Conversion and Vocation: It's never ending

Brothers and Sisters,

Today is the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Our Sunday readings (http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/012509a.shtml) continue on the theme from last week regarding God's calling to us to be redeemed and share in the coming of the Kingdom.

This week we hear how Nineveh was saved by Johna's obedience to God's will in going there to preach a message of repentance. The Ninevites listened, turned back to the Lord, and were saved by His mercy. Paul reminds us of how this world and the next life are not the same and for us to be on gaurd from loving this world too much and not remembering we are called to an eternity with God. Finally, Jesus continues to call his disciples together by knowing their hearts' desires.

Remember that we as religious, whether professed, oblate, or in formation, are answering God's call. First we are called to our own redemption through vigilance to prayer, penance, and integrity of heart. BE WHO YOU ARE! That is where God's call begins. Then allow God's Word to permeate you, pound your doubts and fears to sand by your living each day in your call wether in married life, single life, or celibacy. Then and only then can God's mercy effect a change in you to go out and minister as He wishes. Once you, yourself, have experienced God's transforming love, God's abundant mercy, God's radical acceptance of you, then you are ready to do His will and lead others, through intercessory prayer, example, preaching, or good works to the same journey and conclusions.

Ours is not an easy life, but it is one we live day by day. Paul's conversion was begun when he was knocked off the horse, it was completed the day he entered heaven to hug and greet his master. Our Holy Father Augustine began his conversion in Milan and completed it in the same way as Paul. We never have all the answers or should feel completely comfortable in our vocation because we are called to radical conversion EACH and EVERY day! God has placed this journey before us and He will see us through...just keep holding his hand and the hand of your brothers and sisters in community.

Yours, one in mind and heart, and yes, often confused, but ON THE WAY TO GOD with you,

Joseph Augustine+

Happy Birthday to the Augustinian Order in the Church

On December 11th, 1243 the decree, Incumbit Nobis was issued by Pope Innocent IV, and it called together a number of monastic communities in Tuscany. The Augustinians owed their formal existence to the policy of Popes Innocent IV (1241–1254) and Pope Alexander IV (1254–1261), who wished to counterbalance the influence of the powerful Franciscans and Dominicans by means of a similar order under more direct papal authority and devoted to papal interests.

The Augustinian Hermits became the last of the great mendicant orders to be formally constituted in the thirteenth century. It is historically verifiable that Innocent IV, by the bull issued 16 December 1243 united a number of small hermit societies with Augustinian rule, especially the Williamites, the John-Bonites, and the Brictinans.

Alexander IV (admonished, it was said, by an appearance of Saint Augustine) called a general assembly of the members of the new united order under the presidency of Cardinal Richard of Saint Angeli at the monastery of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome in March, 1256, when the head of the John-Bonites, Lanfranc Septala, of Milan, was chosen general prior of the united orders. Alexander's bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae, confirmed this choice. The new order was thus finally constituted with Italian, Hungarian, French, English, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swiss, Austrian and German Augustinian friars united into one international order.

The teaching and writing of Augustine, the Augustinian Rule, and the lives and experiences of Augustinians over 16 centuries help define the ethos of the order, sometimes "honored in the breach".

As well as telling his disciples to be "of one mind and heart on the way towards God" Augustine of Hippo taught that "Nothing conquers except truth and the victory of truth is love" (Victoria veritatis est caritas), and the pursuit of truth through learning is key to the Augustinian ethos, balanced by the injunction to behave with love towards one another. It does not unduly single out the exceptional, especially favor the gifted, nor exclude the poor or marginalized. Love is not earned through human merit, but received and given freely by God's free gift of grace, totally undeserved yet generously given. These same imperatives of affection and fairness have driven the order in its international missionary outreach. This balanced pursuit of love and learning has energized the various branches of the order into building communities founded on mutual affection and intellectual advancement. The Augustinian ideal is inclusive.

December 16

Incumbit Nobis

The founding of the Augustinian Order

GATHERING PRAYER

Almighty and eternal God,

In the fullness of time,

you called together, the many Augustinians,

to become a single community,

united in faith, and in the observance of the Holy Rule.

Through the intercession of our Father, Saint Augustine,

may all who follow his rule of life,

become one in mind and heart,

intent upon the Kingdom of God.

Through our Lord.

Thanks to Fr. John, SSA for this information.

Our Lady of Consolation

As our community of AIHM celebrates its fifteen years of growing and serving, we have decided as an Order, to give thanks to God by making a special effort to teach and perpetuate Augustinian devotions this year. We have a special love for Our Lady of Consolation, whose feast was Friday, September 4.

