Saint Augustine (354-430), one of
the Fathers of the Church and Bishop of Hippo, was a most prolific writer,
and defender of the Catholic Church. He is quoted by Catholics and non-Catholics
alike. In his many writings, he mentioned the Catholic Church by name,
more than 300 times.
Here are some of his "Gems".
"I would not believe in the Gospel myself if the
authority of the Catholic Church did not influence me to do so."
Against the letter of Mani, 5,6, 397 A.D.
"You made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless
until they rest in you."
Confessions, 1,1,1, 400 A.D.
His work, "Confessions" is a 13 volume series and is considered
to be one of the greatest writings of all time. It is entirely addressed
to GOD.
"We must hold to the Christian religion and to communication
in her Church which is Catholic, and which is called Catholic not only
by her members but even by all her enemies. For when heretics or the adherents
of schisms talk about her, not among themselves but with strangers, willy-nilly
they call her nothing else but Catholic. For they would not be understood
unless they distinguish her by this name which the whole world employs
in her regard."
The True Religion, 7,12, 397 A.D.
"This Church is Holy, the One
Church, the True Church, the Catholic Church, fighting as she does against
all heresies. She can fight, but she cannot be beaten. All heresies are
expelled from her, like the useless loppings pruned from a vine. She remains
fixed in her root, in her vine, in her love. The gates of hell shall not
conquer her."
Sermon to Catechumens, on the Creed, 6,14, 395 A.D.
"But in regard to those observances which we carefully
attend and which the whole world keeps, and which derive not from Scripture
but from tradition, we are given to understand that they are recommended
and ordained to be kept either by the Apostles themselves or by plenary
Councils, the authority of which is quite vital to the Church."
Letter to Januarius 54,1,1, 400 A.D.
"I believe that this practice comes from apostolic
tradition, just as so many other practices not found in their writings
nor in the councils of their successors, but which, because they are kept
by the whole Church everywhere, are believed to have been commended and
handed down by the Apostles themselves."
Baptism 1,12,20, 400 A.D.
"Before His suffering the Lord Jesus Christ, as you
know, chose His disciples, whom He called Apostles. Among these Apostles
almost everywhere Peter alone merited to represent the whole Church. For
the sake of his representing the whole Church, which he alone could do,
he merited to hear, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven (Matt
16:19)."
Sermons 295,2, 391 A.D.
"What they found in the Church they kept; what they
learned, they taught; what they received from the fathers, they handed
on to the sons."
Against Julian, 2,10,33, 421 A.D.
"Since by Christ's favor we are Catholic Christians:"
Letter to Vitalis, 217,5,16, 427 A.D.
"By the same word, by the same Sacrament you were
born, but you will not come to the same inheritance of eternal life, unless
you return to the Catholic Church."
Sermons, 3, 391 A.D.
"Tell us straight out that you do not believe in
the Gospel of Christ; for you believe what you want in the Gospel and disbelieve
what you want. You believe in yourself rather than in the Gospel."
Against Faustus, 17, 3, 400 A.D.
"Do you claim to be strong? You will be beaten by
beasts. Do you claim speed? Flies are faster. Do you claim beauty? What
great beauty there is in a peafowl's feathers. How are you better, then,
than these? By the image of GOD. And where is GOD's image? In your mind,
in your intellect."
Homilies on the Gospel of John, 3,4, 416 A.D.
"Adam sleeps that Eve may be formed; Christ dies
that the Church may be formed. Eve is formed from the side of the sleeping
Adam; the side of the dead Christ is pierced by the lance, so that the
Sacraments may flow out, of which the Church is formed."
Homilies on the Gospel of John, 9,10, 416 A.D.
"Man, destined to die, labors to avert his dying;
and yet man, destined to live in eternity, does not labor to avoid sinning."
Homilies on the Gospel of John, 49,2, 416 A.D.
"What the soul is to man's body, the Holy Spirit
is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church. The Holy Spirit does in
the whole Church what the soul does in all members of one body. But see
what you must beware of, see what you must take note of, see what you must
fear. It happens that in the human body, or rather, off the body, some
member, whether hand, finger, or foot, may be cut away. And if a member
be cut off, does the soul go with it? When the member was in the body,
it lived; and off, its life is lost. So too, a Christian man is Catholic
while he lives in the body; cut off, he is made a heretic; the Spirit does
not follow an amputated member."
Sermons, 267, 4, 391-430 A.D.
"Let us not listen to those who deny that the Church
of GOD is able to forgive all sins. They are wretched indeed, because they
do not recognize in Peter the rock and they refuse to believe that the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, lost from their own hands, have been given
to the Church." Christian Combat 31,33, 396 A.D.
"If you want GOD to forgive, you must confess.
Sin cannot go unpunished. It were seemingly, improper, and unjust for sin
to go unpunished. Since, therefore, sin must not go unpunished, let it
be punished by you, lest you be punished for it. Let your sin have you
for its judge, not its patron.
Go up and take the bench against yourself, and put the guilt before yourself.
Do not put it behind you, or GOD will put it in front of you."
Sermons, 20,2, 410 A.D.
"The Catholic Church is the
work of Divine Providence, achieved through the prophecies of the prophets,
through the Incarnation and the teaching of Christ, through the journeys
of the Apostles, through the suffering, the crosses, the blood and the
death of the martyrs, through the admirable lives of the saints. When,
then, we see so much help on God's part, so much progress and so much fruit,
shall we hesitate to bury ourselves in the bosom of that Church? For starting
from the Apostolic Chair down through successions of bishops, even unto
the open confession of all mankind, it has possessed the crown of teaching
authority."
The Advantage of Believing, 391 A.D.
Several non-Catholics have quoted to me from writings
of Saint Augustine. From the samplings which I have shown here, if I were
a non-Catholic, and was determined to remain one, I would not ever quote
from him again.
Gems
From Saint Augustine