St. Augustine—Two Lenten Sermons

By James T. Majewski ( bio - articles - email ) | Feb 27, 2020 | In Catholic Culture Audiobooks (Podcast)

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“Do you hate your brother and walk about free from care? Are you unwilling to be reconciled, although God is giving you an opportunity for that purpose? Behold, you are a murderer and yet you live.”

It’s Lent!

These two Lenten sermons (Sermons 205 and 211, respectively) were originally given by Augustine at the beginning of Lent.

The first sermon is brief, but packed with good stuff. Among other things, Augustine warns against using our fasting or abstaining from one kind of pleasure as a pretense to seek out other luxuries, and he exhorts us not to nail others to our cross, so to speak, by being ill-tempered while fasting. Some things never change!

He ends the first sermon emphasizing forgiveness. With the second sermon, Augustine takes up the subject of forgiveness and preaches on it more comprehensively. He tackles it seemingly from every angle: are you unwilling to forgive your neighbor? Is your neighbor unwilling to forgive you? Are either you or your neighbor unwilling to ask to be forgiven? There’s something here for everyone.

This second sermon is especially challenging—and for that reason, all the more worth attending to at the outset of this penitential season.

Translation courtesy of Catholic University of America Press: https://verbum.com/product/120454/saint-augustine-sermons-on-the-liturgical-seasons

Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.