AUGUSTINE 1

LIFE, WORKS, TEACHINGS & SPIRITUALITY

OF ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

SAINT AUGUSTINE’S
CONVERSION EXPERIENCES
 AUGUSTINIAN PRAYER BEFORE CLASS

L: When we live in
unity
A: How good and how
pleasing it is
 AUGUSTINIAN PRAYER BEFORE CLASS

L: Pray for us,

Holy father Augustine
A: That we may dwell
together in peace

L: Let us Pray
God our father,
Your Son promised to be
present in the midst of all
who come together
in His name.
Help us to recognize
His presence among us
and experience in our
hearts the abundance
of Your grace,
Your mercy, and
Your peace, in truth and
in love.
We ask this, through
Christ our Lord.
Amen
L: St. Augustine
A: Pray For us
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to:

1. Familiarize themselves with Augustine’s
conversion experiences, elucidating the
transformative moments and internal
struggles that led to his profound spiritual
awakening and commitment to Christianity.
2. Identify instances of Divine intervention in their
own lives, discerning moments of guidance, grace
or providence that have influenced their beliefs,
decisions, or circumstances.

3. Express ways by which they can serve as

instruments in manifesting God’s love to others,
demonstrating compassionate actions, empathy,
and altruism in their interactions and
relationships.
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

identify instances of Divine intervention in their own

lives, discerning moments of guidance, grace or
providence that have influenced their beliefs,
decisions, or circumstances.
3. express ways by which they can serve as
instruments in manifesting God’s love to others,
demonstrating compassionate actions, empathy, and
Recall and share an event
in your life when you
experienced the power
of God’s love.
AUGUSTINE 1
LIFE, WORKS, TEACHINGS & SPIRITUALITY
OF ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

SHARING
 From the letter of Paul to
the Colossians 3:1-17

If then you have been raised with

Christ, seek the things that are
above, where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God. Set your minds
on things that are above, not on
things that are on earth. For you
have died, and your life is hid with
Christ in God.
When Christ who is our life appears,
then you also will appear with him
in glory.

Put to death therefore what is

earthly in you: fornication, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and
covetousness, which is idolatry. On
account of these the wrath of
God is coming.
In these you once walked, when you
lived in them. But now put them all
away: anger, wrath, malice, slander,
and foul talk from your mouth. Do
not lie to one another, seeing that
you have put off the old nature with
its practices and have put on the
new nature, which is being renewed
in knowledge after the image of its
creator.
 Here there cannot be Greek and
Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythʹian, slave, free man,
but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones,
holy and beloved, compassion,
kindness, lowliness, meekness, and
patience, forbearing one another
and, if one has a complaint against
another, forgiving each other;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so you
also must forgive. And above all
these put on love, which binds
everything together in perfect
harmony. And let the peace of Christ
rule in your hearts, to which indeed
you were called in the one body. And
be thankful. Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly, teach and
admonish one another
 in all wisdom, and sing psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs with
thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or
deed, do everything in the name of
the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God
the Father through him.
(NRSV – Catholic Edition)

The word of the Lord.

AUGUSTINE 1
LIFE, WORKS, TEACHINGS & SPIRITUALITY
OF ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

SAINT AUGUSTINE’S
CONVERSION EXPERIENCES
SETTING ONE’S MINDS ON THINGS ABOVE

• Saint Augustine’s restless

conversion has three-stages
namely:
ü Intellectual,
ü Moral, and
ü Scriptural.
SETTING ONE’S MINDS ON THINGS ABOVE

• The conversion happened

through the influences of the
significant persons who
touched his life.

• Augustine’s conversion made

him a follower of Christ.
 May his desire to search for
God in order to attain real
happiness would influence your
decision making as you enter
the world of knowledge full of
enthusiasm and ideal.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
The Search for Truth

ü One of the main characteristics

of Saint Augustine's spirituality is
his insatiable quest for truth.

ü From his youth, Augustine felt a

profound restlessness to find
answers to life's great questions.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
The Search for Truth

ü This search led him through

various philosophical and
religious paths until he finally
found in Christ the ultimate
Truth
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
Interior Life
ü Saint Augustine emphasized the
importance of interiority, the
journey inward to find God.

ü In the "Confessions," Augustine

recounts how his conversion
was a process of inner
discovery.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
Interior Life

ü He insisted that God is found in the deepest

part of the human heart and that each person
must turn inward to find the divine truth.
ü This introspection is an invitation to prayer
and meditation, practices that allow Christians
to hear God's voice within.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
Love as the Center of Spiritual Life
ü For Saint Augustine, love is the
essence of spiritual life.

