Journeying With The Saints

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, St. Augustine is struggling again with the problem of evil. It's a serious stumbling block for many people and not one we will fully understand in this life.   But, let's hear what he is thinking about in Book Seven, Chapter Five on page 138.  

Welcome, welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank you for joining me today. St. Augustine has got it right when he says that God is immutable, meaning unchanging. This is just one of the attributes of God.   We are reading today from Book Seven, Chapter Four on page 137.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Hello, out there. Hope you are are having a good day.   Why, oh why is there evil in the world? That is what St. Augustine is writing about today. Let's read on page 136 from Book Seven, Chapter Three.  

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims, welcome back. Today, St. Augustine has a harsh name for the Manichees—frauds. We will talk about that after our reading. We are reading from Book Seven, Chapter Two on page 135.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims, to Book Seven! There are Thirteen Books within "Confessions" and we are at Book Seven, which means that we are more than halfway through the Books.   Today is a bit longer, so let's get started by opening to Book Seven, Chapter One, on page 133.    

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims, and welcome to our last reading from Book Six. Isn't that amazing? We are already done with six books.   Today, we will talk about Epicurus, a famous philosopher who lived from 270 BC to 341 BC. Let's hear about his beliefs by opening to page 131 and reading from Book Six, Chapter Sixteen.  

  Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. After yesterday's light-hearted reading, today is much more serious. Because Augustine is to be married, he has to let go of his long-time mistress. She goes back to Africa. And instead of trying to be chaste during this period of waiting, Augustine takes another mistress, which defeats the whole purpose of sending the other one away.   I imagine that these mistresses...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. St. Augustine and his buddies are wishing to have basically a man cave in today's readings. This is a bit of a light-hearted reading and I think you'll get a kick out of a bunch of men, some married, all wanting to live in a space together so that they can have some peace.   We are reading from Book Six, Chapter Fourteen on page 130.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. We are going to hear how St. Augustine has proposed to a young lady in our reading today. Short reading today from Book Six, Chapter Thirteen on page 129.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. I hope you are well wherever you are in the great wide world.   Today, I would caution about having younger ears around. We will be reading from Book Six, Chapter Twelve on page 128.  

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today in our reading, St. Augustine is going to let us in on the dialogue that went on in his head from age 19 to his present age of 30 here in Book Six. It's so interesting and I think you will find it very relatable. Just imagine Augustine with a cartoon angel on his right shoulder and a cartoon devil on his left.   We are reading from Book Six, Chapter Eleven on page...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank you again for joining me. I hope you all know how much I love reading these works for you and for myself. It's truly a delight for me and I'm just grateful that you are listening.   Integrity is the word of the day so keep that in mind as we read from Book Six, Chapter 10 on page 125.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back. Today, we are going to hear more about Alypius' story. If you remember yesterday, St. Augustine was telling us about how Alypius went to Rome before Augustine and he got caught up in the bloody arena spectacles. Today, we will go back a little further in time to when Alypius was still in Carthage. He gets accused of a crime and St. Augustine tells us the sto...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. We are going to hear more about Alypius today and his fall into grotesque entertainment. It can be tempting to listen to how he gets caught up in the bloody, immoral gladiator spectacles and think that we are safe from such debauchery. But…that's not true.   We will talk about this on the other side of our reading today from Book Six, Chapter Eight on page 121. Also, as...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome. Today, we hear the name of two friends of St. Augustine—Alypius and Nebridius. We will mostly hear about Alypius and how he became someone that St. Augustine wanted to rescue from a life of frivolous pursuits.   Let's hear about that in Book Six, Chapter Seven on page 120.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank you for joining me today.   God will often allow us to hit the bottom of the well before we can rise up out of it. That is exactly what you will hear about today in our reading. St. Augustine is at the bottom of the well, sunk in misery. He has chased all the things that he thought would make him happy and those things aren't working anymore.   Let's hear about th...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. I hope the day is treating you well. Today, we hear from St. Augustine that he has come to prefer Catholic teaching. Yay! He's getting there. We hear about the conclusions he makes.   We are reading from Book Six, Chapter Five on page 116.   Blog on Christopher Columbus

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. I hope all is well where you are. Today, we are going to hear about how St. Augustine had a lot of hang ups with Scripture because he thought all of it had to be taken literally. A lot of people believe this and it creates a lot of problems. So, that is what we will discuss on the other side.   Our reading today is found on page 115 and is from Book Six, Chapter Four.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Welcome back. Today, St. Augustine shares with us about how he was just looking for some time to spend one-on-one with St. Ambrose. Ambrose is a busy man, always reading, always receiving visitors, teaching, and preaching, and so, it's hard to find time to get an audience with him.   But, St. Augustine wants to and he goes and listens to his preaching and he finds that th...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims, to another great day. Today, we are going to hear about how St. Monica was told by St. Ambrose, who was bishop, to stop practicing a certain custom and she is obedient. There's something really important about obedience that I want to talk about on the other side of our reading. We will be reading from Book Six, Chapter Two on 112.  

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. We have arrived at Book Six. Today, we are going to hear about how St. Augustine's mother, St. Monica, comes to Milan to be with him. She finds out that Augustine has left behind the Manichees and has been listening to Ambrose. She isn't super shocked by this news and continues to trust in God and have hope that He will lead Augustine into the fullness of the Catholic Fai...

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we finish up Book Five. Again, congratulations on finishing another book. Progress is being made. At the beginning of Book Five, St. Augustine was in Carthage, then he moved to Rome, and we end this book with him in Milan. And it's in Milan that he meets St. Ambrose.   He gives us more insight into this initial thoughts on St. Ambrose here in the last chapter. We...

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. St. Ambrose shows up today! I think you are really going to enjoy this short reading where we hear about what St. Augustine initially thinks about St. Ambrose. We will be reading from Book Five, Chapter 13 on page 107.  

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. Remember how St. Augustine wanted to teach in Rome because he heard that the students were less rowdy? Well, they are less rowdy, but they are quite dishonest and unscrupulous. Let's hear about this in Book Five, Chapter Twelve on page 106.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. After a couple of days of longer readings, today, we get a shorter one. St. Augustine has the desire to hear debates between Manichees and those that know Scripture well and, of course, that's a step in the right direction.   We will be reading form Book Five, Chapter 11 on page 105.