From the traditional Office

December 19 : Personal

For many years I used the Anglican Breviary. I have since reverted to using the Liturgy of the Hours since it is simpler and is in line with the Calendar used by our parish, ie the Ordinary Usage of the Roman Rite. Yet, just out of interest, I looked up the Office for St Augustine the other day. In Matins (or as Anglicans would say, Mattins) the Second Nocturn Lesson VI has this insight:

He wrote so much, and that with such godliness and understanding, that he is to be held among the very chiefest of them by whom the teachings of Christianity have been shewn forth. He is one of the first of those whom later theologians have followed, in method, and in argument.

The Latin of the last sentence is:

Quem in primis secuti sunt, qui postea theologicam disciplinam via et ratione tradiderunt.

It shows the high esteem that St Augustine is held: his preeminence among the theologians so that others have followed him in method. And that is really the point – it is his method that holds true and brings us closer to Jesus in our everyday life.

BTW: the above link is to The Confraternity of Ss. Peter and Paul which, I think, is sedevacantist. So they are quoted only as an easily accessible online resource and nothing more!