For the past few months, I’ve been reading this book named “The Confessions” by St. Augustine I have enjoyed St. Augustine’s writing and how deep he gets in understanding God’s greatness in his life, he also speaks about his youth and his conversion to Christianity. I found his writings fascinating and it helped me become closer to the Catholic Faith than I ever have before. This story has many translations, mainly because it’s originally written in Latin, and since I don’t speak Latin, I will be reviewing the English translation by Sister Maria B Boulding. Sister Boulding does a great job translating this autobiography to help English readers understand St. Augustine’s original writing. She also published many books on her own, which I can link down below if you’re interested.
I will be sharing my thoughts towards each book of the story, starting with Book 1: Infancy and Boyhood. This book is divided into many sections, but Augustine speaks about prayer and meditation in the first few pages of this book. He questions what we can do to praise our Lord and how our willingness to seek Him will lead us to praise His goodness. Augustine continues to examine how we can be closer to God, but what he realizes towards the end of the section is that if we invite the Lord into our lives, He will give us praise. One quote from this section that stuck with me is, “And when you pour yourself out over us, you do not lie there spilt but raise us up; you are not scattered, but gather us together.”(Augustine 15). That is what makes God so incredible because He is truly a perfect gift for us who is the source of our salvation. A few lines below page 15, Augustine says,”You are most high, excellent, most powerful, omnipotent, supremely merciful and supremely just…”(Augustine 15), he continues to make the statement on how amazing God is, and we can become fulfilled in having a God that is perfect in any way. That is why prayer is vital because it can bring us closer to Him and help us understand our true passions in our lives. Everything we do, every intention we have, is all for our Lord and can help us understand our lives better if we become believers in Christ.
The next section of the book speaks about Augustine’s infancy. Augustine had a mother who was very close to the Faith and said his parents could help guide him to the right path to pleasing God. The first few lines of this section speak how God gives us His mercy, even if we sin against Him, he provides insight into his infancy and explains that many of his memories were forgotten at that time. He starts contemplating if he had another life before he was born and if he should ask for God’s forgiveness for sins he committed before he was able to speak. “Was I somewhere else? Was I even someone? I have nobody to tell me: neither father nor mother could enlighten me, nor the experience of others, nor any memory of my own. Are you laughing at me for asking you these questions, and are you perhaps commanding me to praise you and confess to you simply about what I do know?”(Augustine 18). This does help us wonder if the sins we committed before we could speak could possibly be sinful but at the same time, it is difficult to know for sure. Augustine also continues to question God if He would laugh at him for asking questions about himself. But one thing we cannot forget is that God loves us and shows His mercy towards us. He is patient, humble, and extremely generous. He does not laugh at us for the questions we might have. He then moves on, thinking if we may be innocent as an infant, considering that we may not remember what we did at the time. Augustine lets go of this reasoning towards the end of the section where he says, “So I will leave that period aside. What does it matter to me now, since it has vanished without trace from my memory?”(Augustine 21). This requires us to think if we should be worried about this time or just leave it aside since we have no memory of this time frame. In my personal opinion, I felt this section helped me think more about my childhood in general and think if I should ask God for His forgiveness on events that happened in the past. While reading this, I’ve never thought of asking God for things I did before I could even speak or even when I just started speaking. It makes me curious about what I did in general and my overall thinking back then. From an infant to a kid, it’s hard to imagine what we were thinking and if we even could understand God’s goodness. We are just learning how to spell or count numbers or walk at that stage, and our attention is focused on just those three things. Maybe I am overthinking, or perhaps I’m not. Overall, it definitely brings me to think about more of my childhood and continue to ask God if this is worth praying or if I am just overthinking, much as Augustine did the same.
The next section talks about Augustine learning to speak, he doesn’t get into too much detail regarding the words he learned, he mainly saw it as a way to communicate with others without crying or throwing tantrums. He does explain it wasn’t his parents that taught us to speak but with the mind, we have that from God. Meaning, we learned to speak from our own brains that were given us by God in order to interpret things in the world. “It was not that older people taught me by offering me words by way of formal instruction, as was the case soon afterward with reading. No, I taught myself, using the mind you gave me, O my God, because I was unable to express the thoughts of my heart by cries and inarticulate sounds and gestures in such a way as to gain what I wanted to indicate that thing.”(Augustine 21). I haven’t really thought of knowing we speak because of the mind we were given. Yes, I do think that our elders help us know how to speak and many of the things we know today, but it was also God who gave us this ability, so we can speak with each other without having to cry or scream about what we want.
