of your creation.
Precisely man who brings around you his mortality,
Who brings to the flower of the skin the mark of his sin and the testimony of your dislike for the proud.
Despite everything, man assumes to praise, a little piece of your creation.
And you yourself are the one who entice the person who finds fulfillment, because you have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
… Make, O Lord, that by invoking you, I may search for you, and that by believing in You, I may invoke you, then you have been already proclaimed to me, O Lord, my faith invokes you, the faith, which you gave me, the faith that You inspired me through the humanity of your Son and the ministry of your messenger» (Confessions I, 1, 1)