Dear Reader,
So, I promised you something important this morning, and I believe I delivered it.
But it has since come to my attention that, looks around cautiously, I am apparently the boss around here, which means I can do what I want.
Since today is the Memorial of Saint Augustine, one of my very favorite saints, I have decided that we are not going to let his feast day pass without commemorating it.
So yes, my friends, you are getting a bonus issue this evening. There is no collection plate hiding at the bottom of it. I simply could not let the day end without sharing why Augustine gives me so much hope.
Oh, and it is a quick one. I am not so lacking in self-awareness that I would ask you to read a second treatise today.
Thank you for putting up with me. I get so excited about our faith that I cannot help but share it with you.
Your brother in Christ,
Father Rich
Why Saint Augustine Gives Me Hope
His life reminds us that God has not finished with us, or with the people we love.
There are saints I admire because their lives display astonishing courage. There are saints I turn to because their writings still open Scripture in remarkable ways.
I love Saint Augustine for both of those reasons. But most of all, I love him because he gives me hope.
Augustine took the long way home.
He grew up close enough to Christianity to know its language, largely because of his mother, Monica. Still, he spent years looking elsewhere for the truth. He joined the Manichaeans (an ancient dualistic religion), pursued a brilliant career as a teacher of rhetoric, chased success, and tried to satisfy the hunger within him with nearly everything except surrender to God.
This was not an unintelligent man who simply did not know any better. Augustine was one of the finest minds of his age. He could dismantle an argument, charm an audience, and build an enviable life. None of it could give him rest.
That is why the most famous sentence in his *Confessions* still reaches people sixteen centuries later:
“You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”
Augustine understood restlessness because he had lived inside it. He knew what it was to keep reaching for good things and ask them to bear the weight of God. He knew the exhaustion of searching everywhere while remaining a stranger to himself.
And then, gradually, he discovered that the God he had been seeking was already seeking him.
God Had Not Given Up on Him
God did not begin loving Augustine when Augustine finally got his theology right. God had been present through every question, every detour, and every attempt to satisfy a heart created for more than success could provide.
That does not make every decision Augustine made good. Grace does not rewrite harm as virtue or make our failures inconsequential. It means that none of those failures placed him beyond the reach of God.
Augustine was baptized by Saint Ambrose in Milan during the Easter Vigil of 387. It would be tempting to end the story there: the wandering intellectual finally converts, the orchestra swells, and the credits roll.
Augustine’s real life kept going.
He returned to North Africa hoping for a life of prayer and study. Instead, the Church called him into priesthood and eventually made him Bishop of Hippo. He spent the rest of his life preaching, caring for a divided community, arguing about theology, discovering that some of his conclusions needed correction, and asking God to keep converting him.
Pope Benedict XVI once observed that Augustine’s conversion was not completed at his baptism. It continued until the end of his life. In his later years, Augustine even reviewed his own enormous body of work, clarifying points and correcting places where he believed he had been wrong.
Imagine possessing one of the greatest intellects in Christian history and still believing God had more to teach you.
That may be one of the holiest things about him.
Hope for Those of Us Who Are Still Becoming
Saint Augustine gives hope to those who fear they have wasted too much time.
He gives hope to those who love someone who appears very far from God.
He gives hope to faithful Christians who have discovered that conversion did not make them instantly wise, healed, or finished.
Scripture tells us:
“I am confident of this, that the One who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 1:6
Our hope does not rest on the prediction that every story will unfold according to our preferred schedule. Monica could not force her son into faith, and we cannot manufacture conversion in ourselves or anyone else. We can love. We can pray. We can tell the truth. We can maintain necessary boundaries. Then we entrust the places we cannot reach to a grace far more patient than our own.
Hope refuses to confuse an unfinished story with a final sentence.
This morning, I asked you not to give up your family for politics. Tonight, Saint Augustine gives us another reason not to give up on anyone, including ourselves.
Perhaps you are carrying regret over years you cannot recover. Perhaps you are frightened by how far someone you love appears to have wandered. Perhaps you genuinely love God and still find parts of yourself resistant to His grace.
Augustine’s life does not ask you to pretend that any of that is easy. It asks you to remember that God is still at work.
Near the end of the Confessions, Augustine looked back over the road he had traveled and prayed:
“Late have I loved You, Beauty ever ancient and ever new, late have I loved You. You were within me, and I was outside of You.”
It was late, perhaps. But it was not too late.
That is the hope Saint Augustine gives me. The God who found him has not stopped seeking us. The good work God began is still being completed. Our stories, and the stories of those we love, remain in His hands.
Saint Augustine, pray for us.
And Now It’s Your Turn…
Has there been a person, a season, or a part of your own life that taught you not to confuse an unfinished story with a final sentence? I would be honored to hear about it in the comments.
If someone you love needs this reminder tonight, please share this reflection with them. You may be placing a little hope into their hands at precisely the right time.
And Let Us Pray…
God of patience and mercy,
You sought Augustine through every question, detour, and restless desire. You remained near to him even when he did not know how to recognize You.
Remain near to us now.
Give hope to those who fear they have wasted too much time. Strengthen those who are praying for someone they love. Keep us humble enough to be corrected, courageous enough to change, and faithful enough to believe that Your grace is still at work.
Complete the good work You have begun in us. Teach our restless hearts to find their rest in You.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint Augustine, pray for us.
Did you Know…
– Pope Leo XIV visited Saint Augustine’s tomb this summer. On June 20, 2026, Pope Leo traveled to the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro in Pavia, venerated Augustine’s relics, and preached about the Christian capacity to recognize hope growing like a tiny seed even amid difficulty.
– The Order of Saint Augustine took its institutional form centuries after Augustine’s death. Its spiritual roots lie in the communities Augustine established and in his Rule, but the papally organized mendicant order began in the thirteenth century.
– Augustine died while Hippo was under siege. He died on August 28, 430, as the Vandals besieged the city he had served as bishop for decades. His feast is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, traditionally understood as a saint’s birth into eternal life.
Thank you for allowing me to appear in your inbox twice today. I promise I have not mistaken this sudden discovery of executive authority for permission to make a habit of it.
If this reflection brought someone to mind, carry them in prayer tonight. I will do the same for all those in our community who are waiting, hoping, and trusting God with a story they cannot finish themselves.
Now go enjoy the weekend. I’ll see you tomorrow with our Saturday Recap Issue.