Legend (not history) holds that Mary gave a shining leather cincture from her own tunic to Monica as a sign of her consolation with Monica's struggle to teach Augustine the Catholic faith and love of God. Upon his conversion, Monica gave it to Augustine who then gave it to his community. The above painting shows Mary giving the cincture to Monica and Augustine. Beyond the pseudo history of this, the image is important. As Augustinians we are called to share the consolation God has given us in Mary's arms with those we meet. It is a part of our call and spirit.

The Gospel for this feast reminds us of Mary at the Cross. She suffered with her son and knows the pain of loss. She also knows more than any the love and joy of God's promise. She shares this with us all, especially as Augustinians. When Augustinians gird themselves with her cincture they should remember this.

A Necessary Reminder: Christ...the Alpha and Omega

Yesterday, a friend sent me a most powerful e-mail. I don't usually like those "chain" prayer e-mails, but this one was different. It didn't threaten anything, it wasn't filled with superstition, it just provided a powerful, yet gentle reminder. I offer it as a prayer to all of you who read:

You are in your car driving home. Thoughts wander to the game you want to see or meal you want to eat, when suddenly a sound unlike any you've ever heard fills the air. The sound is high above you. A trumpet? A choir? A choir of trumpets? You don't know, but you want to know. So you pull over, get out of your car, and look up. As you do, you see you aren't the only curious one. The roadside has become a parking lot. Car doors are open, and people are staring at the sky. Shoppers are racing out of the grocery store. The Little League baseball game across the street has come to a halt. Players and parents are searching the clouds. And what they see, and what you see, has never before been seen.

As if the sky were a curtain, the draperies of the atmosphere part. A brilliant light spills onto the earth. There are no shadows. None.

From every hue ever seen and a million more never seen. Riding on the flow is an endless fleet of angels. They pass through the curtains one myriad at a time, until they occupy every square inch of the sky.
North. South. East. West.
Thousands of silvery wings rise and fall in unison, and over the sound of the trumpets, you can hear the cherubim and seraphim chanting: Holy, Holy, Holy.. The final flank of angels is followed by twenty-four silver-bearded elders and a multitude of souls who join the angels in worship.

Presently the movement stops and the trumpets are silent, leaving only the triumphant triplet: Holy, Holy, Holy. Between each word is a pause. With each word, a profound reverence. You hear your voice join in the chorus. You don't know why you say the words, but you know you must.

Suddenly, the heavens are quiet. All is quiet. The angels turn, you turn, the entire world turns and there He is.
Jesus.

Through waves of light you see the silhouetted figure of Christ the King. He is atop a great stallion, and the stallion is atop a billowing cloud. He opens His mouth, and you are surrounded by His declaration:

I am the Alpha and the Omega.


The angels bow their heads. The elders remove their crowns. And before you is a figure so consuming that you know, instantly you know: Nothing else matters Forget stock markets and school reports, Sales meetings and football games. Nothing is newsworthy.. All that mattered, matters no more... for Christ has come.
Please let me know the exact time you read this. It is mystical--honest.

This morning when the Lord opened a window to Heaven, He saw me, and He asked: My child, what is your greatest wish for today?
I responded: 'Lord please; take care of the person who is reading this message, their family and their special friends. They deserve it and I love them very much'.

The Love of God is like the ocean, you can see its beginnings but not its end.

June 1: Our Lady of Grace

On this oldest of Augustinian Marian feasts, I would like to acknowledge God's Grace in our Community. "Hail O highly favored one," said the angel Gabriel to Mary. Yes, Mary was most favored or full of Grace, but with Grace, or favor, also comes responsibility.

Mary was favored to be the sign or announcement that God was about to fulfill the Covenant for all time. She was graced from her conception to be the Sacred Vessel of the Incarnation of the Word. And she was graced to receive all the benefits, as the new Eve, of the New Creation and Life in the Risen Christ.

She was also responsible to that favor by submitting in trust to be God's servant. She was also responsible to be the rock of hope for the disciples at the cross and in the Upper Room. Finally, she is responsible for being the model of love in discipleship for the Church until the end of time, standing always to remind us that she is but the first of us all, our sister, to enter into the fullness of God's covenant rewards.

