Novena to St. Augustine
Reflections on Augustinian Themes from Confessions
Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430) is one of the Church’s most influential saints, theologians, and spiritual writers. Born in North Africa, Augustine spent much of his early life searching for truth and happiness before experiencing a profound conversion in Milan. He later became a priest and Bishop of Hippo, dedicating his life to serving the Church and leading others closer to God.
His Confessions, written as a prayer to God, tells the story of his journey from restlessness and searching to conversion and deeper faith. His words continue to resonate because his search for truth, love, and lasting happiness is one we all share.
This nine-day novena draws reflections from the Confessions on themes central to Augustine’s spiritual journey: interiority, humility, truth, conversion, Jesus, solitude, journey, charity, and happiness. May St. Augustine accompany you in prayer and inspire you to seek God with an open heart, remembering his famous words: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Opening Prayer for the beginning of each day’s prayer and reflection
Direct, O Lord, my actions by your holy inspiration,
and carry them on by your gracious assistance,
so that every prayer and work of mine
may begin from you and by you be happily ended,
through Christ our Lord.
Closing Prayer for the end of each day’s prayer and reflection
Lord, inspired by the words of St. Augustine,
and relying upon his intercession,
I come to you in prayer and ask [here mention your intention].
For you, Lord, have called to me
and have shattered my deafness.
I have tasted you, and I hunger and thirst after you.
You have touched me, and I have burned for your peace +
Day One – Interiority
When first I knew you, you raised me up so that I could see that there was something to be seen, but also that I was not yet able to see it. I gazed on you with eyes too weak to resist the dazzle of your splendor. Your light shone upon me in its brilliance, and I thrilled with love and dread alike. I realized that I was far away from you. It was as though I was in a land where all is different from your own and I heard your voice calling from on high, saying ‘I am the food of full-grown men. Grow and you shall feed on me. But you shall not change me into your own substance, as you do with the food of your body. Instead, you shall be changed into me.’
Reflection
By Br. Frank Connor, O.S.A.
As God draws us closer to Himself, He also allows us to see more clearly and humbly where we stand in relation to Him. Our love is kindled by the glimpses we gain of God, and our desire for Him is stretched in the tinge of dread we feel at the distance that remains between where we are and where we are being drawn. When we receive the Body of Christ, we are given the only food that truly sustains us and we are united to Him toward whom we are journeying.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
Day Two – Humility
You, Lord, who are so high above us, yet look with favor on the humble, look on the proud too, but from far off. You come close only to those who are humble at heart. The proud cannot find you, even though by dint of study they have skill to number stars and grains of sand, to measure the tracts of constellations and trace the paths of planets.
Reflection
By Fr. Bob Guessetto, O.S.A.
The virtue of humility for Augustine springs from a heart full of gratitude and praise for God’s goodness and the wonders of His creation. When speaking of his mother, whom he so loved and admired, he shows us the way: I will speak not of her gifts, but of the gifts you, Lord, created in her. Is there any better way to look upon all we are and all we have?
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
Day Three – Truth
You are Truth, and you are everywhere present where all seek counsel of you. You reply to all at once, though the counsel each takes is different. The answer you give is clear, but not all hear it clearly. All ask you whatever they wish to ask, but the answer they receive is not always what they want to hear. The one who serves you best is the one who is less intent on hearing from you what he wills to hear than on shaping his will according to what he hears from you
Reflection
By Fr. Ray Dlugos, O.S.A.
Beginning around the age of 19, after reading Cicero’s Hortensius, Augustine’s life was a search for truth. His search led him on many detours until the Truth found him in the garden in Milan in 386. In our present world truth has become more and more whatever we want it to be, regardless of evidence or agreed-upon norms. Real truth—the Truth we find only in God—unites us with one another. Anything less than that will cause separation, disunity, and conflict.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
Day Four – Conversion
The path that leads away from you and brings us back again is not measured by footsteps or milestones. The prodigal son of the Scriptures went to live in a distant land to waste in dissipation all the wealth which his father had given him when he set out. But, to reach that land, he did not hire horses, carriages, or ships; he did not take to the air on real wings or set one foot before the other. For you were the Father who gave him riches. You loved him when he set out and you loved him still more when he came home without a penny. But he set his heart on pleasure and his soul was blinded, and this blindness was the measure of the distance he travelled away from you, so that he could not see your face.
Reflection
By Fr. Frank Doyle, O.S.A.