As the story progresses Augustine speaks about school and his difficulties in being bullied. He prayed to God asking to not be beaten at school but soon after, he was beaten and was laughed at by many of his peers. Later on in the section, Augustine starts doing sinful actions mainly because he is persuaded to do so with his friends. He says, “It was not that we lacked intelligence or ability, Lord, for you had endowed us with these in a measure appropriate to our age; it was simply that we loved to play, and were punished by adults who nonetheless did the same themselves.”(Augustine 22). This is very relatable in today’s world because we can punish a child for actions like swearing but as adults, we tend to do that very often. For me, I stay away from swearing, especially in public places because it doesn’t seem polite. But that’s adulthood, as children, we don’t always know what’s right or what’s wrong mainly because we are still learning how the world works. As children grow up, we tend to attract to material things like phones and social media (I have mentioned this in a previous blog, “Toxic Social Media Culture” if you want to check that out). We can easily be distracted when we don’t always think about God and prevent us from knowing God’s generosity for our lives. I feel this is a great reminder because there are many things in my life that can distract me but what I try to do every day is to pray consistently. Finding time in prayer definitely is a great way to get your mind off the stresses we have in our lives. It is also important to teach our young people to pray too and know of God’s truth and beauty. It sometimes can be difficult for children to understand but if we teach them step by step, they will understand His goodness.
Augustine then discusses his baptism and how his mother who raised him allowed Augustine to be baptized in the Catholic Church. The Sacrament of Baptism is the very first Sacrament we receive after our birth. He talks about how his baptism was delayed and if there is a good reason why it was delayed. He states, “My God, I beg you to tell me-for I would very much like to know, if it is your will-to what purpose my baptism was postponed, and whether it was for my good that the restraints against sinning were in degree slackened for me; it is true, is it not, that they were slackened?”(Augustine 24). I feel that maybe he’s questioning this because we are supposed to be baptized as infants. We often don’t hear people saying they were baptized later on in life unless they joined the Catholic Church later on in life. For me, I wasn’t baptized until I was four. Mainly because I was adopted but maybe there is a reason or purpose.
I was originally going to discuss the whole book (chapter) in this blog but the blog will be longer than it needs to be. Overall at this point, this does give a good insight into who we were as children and how we can influence future generations on God’s goodness and truth. We often see young people think this way and it is hard to do that even in adulthood in this imperfect world. Like I said at the beginning of this blog, we must draw our attention to God and know His will for us, so we can be successful in this world and live eternally.
The Confessions Book::
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Works-Saint-Augustine-Translation/dp/1565481542?ref_=ast_sto_dp
Sister Maria Boulding’s Books:
https://www.google.com/search?q=maria+boulding+books&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS907US909&oq=maria&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j35i39j46i433i512j46i131i433j46i131i433i512j69i60l3.3662j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
I will be sharing my thoughts towards each book of the story, starting with Book 1: Infancy and Boyhood. This book is divided into many sections, but Augustine speaks about prayer and meditation in the first few pages of this book. He questions what we can do to praise our Lord and how our willingness to seek Him will lead us to praise His goodness. Augustine continues to examine how we can be closer to God, but what he realizes towards the end of the section is that if we invite the Lord into our lives, He will give us praise. One quote from this section that stuck with me is, “And when you pour yourself out over us, you do not lie there spilt but raise us up; you are not scattered, but gather us together.”(Augustine 15). That is what makes God so incredible because He is truly a perfect gift for us who is the source of our salvation. A few lines below page 15, Augustine says,”You are most high, excellent, most powerful, omnipotent, supremely merciful and supremely just…”(Augustine 15), he continues to make the statement on how amazing God is, and we can become fulfilled in having a God that is perfect in any way. That is why prayer is vital because it can bring us closer to Him and help us understand our true passions in our lives. Everything we do, every intention we have, is all for our Lord and can help us understand our lives better if we become believers in Christ.
