The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.
Saint AugustineRead
In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.
Interpretation
The true nature of individuals is revealed by their passions and affections.
Saint Augustine's quote emphasizes that understanding a person's character can be achieved by observing their loves and what they hold dear. The things that individuals are most passionate about reveal their values, priorities, and ultimately their true selves.
In practice
In a leadership workshop discussing team values, one might quote Augustine to illustrate the importance of understanding team members' passions.
The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.
There is no health in those who are displeased by an element in Your creation, just as there was none in me when I was displeased by many things You had made. Because my soul didn't dare to say that my God displeased me, it refused to attribute to You whatever was displeasing.
Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.
Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth, O Lord. The hairs of his head are easier by far to count than his feeling, the movements of his heart.
Whatever skills I have acquired, whatever gifts I have been given, I place them at Your service.
Everyone who observes himself doubting observes a truth, and about that which he observes he is certain; therefore he is certain about a truth. Everyone therefore who doubts whether truth exists has in himself a truth on which not to doubt.... Hence one who can doubt at all ought not to doubt the existence of truth.
Boredom rests upon the nothingness that winds its way through existence; its giddiness, like that which comes from gazing down into an infinite abyss, is infinite.
No one has ever been accused for not providing ornaments, but for those who neglect their neighbour a hell awaits with an inextinguishable fire and torment in the company of the demons. Do not, therefore, adorn the church and ignore your afflicted brother, for he is the most precious temple of all.
It is the man who can think of no alternative to his enslavement who is truly a slave.
Look into any man's heart you please, and you will always find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has to keep concealed.
I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage.
It occurs to me as I write that this "white light," usually presented dippily (evidence of afterlife, higher power), is in fact precisely consistent with the oxygen deficit that occurs as blood flow to the brain decreases. "Everything went white," those whose blood pressure has dropped say of the instant before they faint.
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