St. Augustine - Lenten Sermons

“Do you hate your brother and walk about free from care? Are you unwilling to be reconciled, although God is giving you an opportunity for that purpose? Behold, you are a murderer and yet you live.”

These two Lenten sermons (Sermons 205 and 211, respectively) were originally given by Augustine at the beginning of Lent.In the first sermon, Augustine warns against using fasting or abstaining from one kind of pleasure as a pretense to seek out other luxuries, and he warns against nailing others to our own cross, so to speak, by being ill-tempered while fasting. He ends the first sermon emphasizing forgiveness.

With the second sermon, Augustine takes up the subject of forgiveness and preaches on it more comprehensively. He tackles the subject from every angle: are we unwilling to forgive our neighbor? Is our neighbor unwilling to forgive us? Are either we or our neighbor unwilling to ask to be forgiven?

Translation courtesy of Catholic University of America Press: https://verbum.com/product/120454/saint-augustine-sermons-on-the-liturgical-seasons

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