ü He famously said, "Love and do

what you will," indicating that if
God's love guides our actions,
then our deeds will be just and
good.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
Love as the Center of Spiritual Life

ü This love encompasses both love for God and love

for one's neighbor. Augustine saw love as the force
that unites and transforms the Christian
community.
ü His spirituality calls us to live love authentically and
deeply, thus reflecting God's love in our lives.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
Divine Grace
ü The experience of divine grace is
central to Saint Augustine's
spirituality.

ü Augustine recognized the

powerful action of grace that led
him from a life of sin to a life of
holiness.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
Divine Grace

ü He taught that God's grace is an unearned gift

that enables us to live according to His will.
ü This understanding of grace underscores the
Christian's total dependence on God for
salvation and sanctification.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
Continuous Conversion
ü Saint Augustine viewed the
Christian life as a continuous
conversion.

ü He understood that the Christian

must constantly renew and grow
in holiness.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
Continuous Conversion

ü This idea of ongoing conversion involves a

daily process of repentance, faith, and spiritual
renewal.
ü It reminds us that holiness is not a one-time
achievement but a continuous path of
transformation.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
Community and the Church

ü The Christian community holds

a central place in Augustinian
spirituality.

ü He saw the Church as a

community of believers united
by God's love.
 Dying to Sin and Living in Christ
Community and the Church

ü He founded monastic communities where

communal life, prayer, and work were fundamental.

ü For Augustine, the community is the place where

faith is lived out concretely and where God's
presence is experienced through fraternal
relationships. Community life is a tangible
expression of love and unity in Christ.
 UNITY IN CHRIST

For Augustine,

“No friends are true friends unless

you, my God, bind them fast to
one another through that LOVE
which is sown in our hearts
by the Holy Spirit.”
(Confessions IV, 4).
This can be held as the only
purpose in coming together,
and that every other reason is a
natural consequence of
understanding what it means to
be “of one mind and one heart
intent upon God.” (Rule, 1.)
The type of community life
that reflects Christ's own
desire for His Church,

“that all may be one, as you,

Father, are one in me, and I in
you.” (John 17:21)
 AUGUSTINE READS
THE PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY
• Neo-Platonism was a philosophical movement
inaugurated by Plotinus (AD 204/5 - 270), which
reinterpreted the ideas of the ancient Greek
philosopher Plato.

• It argued that the world which we experience is

only a copy of an ideal reality which lies beyond
the material world.
 AUGUSTINE READS
THE PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY
• The association of Augustine's association with
Neo-Platonism was yet another step towards his
baptism.

• Neo-Platonism as the closest pagan philosophy to

the beliefs of Christians because its followers were
not materialists as Epicureans and Stoics were, but
held that there are immaterial or spiritual realities.
 AUGUSTINE READS
THE PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY

• In the 380s and 390s, Augustine’s writings were

heavily dependent on a fundamentally Platonic view
of the world (world view), of human nature (his
anthropology) and human destiny (Christian life).
 AUGUSTINE READS
THE PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY
• A tension began to open in the mid-390s, when his
deepened understanding of the Scriptural writings
of Saint Paul questioned the compatibility of the
Platonic and Pauline conceptual frameworks.
• Augustine made a huge shift in his spiritual and
intellectual mindset, Platonic philosophy still
remained an important underpinning within his
writings
 AUGUSTINE HEARS VARIOUS STORIES OF
CONVERSION
ü Ponticianus told Augustine
and his friend Alypius the
story of Anthony of Egypt,
who had lived a life of great
holiness as a hermit in the
desert.
 AUGUSTINE HEARS VARIOUS STORIES OF
CONVERSION
ü Simplicianus told Augustine
the story of the conversion of
Gaius Marius Victorinus a
respected rhetorician,
translator and philosopher
who converted to Christianity
at the end of his life.
 HIS EXPERIENCE OF SPIRITUAL CRISIS

“Lord, give me chastity and

continence, but not yet!”
In his Confessions, St Augustine
was not afraid to admit his utter
powerlessness in the face of
sexual temptation.
 HIS EXPERIENCE OF SPIRITUAL CRISIS

“Lord, give me chastity and

continence, but not yet!”
In his Confessions, St Augustine
was not afraid to admit his utter
powerlessness in the face of
sexual temptation.
 HIS EXPERIENCE OF SPIRITUAL CRISIS

The power of sin enchained Augustine and used him as

a net to ensnare others, but a far greater power was
already at work. His saintly mother, Monica, had been
praying for him for years with such weeping and
longing that her local bishop reassured her:
“Go in peace. It cannot be that the son of
these tears should be lost.”
 HIS EXPERIENCE OF SPIRITUAL CRISIS

One day, a senior official from the imperial court came

to visit Augustine and chatted to him about the
wonderful life of St Antony of Egypt, saying it had
convinced him that it was far better to be a friend of
God than of the emperor. These words struck a chord
with Augustine. Suddenly, he could see himself as he
really was: sordid and miserable.
 HIS EXPERIENCE OF SPIRITUAL CRISIS

