Saint Augustine - Three Ways of Loving God

THREE WAYS OF LOVING GOD

Three Ways Of Loving God

ST. AUGUSTINE

ST. TERESA OF AVILA

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

PARACLETE PRESS

BREWSTER, MASSACHUSETTS

2014 First printing

Three Ways of Loving God

The portions of this text taken from The Confessions of St. Augustine, including biographical material and notes, are copyright 2014 by The Community of Jesus, Inc.

The portions of this text taken from St. Teresa of Avilas The Way of Perfection, plus biographical material about the author, are copyright 2014 by Paraclete Press, Inc.

The portions of this text taken from St. Francis de Saless Treatise on the Love of God, plus biographical material about the author, are copyright 2014 by Bernard Bangley.

ISBN 978-1-61261-499-1

Consists of excerpts from material previously published by Paraclete Press, Inc.

In the portion taken from Treatise on the Love of God:

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (TEV) are taken from Todays English Version, Second Edition, Copyright 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992 American Bible Society. Used by permission.

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Published by Paraclete Press
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FOREWORD

This is a deceptively simple book, written by three experts on the Christian spiritual life. Each of them writes with clarity, and from a great depth of personal experience, and yet what they describe is something that is ultimately beyond description. Thats what we mean when we say the book is deceptively simple: you cannot obtain what they describe by simply reading.

This is a collection of three distinct but united voices on the subject of what it means to love God, and to know that you are loved by God. In these pages, you will meet three of the most interesting Christians in the history of our faith: St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Francis de Sales. Their viewpoints are presented chronologically. Short biographies of each may be found at the conclusion of the book.

ST. AUGUSTINE

From The Confessions

THE EXAMINED LIFE

From The Confessions

BOOK X
The Examined Life

ONE

L et me know you, Lord, who know me;let me know you even as I am known. O Strength of my soul, enter it and make it fit for you, that you may enjoy it without spot or wrinkle. This is my hope; therefore I speak, and in this hope I rejoice when I rightly rejoice. The less other things of this life deserve our sorrow, the more we weep for them; and the more they ought to be sorrowed for, the less men weep for them. For behold, you love truth and he who knows the truth comes to the light. This I would do in my heart before you in this confession and in my writing before many witnesses.

TWO

W hat is there in me that could be hidden from you, O Lord, to whose eyes the depths of mans conscience is bare, even though I did not confess it? I might hide you from myself, but not myself from you. But now my groanings bear witness that I am displeased with myself and that you shine brightly and are pleasing, beloved and desired. I am ashamed of myself and My confession then, O my God, is made both silently and yet not silently, for in sound it is silent, but in affection, it cries aloud. For I neither utter any right thing to others which you have not already heard from me, nor do you hear any such things from me which you have not first said to me.

THREE

B ut what do I have to do with men that they should hear my confessions, as if they could heal all my infirmities? They are a race, curious to know the lives of others, slow to amend their own. Why do they seek to hear from me what I am, who will not hear from you what they themselves are? And how do they know, when from me they hear of myself, whether I speak the truth, since no man knows what is in man, but the spirit of man which is in him? But if they hear from you about themselves, they cannot say, The Lord lies. For what is it to hear from you of themselves, but to know themselves? And who knows and says, It is false, unless he lies to himself? But because charity believes all thingsat least among those whom it knits together with itself as oneI, too, Lord, will confess to you in such a way that men may hear, though I cannot prove to them that my confession is true; yet those whose ears are opened to me by charity will believe me.

But, O my inmost Physician, make plain to me what benefit I may gain by doing it. You have forgiven and covered my past sins that you might make me happy in you, changing my soul by faith and your sacrament. When my confessions of them are read and heard, they stir up the heart. No longer does it sleep in despair and say, I cannot, but it awakes in the love of your mercy and the sweetness of your grace, by which whoever is weak is made strong, when he becomes conscious of his own weakness by it. And the good delight to hear of the past evils of those who are now freed from themnot because they are evils, but because they were and no longer are.

What does it profit me, O Lord my God, what does this book gain me, to confess to men in your presence what I now am? My conscience confesses daily to you, trusting more in the hope of your mercy than in its own innocence. For I have seen and spoken of the fruit of knowing what I have been, but what I now am, at the very time of making these confessions, various people want to know, both those who have known me and those who have not, who have heard from me or of me. But their ear is not at my heart, where I am whatever I am. They wish to hear me confess what I am within, where neither their eye, nor ear, nor understanding can read. They wish it and are ready to believe itbut will they know? For charity, which makes them good, tells them that I do not lie in my confessions, and charity in them believes me.

FOUR

B ut for what good purpose do they wish to hear this? Do they want to rejoice with me when they hear how near by your grace I approach to you? Do they wish to pray for me when they hear how much I am held back by my own weight? To such I will disclose myself. And be pleased, O Lord, with the incense of your holy temple; have mercy on me according to your great mercy for your own names sake. And do not on any account leave what you have begun in me, but perfect my imperfections.