Augustine opens his confessions in this way:

"Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise;[integral]1 your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning." Who having faith in God would not agree wholeheartedly with Augustine in his opening prayer to God. Each of us has his own experiences of this "greatness of God;" the One who is "exceedingly worthy of praise," and whose "power is immense," and whose "wisdom is beyond reckoning." It may not be the God of our neighbor, but it is our experience of that same God that sets us apart from others. Can we not each of us address You, O God in the same fashion , with the same honesty and forcefulness of Augustine. Perhaps it will not be the saem stories we tell or the elaboration which is filled with geographical regions as diverse as Augustine, yet we, too, because we are the work of your hand can confidently call you, "Our Father," given to us from your Only-Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. In Him we are brothers of St. Augustine and fellow laborers of his in this work of making your glory known and first in our own lives and in this we humble ourselves before St. Augustine in sharing with us his confessions of recognizing and praising you for your goodness, whcih we, because of our laziness and apathy and neglect and material minded concerns fail to take up the pen and give you time and praiseworthy confession. It is not so much that we are so weak that we could not nor do not becase we can't , but simpley that we just simply have not freely chosen to or do not see fully that it is you who hav egiven to us everything that we can call good. WE still want to acknowledge others as being the source of the good tha tcomes to us and not you whom we should find as the sole object of the love of our "whole hearts, minds, soul, and strength." Yet, we choose to remain silent , not because we want other sto follow suit or that we are afraid ot speak out when other smay not listen to us, but we remain silent because it is people like ourselves tha tmake up our cities, our countries, our nations and our world. Augustine is one who is not so particularly likened by the common people who would rather not rock the boat of the establishments we live in or work at in order to give you praise, lest we be rejected or laughed at by our peers our ideas or our communicating our faith which we know is valualbe but not valuable enough to risk it on the unbelief of others around us. So, we remain silent about these matters, whcih we read in Augustine which is so true, and we do not deny it. Or perhaps more than we woudl admit, like the lost children of this generation who would rather have no god to believe in but their own fantasies and made up worlds of isms and false philosophies and egocentric views seek to destroy the good around us by a silence which makes people feel uneasy, or quite acceptable as true religion is not brought to the fore or to speech or to our billboardsd and people's concsciences. Yes, we are part of this world which perhaps is much different form Augustines' in many ways, yet do we take responsibility for it as what we have created. No doubt you are still part of our world and you guide it "from end to end mightily." I prayy with Augustine that what I have not acknowledge of your greatnes sin my life that I can, of that goodness which is to be exceedingly to be praised and I haven't that I could; of that power adn majesty which is beyonf all comprehension which touches every fiber of my being and keeps me from my faith being ship-wrecked at every turn of the road, that I could stay on course with that light which is the light of everyone that has come into the world. For what I fear most of all, is that it is not all the Augustines' or others who have given properly your Praise, nor the good works that are done in the simplicity of the consciences of men, but tha tI myslef may not have given you the proper praise that is due to you in my own life, in my own way, with my own extremely limited gifts and graaces. This no one can do for me, this no one will force me, this no one will take freedom form me to do, yet many will be glad that I do not give you praise and honor and worship and would rather see me head straight for hell and stay there along with themselves rather than opening the mouths of their inner sanctuary to reveal who they really are before God and men, before the society they seek to confuse and lead astray and abuse. Therefore, it is good to come before the text of an honest man, an honest Bishop , who sings your praise of who he sees you to be to himself with all due candor and searching for what this means. Lest, someone think that I too, have found a way to make this happen in my life, I fall back on Augustine who, like me, a sinner by 'profession,' for many years, turns and turns again to the light held out by you to us who are seeking a forgiving God and a God who loves so much as to send his Only-Begotten in our midst as Living Bread and Life for the World.

IP CRL