History
In our post for St. Augustine of Hippo we wrote, “There is not a Christian layperson or pastor who would not benefit from a closer engagement with St. Augustine’s life, his story, or his writings, and August 28th serves as a reminder of that.”
It is hard to exaggerate the extent of Augustine’s prolific writings. This list gives you an idea of just how many Augustinian texts there are and when they were written. In light of our previous suggestion to become more familiar with Augustine’s theological thoughts and words, we wanted to provide you with a starting point where you and your household could begin accessing this huge inventory and a way in which you could break down Augustine’s greater oeuvre into smaller and more consumable portions.
Augustine’s Sermon for Trinity XI
As we write this post in the year 2022, St. Augustine’s Day on August 28th falls on the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. In accordance with this coincidence, we found Augustine’s sermon for this Sunday’s Gospel lesson—a short and accessible text that can make his writing available to those who wish to read more Augustinian primary sources.
If you are reading this after 2022 and wish to find other bits of Augustine’s texts, you can easily locate Augustine’s other homilies for the Sundays and other festival/feast days of the Church Year on this site. Furthermore, the rest of his texts, including his most famous books such as City of God, Confessions, and On the Holy Trinity, are generally available in the public domain.
This particular sermon for Trinity XI is interesting insofar as it gives a good example of the exegetical work that Augustine was known for and the way that he preached on the text. One of history’s most revered rhetoricians, Augustine was remembered for his great speaking ability and respected for the ways that he could present the Word in a lively manner, display its treasures, and then lay them out for the congregation to see. This sermon also provides a glimpse of Augustine’s emphasis on grace, which would later become an inspiration for the Reformation.
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf106.vii.lxvii.html
References:
1. Weedon, William. Celebrating the Saints. Concordia Publishing House. 2016.
