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Our new Pope Leo XIV belongs to the Augustinian Order
Thurs., 8/28– Feast of St. Augustine, (A.D. 354-430). My favorite quotation from The Confessions of St. Augustine: “What is it that I love when I love my God? It is a certain light that I love and melody and fragrance and embrace that I love when I love my God–a light, melody, fragrance, food, embrace of the God-within, where, for my soul, that shines which space does not contain; that sounds which time does not sweep away; that is fragrant which the breeze does not dispel; and that tastes sweet which, fed upon, is not diminished; and that clings close which no satiety disparts–this is what I love when I love my God.”
St. Augustine is a favorite saint of Frank Sheed, who translated the entire Confessions during a trans-Atlantic crossing by steamship. Frank and his wife, Maisie Ward, were among the earliest friends of the Catholic Worker.
The Catholic Worker September 1, 1980
Now, I Ask You, Do You Think That These Things Happen Only to St Augustine?
By Dorothy Day
“St. Augustine begins his Soliloquies thus: ’I was a prey to a thousand various thoughts and for many days had been making strenuous efforts to find myself, myself and my own good, and to know the evil to avoid, when on a sudden–was it myself? Was it some other? Was it without or within me? I cannot tell, yet above all things ardently longed to know:–at all events, suddenly it was said to me:”If you find what you are seeking, what will you do with it? To whom will you confide it?“–”I shall keep it in my memory,” answered I.
“But is your memory capable of treasuring up all that your mind has conceived?”–“No, certainly it cannot.” “Then you must write.”–But how can this be done, seeing that you believe your health unequal to the labor of writing? These things cannot be dictated; they demand the most complete solitude. “That is true; I know not, then, what to do.” “Listen! Ask strength, ask help to find what you seek. Then write it, that this offspring of your mind may animate and strengthen you. . . .”’
“Now, I ask you, do you think that these things happen only to St. Augustine?”
–PERE GRATRY’S THE WELL-SPRINGS.
But I am a woman, with all the cares and responsibilities of a woman, and though I take these words of Pere Gratry and of St. Augustine to heart, I know that what I write will be tinged with all the daily doings, with myself, my child, my work, my study, as well as with God. God enters into them all. He is inseparable from them. I think of Him as I wake and as I think of Teresa’s daily doings. Perhaps it is that I have a wandering mind. But I do not care. It is a woman’s mind, and if my daily written meditations are of the people about me, of what is going on,–then it must be so. It is a part of every meditation to apply the virtue, the mystery, to the daily life we lead.
I shall meditate as I have been accustomed, in the little Italian Church on Twelfth Street, by the side of the open window, looking out at the plants growing on the roof, the sweet corn, the boxes of herbs, the geraniums in bright bloom, and I shall rest happy in the presence of Christ on the altar, and then I shall come home and I shall write as Pere Gratry advises, and try to catch some of these things that happen to bring me nearer to God, to catch them and put them down on paper.
It is something I have wanted to do, which I have done sketchily for some years. Usually I have kept a notebook only when I am sad and need to work myself out of my sadness. Now I shall do it as a duty performed joyfully for God.
From Dorothy Day’s book, House of Hospitality. Our Sunday Visitor publishing, 75th anniversary edition.
Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XLV, No. 3, July-September 2025.
