I have completed nearly two years’ worth of prayer posts (726, to be exact!). Some people I’ve highlighted for prayer multiple times, no one more so than Augustine of Hippo (350-430), whose prayers I have featured six times. I have shared in earlier descriptions of Augustine the remarkable story of his conversion, his wise counsel about prayer, and his marvelous Christmas sermon from the early 400s. I write about him so often, not only on account of his plentiful prayers but because he’s arguably the most significant theologian the church has ever known. I’ve kept a running log of memorable quotes attributed to him:
“God loves each of us as if there was only one of us.”
“God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”
“God promised the wind; man must raise the sail.”
“God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.”
“He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.”
“To fall in love with God is the great romance; to serve Him the greatest adventure; to find Him the greatest achievement.”
“Take care of your body as if you are going to live forever and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.”
“There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.”
“If God seems slow in responding, it is because he is preparing a better gift.”
One last quote from Augustine on this day after Christmas:
“He was made man in time,
although through him all times were made.
He was made man, who made man.
He was created of a mother whom he created.
He was carried by hands that he formed.
He cried in the manger in wordless infancy, He the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.”
Augustine leads us to pray: