Prayer to Saint Augustine to be recited today to ask for a grace
O great Augustine, our father and teacher, connoisseur of the luminous paths of God and also of the tortuous ways of men, we admire the wonders that divine Grace has worked in you, making you a passionate witness of truth and good, at the service of the brothers.
At the beginning of a new millennium marked by the cross of Christ, teach us to read history in the light of divine Providence, which guides events towards the definitive encounter with the Father. Orient us towards destinations of peace, nourishing in your heart your own yearning for those values on which it is possible to build, with the strength that comes from God, the "city" on a human scale.
The profound doctrine, which with loving and patient study you have drawn from the ever-living sources of Scripture, illuminate those who are today tempted by alienating mirages. Obtain the courage for them to embark on the path to that "inner man" in whom the One who alone can give peace to our restless heart is waiting.
Many of our contemporaries seem to have lost the hope of being able, among the many contrasting ideologies, to reach the truth, of which, however, their intimate retains the poignant nostalgia. It teaches them never to give up on research, in the certainty that, in the end, their effort will be rewarded by the fulfilling encounter with that supreme Truth which is the source of all created truth.
Finally, O Saint Augustine, also send us a spark of that ardent love for the Church, the Catholic mother of saints, who supported and animated the efforts of your long ministry. Grant that, walking together under the guidance of the legitimate Pastors, we reach the glory of the heavenly homeland, where, with all the Blesseds, we will be able to unite ourselves with the new canticle of the endless alleluia. Amen.
of John Paul II
Prayer written by Sant'Agostino
You are great, Lord, and well worthy of praise; great is your virtue, and your incalculable wisdom. And man wants to praise you, a particle of your creation, who carries around his mortal destiny, who carries around him the proof of his sin and the proof that you resist the proud. Yet man, a particle of your creation, wants to praise you. It is you who stimulate him to delight in your praise, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart has no rest until it rests in you. Grant me, Lord, to know and understand if we must first invoke or praise you, first know or invoke. But how could someone who does not know you invoke you? Out of ignorance he could invoke this for that. So should you rather be invoked to know? But how will they call on him, in whom they did not believe? And how to ask, if no one gives the announcement first? Those who seek him will praise the Lord, because by seeking him they will find him, and by finding him they will praise him. May I seek you, Lord, invoking you, and invoke yourself by believing you, because your announcement has come to us. Lord, my faith invokes you, which you have given and inspired me through your Son made man, through the work of your Announcer.