28/08/2026
Today we celebrate the feast of St Augustine!
Saint Augustine was born at Tagaste in what is now Algeria, c. 354; he was not only the Bishop of Hippo and a theologian who profoundly influenced the western world, but the author of a Rule and the instructor of our manner of common life. His Regula ad servos Dei, originally composed for a community of women, was adopted by the Canons Regular in the twelfth century. Innocent III invited St Dominic to choose a rule for his followers from already existing and approved rules, following the Fourth Lateran Council (1215); as Bl Jordan of Saxony testified, those who were to be Preachers professed the Rule of Saint Augustine, who was himself a distinguished preacher; but they added certain stricter observances concerning the receiving of alms, fasting, vigils and woollen habits.
The passage quoted in the video is taken from St Augustine’s commentaries on the Psalms, translated by Sr Maria Boulding OSB. Augustine is commenting on a line in Ps 99(98), and he writes this:
"In my uncertainty I turn to Christ, for he it is whom I am seeking in this psalm; and then I discover how, without idolatry, the earth may be worshiped, how God's footstool may be adored without impiety. He took earth from earth, because flesh comes from the earth, and he received his flesh from the flesh of Mary. He walked here below in that flesh, and even gave us that same flesh to eat for our salvation. But since no one eats it without first worshipping it, we can plainly see how the Lord’s footstool is rightly worshipped. Not only do we commit no sin in worshipping it; we should sin if we did not."
St Augustine reminds us that the Incarnation provides the logic of our worship. Let us never fail to worship our Lord and our God, present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
St Augustine, pray for us!
