The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.
It is said that there is no salvation outside the Church. Who denies this? And therefore whatever things of the Church are had outside the Church do not avail unto salvation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Saint Augustine emphasizes the importance of the Church for salvation, suggesting that true salvation is found only within its teachings and community.
In this quote, Saint Augustine asserts the belief that salvation is intrinsically linked to the Church, arguing that any spiritual benefits or truths that are found outside of the Church cannot lead to true salvation. This reflects the broader theological perspective that the Church acts as a mediator between humanity and divine grace, reinforcing the idea that one's faith and salvation are deeply connected to the doctrines and communal life of the Church.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon discussing the role of faith in personal salvation.
More from Saint Augustine
All quotes →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.
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Religious unity can look like a carnival and religious liberty can look like a funeral.
Now all my tales are based on the fundemental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large.... To achieve the essence of real externality, whether of time or space or dimension, one must forget that such things as organic life, good and evil, love and hate, and all such local attributes of a negligible and temporary race called mankind, have any existence at all.