Praying with Saint Augustine
The Ultimate Book of Magnificent Prayers
Now you can read and pray some of the most eloquent, holy prayers ever written. St. Augustine was one of the greatest Fathers of the Church, and he wrote more than 5 million words. It took me years to peruse many of his writings and find embedded in them these inspirational prayers.
Sophia Institute Press recognized the value in publishing these prayers so that everyone can have easy access to them.
The book also includes information about what three valuable lessons Jesus taught us about prayer as well as a line-by-line analysis by St. Augustine of the Lord’s Prayer — the “Our Father.”
Readers do not have to know anything about Augustine to appreciate his prayers. However, by way of background, Augustine was not born a saint. He actually led a wild life before his conversion. He had a mistress and a son out of wedlock. He was almost the stereotypical rebellious youth who went to university and pursued what he thought would make him happy.
His mother, St. Monica, prayed fervently for his conversion, and her prayers were eventually answered! Her son had been on a long quest to find wisdom, and it led him to God, source and fount of wisdom and love. He realized what his most famous statement from his book, The Confessions, proclaims: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
St. Augustine addresses God as Wisdom in this prayer: “O Wisdom! O sweetest Light of the mind made pure! Woe to those who abandon You as leader and wander in Your footsteps, who love Your signs instead of You and forget what You signify. For You do not cease to signify to us what and how great You are, and every splendor of Creation is a sign of You” (page 44).
What prompted me to write Praying with Saint Augustine was that I attended a retreat once and heard a nun in chapel praying some of the most moving, beautiful and unique prayers I had ever heard. When I asked her where she found them, she said they were attributed to St. Augustine. She only had some notes on loose leaf paper.
After the retreat, I was astonished to find out there was no book of his prayers currently in print. This event occurred in the 1990s. So I felt led to take on this project.
Praying with Saint Augustine is a perfect book to take to Eucharistic Adoration or to keep on a bedside table. Peter Kreeft wrote in the foreword that the book needs to come with a warning label that tells readers if they pray these prayers, the publisher is not responsible for unforeseen consequences: “God is.”
