Saturday, August 26 : Saint Augustine

Don’t delude yourselves, my brothers, if you hasten to hear the word without meaning to put into practice what you hear. Consider carefully: if it is good to hear the word it is even better to put it into practice. If you don’t listen to it, if you don’t do what you have heard, then you are not building anything. If you listen to it and do not put it into practice then you are building a ruin… “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on rock”…: listening and putting into practice is to build on rock… “Everyone who listens to these words of mine,” the Lord continues, “but does not act on them is like a fool who built his house.” He, too, builds but what is it that he builds? He builds his house but, because he does not act on what he hears, he might just as well not have heard: he builds on sand! So, then, to listen without putting into practice is to build on sand; to listen and put into practice is to build on rock; not to listen at all is to build neither on rock nor on sand… But perhaps someone will say: “What’s the good of listening?… Since I’ll be building a ruin if I listen without acting isn’t it safer not to listen?”… Rain, wind, torrents never come to an end in this world. Are you not building lest they come and knock you over?… If you insist on not listening to anything you will be without any shelter at all: the rain will come, the torrents pour down and will you be safe from them?… Think it over…: it is wrong not to listen, it is wrong to listen without acting, it follows that we should listen and act. Be a people who act on the Word; don’t be satisfied with listening to it: that would be to deceive yourselves.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team