Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Augustine of Hippo

Today is the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo.  Here is a brief excerpt on the importance of memorizing the creed.  Notice that the written form of the creed was not to be relied upon in worship, rather it was a memorized symbol of faith.  What difference does it make to an individual to have something memorized versus recitation from a written page?


1. Receive, my children, the Rule of Faith, which is called the Symbol (or Creed). And when ye have received it, write it in your heart, and be daily saying it to yourselves; before ye sleep, before ye go forth, arm you with your Creed. The Creed no man writes so as it may be able to be read: but for rehearsal of it, lest haply forgetfulness obliterate what care hath delivered, let your memory be your record-roll: what ye are about to hear, that are ye to believe; and what ye shall have believed, that are about to give back with your tongue. For the Apostle says, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” For this is the Creed which ye are to rehearse and to repeat in answer. These words which ye have heard are in the Divine Scriptures scattered up and down: but thence gathered and reduced into one, that the memory of slow persons might not be distressed; that every person may be able to say, able to hold, what he believes. For have ye now merely heard that God is Almighty? But ye begin to have him for your father, when ye have been born by the church as your Mother.

From the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. 

The Collect for St. Augustine:
Lord God, the light of the minds that know you, the life of the souls that love you, and the strength of the hearts that serve you: Help us, following the example of your servant Augustine of Hippo, so to know you that we may truly love you, and so to love you that we may fully serve you, whom to serve is perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

2 comments:

  1. Dave,
    The quote came up as a white unreadable box for me. I do think I know the passage however, and if so, it puts me in mind of the charge to the parents from the 1928 baptismal liturgy. "Having now, in the name of this Child, made these promises, wilt thou also on thy part take heed that this Child learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and all other things which a Christian ought to know and believe to his soul's health?...Wilt thou take heed that this Child, so soon as sufficiently instructed, be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him?" We have currently revamped our catechesis from the more touchy feely tradition to that mentioned above. I don't know if it will work, time will tell, but I am dismayed by the number of grads we've turned out at STJ's in past years who know nothing of Catholic Orthodoxy in the Anglican Tradition. It was time for us to try something defferent.

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    1. Quote is fixed. Thanks.

      I miss the charge to parents from the 1928. The number one deciding factor of whether a child continues in the faith is parental involvement. Parents, your first job is to teach the faith!

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