With the grace we have received as Augustinians of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we have the responsibility to live the spirit of the Rule and our vows in following our Gospel call. Recentlty, our postulant, Valorie, asked if we could explain the "heart" of an Augustinian and if we felt it in our living the life. I would like to share the thoughts of one of our novice sisters, Friar Lyngine Dominique-Marie.

Lyngine said:

First, my own caveat, which is that I don't think that the characteristics that make an Augustinian are necessarily one's that someone starts out with, but are characteristics that in some cases, one grows into and continues to grow into. So, it's not so much a matter of looking at a list and seeing if one matches, as it is living out being an Augustinian and seeing if it fits or not---the joys and challenges of the novitiate :). The second caveat is that one reads and understands some of this much differently after/during some time living it out than from the beginning. When I first applied to the AIHM, I did some reading from the web on what Augustinian spirituality is and I know that I read those same passages now with a very different understanding. Third caveat is that my answer is incomplete so there are more characteristics for sure.

Yes, definitely the search for Truth and things intellectual are a characteristic. With the addition that (as you'll hear Joseph say many times ), that the "head" is balanced by the "heart". So an example is reading Scripture---it's both intellectual (like Bible Study) but also prayer and mediation---each informs the other---knowledge informs and deepens faith/prayer, and faith/prayer transforms and deepens one's understanding of Scripture.

Another characteristic is being drawn to express and live out one's faith in community. JB's [Friar John Bartholomew] post on Espousal being more than just a personal relationship with God and how we are called to extend that to our neighbors really states this very well. Other Orders (Carthusians for example) emphasize finding God in personal/individual meditation and study. Those drawn to Augustinian spirituality need and create community. There's not one way to do this---some people are more outgoing, others share their gifts in quieter ways and by doing, etc.

Well, that's a start and not even close to complete. There's also interiority, a theme of integrity (living what you believe/outer expression matches inner belief), emphasis on search/love of God being primary, etc----you'll get the whole slew in novitiate ---and much better expressed in the Rule and in the other books that actually have Augustine's words, which all helps in one's understanding. More importantly, I think, is that you'll begin to live out being an Augustinian in novitiate---the characteristics being something to grow into in one's life and with one's individual expression---and that really puts a different spin on them.

Reflecting on Augustine's Conversion (Feast: April 27)

The Soliloquy of St. Augustine:

Belatedly I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, belatedly I loved thee. For see, thou wast within and I was without, and I sought thee out there. Unlovely, I rushed heedlessly among the lovely things thou hast made. Thou wast with me, but I was not with thee. These things kept me far from thee; even though they were not at all unless they were in thee. Thou didst call and cry aloud, and didst force open my deafness. Thou didst gleam and shine, and didst chase away my blindness. Thou didst breathe fragrant odors and I drew in my breath; and now I pant for thee. I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst. Thou didst touch me, and I burned for thy peace.

In today's world people are hungry for spirituality, hungry for truth, for beauty. We so often turn to the created things of this world to find them. Augustine, from his own search, tells us to look no further than in ourselves and each other for the God we seek. Learn from the created things of the world as they cry out"God made us." Learn from the human relationships around us that GOD IS LOVE and MERCY, look inside ourselves and listen to the truth, we are created in God's image with God's spirit in us and "YOU ARE VERY GOOD!"

O Lord, you have made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you! -St. Augustine

Earth Day: St. Augustine and Creation Spirituality

Today, Earth Day, might better be served by quoting St. Francis, no? NO! Actually, St. Augustine stands as one of the first of the Doctors and great mystics to appreciate what God created in the world as a means to understand God's creative LOVE.

As the world finally begins to wake up to the serious crisis that we have caused in mistreating the planet for selfish gain, the words of Augustine help us see the sacred beauty of what God made and why we need to care and love it back!

"But also heaven and earth and all within them, behold, they bid me on every side to love you, nor do they cease telling this to all...I asked the earth and it said: 'I am not he.' I asked the sea and the deeps and they answered: 'we are not he.'... I asked the blowing breezes and the entire air with its inhabitants said: 'we are not he, nor are we the god you seek.' And I said to these all, 'Tell me about my God, then.' And they exclaimed in a loud voice, 'HE MADE US!'
-Confessions, X, 6

Let us pray,

God, womb of holy life, in all that you create, you put the stamp of your love, most perfectly in ourselves. By your incarnation you proclaim all creation is good and humans are very good. Let us show our love for you and each other in caring for the beauties of the world. Let us listen carefully and cultivate life in every corner of creation that we may hear their praise of you, HE MADE US!

Through Christ, Thy Word, by whom all creation was made. Amen