St Augustine of Hippo: Confessions
St Augustine’s Confessions, completed in the years 397-400, is considered the first autobiography in world literature. It is not only one of the greatest conversion stories of Christianity, but also a book of philosophy, theological reflection and deep God experience. It is written in the form of an address to God after his conversion to faith. Its theme and passionate, personal language have made it a perennial favourite.
Augustine’s mother, Monica, prayed and wept for her wayward son, who followed a wrong doctrine called Manicheism, kept a mistress and had a child, and showed little interest in being a Christian. He was a brilliant and passionate man, restless and dissatisfied. In Milan he met Bishop Ambrose, whose sermons touched him. He would discuss religious matters with his friends, but found it beyond his strength to give up his worldly ways. Then, one day, fed up with his own inconstancy, he was walking in a garden, and heard a child’ voice saying, “Take and read! Take and read!” Seeing no child nearby, he thought this might be God’s voice. He opened the New Testament at random, and found the words of St. Paul, “Not in licentiousness and impurity, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Augustine took this as God’s personal message to him. With that experience, all his doubts vanished.
He was baptized by Bishop Ambrose, to the great delight of mother, who had been longing for this moment. Later, at the people’s request, he agreed to be a priest, and, still later, he was appointed bishop by popular demand.
Of St. Augustine’s nearly one hundred works, the most widely read is Confessions. Since the book contains also speculative sections which some find too technical, a simplified version may be more accessible to most.
Quotes: “But my sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty and truth not in You but in myself and Your other creatures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error.”
“In my youth I wandered away, too far from Your sustaining hand, and created of myself a barren waste.”
“You were within me, and I outside. You touched me, and I have burnt for your peace.”
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Helen Keller –The Story of My Life (1903)
This memoir is one of the most inspiring of its kind. Born a normal child of loving and educated parents, Helen’s world almost closed down when she was only nineteen months old, infected by a disease that left her deaf and blind. Suddenly cut off from normal means of communication, little Helen became a withdrawn and frustrated child, unable to see, hear or talk.
When Annie Sullivan of the Perkins Institute for the Blind stepped into her life, things began to change. She would spell words into little Helen’s hand all day, accompanying her everywhere she went. Even though Helen could not understand most things or connect words initially, the sense of touch helped her understand the connection between the spelt words and their meanings. Slowly and painfully, she progressed to learning abstract ideas. Helen went on to read books and educate herself and finally realise her ambition of graduating from Radcliffe College.
Here is a touching passage. Helen wants to know what love is. Annie tells her:
“Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out,” …. “You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play.” Helen reports: “The beautiful truth burst upon my mind—I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my spirit and the spirits of others.”
The book is as much about the author as it is about a most remarkable teacher whose patience and love for the pupil becomes a life-changing experience for both. Sullivan evokes in the child a love of language and through it a love of books and learning. Keller’s story is a tale of victory over seemingly impossible difficulties and also one that tells us how education can transform the lives of everyone. Keller later became a famous writer, lecturer, human rights activist and reformist. The book is a celebration of joy and hope.
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