The advice of today 4 September 2020 of Sant'Agostino

St. Augustine (354-430)
bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and doctor of the Church

Speech 210,5 (New Augustinian Library)
“But the days will come when the bridegroom will be snatched from them; then, in those days, they will fast "
Let us therefore keep "our hips girded and the lamps lit", and we are like those "servants awaiting the return of their master from the wedding" (Lk 12,35:1). Let us not say to each other: "Let us eat and drink because tomorrow we will die" (15,32 Cor 16,16:20). But precisely because the day of death is uncertain and life is painful, we fast and pray even more: tomorrow in fact we will die. "A little while longer - said Jesus - and you will not see me a little while longer and you will see me" (Jn 22:XNUMX). This is the moment of which he told us: “you will weep and be sad, but the world will rejoice” (v. XNUMX); that is: this life is full of temptations and we are pilgrims far from him. "But I will see you again - he added - and your heart will rejoice and no one will be able to take away your joy" (v. XNUMX).

We rejoice even now in this hope, despite everything - since the one who promised us is most faithful - in anticipation of that superabundant joy, when "we will be like him, because we will see him as he is" (1 Jn 3,2: 16,21), and “No one will be able to take away our joy”. (…) “When a woman gives birth - says the Lord - she is in pain because her hour has come; but when she has given birth there is a great celebration because a man has come into the world "(Jn XNUMX:XNUMX). This will be the joy that no one can take away from us and which we will be filled with when we pass, from the way of conceiving faith in the present life, to the eternal light. So now let us fast and pray, because it is the time of childbirth.