Reading can be an act of transformation and a seriously life-changing experience. Augustine discovered this when he read from scripture and was engaged with his inmost self and the power of conversion of heart. True listening is more than hearing; it’s a path to knowing the saving presence of God that engages the Will to search for meaning. Perhaps the most enshrined words that St. Augustine heard, seemingly the voice of a child, came the exhortation to “pick up and read” from sacred scripture. May God grant us the will to listen and respond to the invitation to a conversion of heart and the place where God leads.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
Day Five – Jesus
I began to search for a means of gaining the strength I needed to enjoy you, but I could not find this means until I embraced the mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, who is a man, like them, and also rules as God over all things, blessed forever. He was calling to me and saying I am the way; I am truth and life. He it was who united with our flesh that food which I was too weak to take; for the Word was made flesh so that your Wisdom, by which you created all things, might be milk to suckle us in infancy.
Reflection
By Fr. Frank Horn, O.S.A.
As he begins to experience God in his life, Augustine realizes that he cannot fully enjoy this presence without knowing Jesus, the divine Word who humbly entered human history and revealed the way to God. He recognizes that Christ’s humility contrasts with his own pride and teaches him that true wisdom requires both recognizing God’s greatness and accepting his grace. Jesus becomes for Augustine not only the source of truth but also the humble guide who leads the soul from pride toward God.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
Day Six – Solitude
Let me know you, for you are the God who knows me; let me recognize you as you have recognized me. You are the power of my soul; come into it and make it fit for yourself, so that you may have it and hold it without stain or wrinkle. This is my hope; this is why I speak as I do; this is the hope that brings me joy, when my joy is in what is to save me.
Reflection
By Fr. Allan Fitzgerald, O.S.A.
We know that friendship was important for Augustine. He is the first of the early Church writers to talk about God as a friend. That meant that he had to spend time with God, quietly nourishing his friendship by taking the time to be alone and listen. Listening is a gift – a gift from and to God. It can take time to understand what God our friend is telling us. Yet solitude cuts both ways, because listening to our heart is the best way to learn to listen to our friend in heaven.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
Day Seven – Journey
I have learned to love you late, Beauty at once so ancient and so new! I have learned to love you late! You were within me, and I was in the world outside myself. I searched for you outside myself and, disfigured as I was, I fell upon the lovely things of your creation. You were with me, but I was not with you. The beautiful things of this world kept me far from you and, if they had not been in you, they would have had no being at all. You called me; you cried aloud to me; you broke my barrier of deafness. You shone upon me; your radiance enveloped me; you put my blindness to flight. You shed your fragrance about me; I drew breath and now I gasp for your sweet odor. I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am inflamed with love of your peace.
Reflection
By Br. Nick Anderson, O.S.A.
It’s tempting to think of life as a linear journey from inexperience to experience, unwisdom to wisdom. But when we indulge that thinking, “going back to the drawing board” in response to something unfamiliar or challenging feels like a loss. That refusal to adjust can make us rigid or depressed. Instead, what if we thought of the journey of developing wisdom as a cycle, like the life of a plant, in which the fruits of one season become seeds for the next? That way, the twists and turns of life can build on each other over time, forming an upward-spiraling journey rather than a flat circular goose chase. When our graced efforts to build wisdom are creative and iterative, we will, in our temporal human way, come to resemble God: ever ancient and ever new.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
Day Eight – Charity
Let all who are truly my brothers love in me what they know from your teaching to be worthy of their love and let them sorrow to find in me what they know from your teaching to be occasion for remorse. This is what I wish my true brothers to feel in their hearts. … My true brothers are those who rejoice for me in their hearts when they find good in me and grieve for me when they find sin. They are my true brothers, because whether they see good in me or evil, they love me still.
Reflection
By Fr. Jack Flynn, O.S.A.
As St. Paul exhorts us (Gal. 6:2): “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” St. Augustine reminds us, we are a family, we are a community, and we share in the burden, but really, in the privilege of caring for one another, walking with one another, remembering that we are in this together, that we encourage one another. What words are more beautiful than these: “Please, let me help you.”
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
Day Nine – Happiness
O Lord, far be it from the heart of your servant who confesses to you, far be it from me to think that whatever joy I feel makes me truly happy. For there is a joy that is not given to those who do not love you, but only to those who love you for your own sake. You yourself are their joy. Happiness is to rejoice in you and for you and because of you. This is true happiness and there is no other.
Reflection
By Fr. Matsuo Futoshi, O.S.A.
Looking at a stunning sunset, shimmering stars, or the smiles of our loved ones, we may feel awe, joy, and peace. This is not bad, but rather good. St Augustine nevertheless encourages us to see not only the beauty of earthly realities but also the one deep within their appearances. Our merciful God, who creates each of us and loves all of us and fill our restless heart, is our joy, the cause of true happiness. Since the Incarnate Lord walks in our community, let us know who we are, and let us know and love Him in an unending hope so to live a truly blessed and happy life. (Cf. Soliloquies, 2.1.1.)
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
