Episode 122 ~ Saintly Summer--Part 3: St. Augustine (Part 2)
Aug 11, 2026 · 55 min · 16 segments
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Brian McGreevyHostAlonsoHost
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Aug 11, 2026 · 55 min · 16 segments
Brian McGreevyHostAlonsoHost
So one of the things I wanted to do was to just start off by reading a couple of quotations out of the Confessions, and then we will kind of take off from there.
Part of the reason that I love this book is that I think most of us have this idea of saints as being these people that are sort of plaster kind of iconic people who didn't like really struggle.
And one of the things I love about Augustine is he is just brutally honest and admits all of the stuff that he did that was like really sort of embarrassing to admit.
And a lot of what he talks about and the things in this book are so relatable to particularly issues that are in young adult culture today.
And we're gonna come back to that when we talk about Alonzo's theory about what the whole point of this book is.
But I just want to read just a little bit of some of these because they are the kinds of things you don't expect in a book about a saint or written by a saint.
So, for example, for this space of nine years, from my 19th year to my 28th year, we lived seduced and seducing, deceived and deceiving in many diverse lusts.
proud superstitious vain here always hunting the emptiness of praise and strife for grassy garlands and the folly of shows and intemperate desires these things i followed and practiced with all my friends and they deceived me and then the great part for what am i to myself without thee but a guide to my own downfall Yeah.
As is well known, although it might not be well known to all of you, St. Augustine ran with a sketchy crowd as a teenager.
And their name for their sort of street gang could be translated as the subverters.
And so he says, one night after the gang had finished playing sports in the street of their neighborhood, their attention turned to a pear tree that was heavy with ripe fruit.
The tree didn't belong to any of their families, but grew on a plot adjacent to Augustine's family home.
Augustine relates in his own words, we carried off a huge load of pears, not to eat ourselves, but just to dump out to the hogs after barely tasting them.
Behold now, let my heart confess that it was seeking when I was being gratuitously wanton, having no inducement to evil but evil itself.
Augustine looked back on the theft and was struck by the fact he didn't even want the pears.
So one of the things I wanted to do was to just start off by reading a couple of quotations out of the Confessions, and then we will kind of take off from there.
Part of the reason that I love this book is that I think most of us have this idea of saints as being these people that are sort of plaster kind of iconic people who didn't like really struggle.
And one of the things I love about Augustine is he is just brutally honest and admits all of the stuff that he did that was like really sort of embarrassing to admit.
And a lot of what he talks about and the things in this book are so relatable to particularly issues that are in young adult culture today.
And we're gonna come back to that when we talk about Alonzo's theory about what the whole point of this book is.
But I just want to read just a little bit of some of these because they are the kinds of things you don't expect in a book about a saint or written by a saint.
So, for example, for this space of nine years, from my 19th year to my 28th year, we lived seduced and seducing, deceived and deceiving in many diverse lusts.
proud superstitious vain here always hunting the emptiness of praise and strife for grassy garlands and the folly of shows and intemperate desires these things i followed and practiced with all my friends and they deceived me and then the great part for what am i to myself without thee but a guide to my own downfall Yeah.
As is well known, although it might not be well known to all of you, St. Augustine ran with a sketchy crowd as a teenager.
And their name for their sort of street gang could be translated as the subverters.
And so he says, one night after the gang had finished playing sports in the street of their neighborhood, their attention turned to a pear tree that was heavy with ripe fruit.
The tree didn't belong to any of their families, but grew on a plot adjacent to Augustine's family home.
Augustine relates in his own words, we carried off a huge load of pears, not to eat ourselves, but just to dump out to the hogs after barely tasting them.
Behold now, let my heart confess that it was seeking when I was being gratuitously wanton, having no inducement to evil but evil itself.
Augustine looked back on the theft and was struck by the fact he didn't even want the pears.
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