Thursday, May 21 : Saint Augustine

Think about unity, my brothers, and see if even in the multiplicity there is anything that pleases you like it. By the grace of God I see you here in large numbers: who could suffer you there if you were not united in feeling? Where does this calm come from in such a multitude? With unity, it is a people, and without it, a crowd. What, in fact, is a crowd, if not a disorderly multitude? But listen to the Apostle: “I beseech you, my brethren”; he was addressing a multitude, but to a multitude where he wanted to reestablish unity; “I beseech you, my brothers, to all have one language and not to suffer from schisms among you; but to be all steadfast in the same spirit and in the same sentiments” (1Co 1:10). Elsewhere still he urges us to live in union of hearts, in the same thoughts, to do nothing out of a spirit of contention or out of vain glory (cf. Phil 2:2-3). Did not the Lord say to his Father, speaking of the faithful: “Let them be one, as we ourselves are one” (Jn 17:21)? and is it not written in the Acts of the Apostles: “Now the multitude of believers had one soul and one heart” (Acts 4:32)? So bless the Lord with me and let us glorify his name to achieve unity; to this necessary unity, to this sublime unity where the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are so intimately united. You see how everything recommends unity to us. Yes, our God is Trinity; the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is neither Father nor the Son, but the Spirit of both; these three, however, are neither three Gods nor three almighty ones, but one almighty God, and the Trinity is only one God. This is the necessary unity; but to get there we need all our hearts to be united.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team