Saint Augustine of Hippo

“You have made us and directed us toward yourself and our heart is restless until we rest in you.”

Confessions 1.1

Saint Augustine was one of the great founders of monasticism in the Western Church. The Augustinians in Australia describe his spirituality in the following way:

“In Augustinian spirituality love for God is experienced as love for one another. Where love for another person is present God is present too. ‘Honour God in each other’. We come to God through love of one another, since love for a human being is much more concrete than love for God. In the teaching of Augustine human love has divine love running within it.

The warmth of friendship is likewise essential for Augustine.’Without a human being who is our friend, nothing in the world appears friendly to us.’ Life shared with others culminates in friendship – the gift of loving and being loved. In his spirituality it is as important to relate to one another as it is to pray with them. Thus as we strive for union with others we do so in a shared love for God.

Augustine models for us prayer of the heart, longing to know and to see God. In prayer we progress to God who is human happiness itself.

In Augustinian spirituality all good things come back to the one thing: love, the very centre of Christian existence.”