St. Augustine Society

The St. Augustine Society is a voluntary association of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the Augustine Institute who support one another in the pursuit of holiness. Members commit in an informal way to live according to the rule of the Society. Meetings introduce members to Augustinian spirituality and equip them to cultivate the disciplines of prayer, meditation, and intentional community in their lives.

“You are more interior to me than my inmost self and higher than my highest self.”

St. Augustine, Confessions III, 6.

A member of the St. Augustine Society commits in an informal way to the following: 

1. Daily Mass and Communion (whenever possible).

2. Confession every month.

3. ½ hour each day, if possible before the Blessed Sacrament, practicing the “Prayer of Recollection,” about which St. Teresa of Avila says: “St. Augustine tells us….how he sought God in many places and at last found the Almighty within himself.” (Augustinian interiority.)

4. ¼ hour each day in challenging (intellectual, spiritual) reading of Augustine, as well as others, and the same in reading Holy Scripture (studiositas, lectio, narratio).

5. Say the Litany of St. Augustine once a week, preferably on Friday, for the intentions of the Institute.

6. Support, in friendship, the apostolate of the Augustine Institute in whatever way one may be able: as a faculty member, student, staff or board member, or benefactor, or by way of prayer.

7. Limit the use of food, entertainments, and technology to a prudent mean (sobriety), always with the idea that the good gifts of God are to be employed to advance our salvation and work in the apostolate, as well as to develop a greater appreciation of beauty in nature art, music, liturgy, etc. as a reflection of the divine Beauty.

LITANY TO ST. AUGUSTINE

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.

God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us.

Holy Mother of God, pray for us.

Holy Virgin of virgins, pray for us.

Holy Father Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, example of contrite soul, pray for us.

St. Augustine, son of the tears of thy mother Monica, pray for us.

St. Augustine, light of teachers, pray for us.

St. Augustine, exterminator of heresies, pray for us.

St. Augustine, illustrious warrior against the foes of the Church, pray for us.

St. Augustine, pillar of the True Faith, pray for us.

St. Augustine, vessel of Divine Wisdom, pray for us.

St. Augustine, rule of conduct for apostolic life, pray for us.

St. Augustine, whose heart was inflamed with the fire of Divine Love, pray for us.

St. Augustine, humble and merciful father, pray for us.

St. Augustine, zealous preacher of the Word of God, pray for us.

St. Augustine, illumined expounder of Sacred Scripture, pray for us.

St. Augustine, ornament of bishops, pray for us.

St. Augustine, light of the True Faith, pray for us.

St. Augustine, noble defender of Holy Church, pray for us.

St. Augustine, refulgence of the glory of God, pray for us.

St. Augustine, blossoming olive tree of the House of God, pray for us.

St. Augustine, indefatigable adorer of the Most Holy Trinity, pray for us.

St. Augustine, inexhaustible fountain of Christian eloquence, pray for us.

St. Augustine, shining mirror of holiness, pray for us.

St. Augustine, model of all virtues, pray for us.

St. Augustine, consoler of the distressed, pray for us.

St. Augustine, comforter of the forsaken, pray for us.

St. Augustine, friend and helper of the poor, pray for us.

St. Augustine, our father, pray for us.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, graciously bear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.

Let us pray

O God, Who didst disclose to Saint Augustine the hidden mysteries of Thy wisdom and didst enkindle in his heart the flame of Divine Love, thus renewing in Thy Church the pillar of cloud and fire, graciously grant that we may pass safely through the storms of this world and reach the eternal fatherland which Thou didst promise us, through Christ Our Lord.

Amen