Grace and nature were at war

within him and he could take no
more! He knew that only a small
chain held him back from
converting. By his own willpower
he tried to break it, repeating
“Let it be now, let it be now!”
 THE “TOLLE LEGE” EXPERIENCES

While despairing of God’s mercy

in prayer, St. Augustine suddenly
heard a childlike voice, repeating,
“Take, read! Take, read!”
 THE “TOLLE LEGE” EXPERIENCES

He turned to the scriptural letters of St. Paul, reading

at random until his eyes fell upon the following
passage: “… not in reveling and drunkenness, not in
debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and
jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make
no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires”
(Rom 13:13-14).
 THE “TOLLE LEGE” EXPERIENCES

Immediately transformed,
scales falling from his eyes like
St. Paul, St. Augustine sought
out his mother and rejoiced.
Shortly thereafter, he was
baptized by Bishop Ambrose.
HIS RESIGNATION FROM THE IMPERIAL COURT

He announced to the authorities and parents of his

pupils to look for another professor, as he was ill and
planning to retire to serve God. Besides, he needed a
good rest, for his health was nearly broken under the
strain of his work, but even move by his exhausting
mental and moral experiences. In 386 – 387,
Augustine resigned from his professorship.
 HIS CASSICIACUM COMMUNITY

Augustine took refuge in

Cassiciacum. He settled in a
friend’s summer residence in
Cassiciacum with his mother, son,
bosom friend Alypius, his two
pupils Licensius and Trygenius,
Evodius and his brother Navigius.
 HIS CASSICIACUM COMMUNITY

• This pleasant village in which he was to live for

some months was placed at his disposal by his
friend Verecundus.

• Here, far from the madding world, they spent their

days attending to chores in the house and in the
fields, sitting and discussing philosophy and reading
Cicero and Virgil.
 HIS CASSICIACUM COMMUNITY
• Monica managed the house and kept an eye on
Augustine’s health. “She took care of us as though
she had been mother of us all” (Conf. IX.9)
• In the morning Augustine prayed, studied the Bible,
wrote and gave lessons in grammar and rhetoric.
• The afternoons were devoted to free discussions
on philosophy - so passionate that it continued
into the night.
 HIS CASSICIACUM COMMUNITY

• Everyone took part in the talks – even Monica and

the young Adeodatus.
• The fruits of these dialogues were the books:
§ Against the Academics (Conta Academicos),
§ On Order (De Ordine),
§ On the Happy Life (De Beata Vita), and
§ Soliloquies (Soliloquia).
 HIS CASSICIACUM COMMUNITY

The community life experience of Augustine in

Cassiciacum was an inspiration coming from the
community experience of the Jerusalem community.
Acts 4:34 ff. explains how the first community of
disciples live together as brothers and sisters in
following the Lord Jesus—they sold their possessions
and put everything in common.
 HIS BAPTISM BY BISHOP AMBROSE

In the fall of 386, Augustine wrote

to Ambrose announcing his
intention to receive baptism. He
was baptized on the eve of Easter
Vigil together with Alypius, his
boyhood, and Adeodatus, his son.
 HIS RETURN TO TAGASTE,
DEATH OF MONICA, HIS MOTHER

In the fall of 386, Augustine wrote

to Ambrose announcing his
intention to receive baptism. He
was baptized on the eve of Easter
Vigil together with Alypius, his
boyhood, and Adeodatus, his son.
AUGUSTINE 1
LIFE, WORKS, TEACHINGS & SPIRITUALITY
OF ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Augustine’s Experience
of Spiritual Crisis
 Saint Augustine’s teaching
methodologies were
characterized by his use of
dialogue, rhetorical
eloquence, and a strong
emphasis on love and
humility.
 Use of Scripture and Allegorical
Interpretation
• Augustine’s teaching was deeply rooted in the
use of Scripture.
• He often employed allegorical interpretations
of biblical texts to convey deeper spiritual
truths.
 AUGUSTINIAN PRAYER AFTER CLASS

L: Our help is in the

name of the Lord
A: Who made heaven
and earth

L: Let us Pray
God, the desire of every
human heart, you moved
Saint Augustine to seek
restlessly for truth and
peace.
Touch our hearts with his
burning desire for wisdom,
for the Word made flesh.
We ask this through Christ,
our Lord.
Amen
L: Glory be to the
Father and to the
Son, and to the
Holy Spirit
A: As it was in the
beginning, is now,
and will be forever.
Amen
L: St. Augustine
A: Pray For us
AUGUSTINE 1
LIFE, WORKS, TEACHINGS & SPIRITUALITY
OF ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

SAINT AUGUSTINE’S QUEST

FOR KNOWLEDGE