The next section of the book speaks about Augustine’s infancy. Augustine had a mother who was very close to the Faith and said his parents could help guide him to the right path to pleasing God. The first few lines of this section speak how God gives us His mercy, even if we sin against Him, he provides insight into his infancy and explains that many of his memories were forgotten at that time. He starts contemplating if he had another life before he was born and if he should ask for God’s forgiveness for sins he committed before he was able to speak. “Was I somewhere else? Was I even someone? I have nobody to tell me: neither father nor mother could enlighten me, nor the experience of others, nor any memory of my own. Are you laughing at me for asking you these questions, and are you perhaps commanding me to praise you and confess to you simply about what I do know?”(Augustine 18). This does help us wonder if the sins we committed before we could speak could possibly be sinful but at the same time, it is difficult to know for sure. Augustine also continues to question God if He would laugh at him for asking questions about himself. But one thing we cannot forget is that God loves us and shows His mercy towards us. He is patient, humble, and extremely generous. He does not laugh at us for the questions we might have. He then moves on, thinking if we may be innocent as an infant, considering that we may not remember what we did at the time. Augustine lets go of this reasoning towards the end of the section where he says, “So I will leave that period aside. What does it matter to me now, since it has vanished without trace from my memory?”(Augustine 21). This requires us to think if we should be worried about this time or just leave it aside since we have no memory of this time frame. In my personal opinion, I felt this section helped me think more about my childhood in general and think if I should ask God for His forgiveness on events that happened in the past. While reading this, I’ve never thought of asking God for things I did before I could even speak or even when I just started speaking. It makes me curious about what I did in general and my overall thinking back then. From an infant to a kid, it’s hard to imagine what we were thinking and if we even could understand God’s goodness. We are just learning how to spell or count numbers or walk at that stage, and our attention is focused on just those three things. Maybe I am overthinking, or perhaps I’m not. Overall, it definitely brings me to think about more of my childhood and continue to ask God if this is worth praying or if I am just overthinking, much as Augustine did the same.
The next section talks about Augustine learning to speak, he doesn’t get into too much detail regarding the words he learned, he mainly saw it as a way to communicate with others without crying or throwing tantrums. He does explain it wasn’t his parents that taught us to speak but with the mind, we have that from God. Meaning, we learned to speak from our own brains that were given us by God in order to interpret things in the world. “It was not that older people taught me by offering me words by way of formal instruction, as was the case soon afterward with reading. No, I taught myself, using the mind you gave me, O my God, because I was unable to express the thoughts of my heart by cries and inarticulate sounds and gestures in such a way as to gain what I wanted to indicate that thing.”(Augustine 21). I haven’t really thought of knowing we speak because of the mind we were given. Yes, I do think that our elders help us know how to speak and many of the things we know today, but it was also God who gave us this ability, so we can speak with each other without having to cry or scream about what we want.
As the story progresses Augustine speaks about school and his difficulties in being bullied. He prayed to God asking to not be beaten at school but soon after, he was beaten and was laughed at by many of his peers. Later on in the section, Augustine starts doing sinful actions mainly because he is persuaded to do so with his friends. He says, “It was not that we lacked intelligence or ability, Lord, for you had endowed us with these in a measure appropriate to our age; it was simply that we loved to play, and were punished by adults who nonetheless did the same themselves.”(Augustine 22). This is very relatable in today’s world because we can punish a child for actions like swearing but as adults, we tend to do that very often. For me, I stay away from swearing, especially in public places because it doesn’t seem polite. But that’s adulthood, as children, we don’t always know what’s right or what’s wrong mainly because we are still learning how the world works. As children grow up, we tend to attract to material things like phones and social media (I have mentioned this in a previous blog, “Toxic Social Media Culture” if you want to check that out). We can easily be distracted when we don’t always think about God and prevent us from knowing God’s generosity for our lives. I feel this is a great reminder because there are many things in my life that can distract me but what I try to do every day is to pray consistently. Finding time in prayer definitely is a great way to get your mind off the stresses we have in our lives. It is also important to teach our young people to pray too and know of God’s truth and beauty. It sometimes can be difficult for children to understand but if we teach them step by step, they will understand His goodness.
Augustine then discusses his baptism and how his mother who raised him allowed Augustine to be baptized in the Catholic Church. The Sacrament of Baptism is the very first Sacrament we receive after our birth. He talks about how his baptism was delayed and if there is a good reason why it was delayed. He states, “My God, I beg you to tell me-for I would very much like to know, if it is your will-to what purpose my baptism was postponed, and whether it was for my good that the restraints against sinning were in degree slackened for me; it is true, is it not, that they were slackened?”(Augustine 24). I feel that maybe he’s questioning this because we are supposed to be baptized as infants. We often don’t hear people saying they were baptized later on in life unless they joined the Catholic Church later on in life. For me, I wasn’t baptized until I was four. Mainly because I was adopted but maybe there is a reason or purpose.
I was originally going to discuss the whole book (chapter) in this blog but the blog will be longer than it needs to be. Overall at this point, this does give a good insight into who we were as children and how we can influence future generations on God’s goodness and truth. We often see young people think this way and it is hard to do that even in adulthood in this imperfect world. Like I said at the beginning of this blog, we must draw our attention to God and know His will for us, so we can be successful in this world and live eternally.
The Confessions Book::
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Works-Saint-Augustine-Translation/dp/1565481542?ref_=ast_sto_dp
Sister Maria Boulding’s Books:
https://www.google.com/search?q=maria+boulding+books&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS907US909&oq=maria&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j35i39j46i433i512j46i131i433j46i131i433i512j69i60l3.3662j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8