Do what’s appropriate, but always in love We can’t always be doing everything, says St. Augustine. We need to judge what kind of work is appropriate to the time. But love must always direct all our works. You should do one kind of work one time, another kind of work another time, according to the days. Are you always to be talking? Always to keep silence? Always to be refreshing the body? Always fasting? Always giving bread to the hun­gry?... Read more

Plant the seeds of love Are we ready to die for our friends? Maybe not yet. But St. Augustine shows us where the seeds of that perfect love can start to grow in us. Where does love begin? Listen for a moment. You’ve already heard the very end, the perfection of love. The very measure of it is what the Lord has set before us in the Gospel. “Greater love has no man than this,” he says, “that a man... Read more

Seek understanding with love Writing to convert Manichean heretics, St. Augustine admits that he can’t make them understand Catholic truth. But if they seek the truth with real love, they’ll find it. In your case, we must try, not to make you understand divine things (which is impossible), but to make you want to understand. This is the work of the pure and artless love of God, which is seen mainly in what we do, and of which we have... Read more