Category: Photography

After listening to the song, Saint Augustine in Hell, Gregory asked John, his father confessor, how anyone could imagine that Saint Augustine might be in hell.

Well, Father John explained, Saint Augustine was a saint and God wills all to be saved, so there’s a very good chance that he’s in heaven. But he did teach that only some, not all, of us were predestined to go to heaven – predestined before we were even born so we could not boast that we had anything to do with it, so – if he’s right – he might be one of those unfortunate ones the Lord never knew.

Unable to lace his doubts into a secure knot of preservation with these vague words, Gregory cried, Please, Father John, I’ve got to know!

You, my son, I trust will be in heaven, Father John assured him, because you love God with your whole heart, because you follow where He leads and because God wills that all be saved just as you do, so when you get there ask for Saint Augustine and rejoice when he greets you. If it turns out that you can’t remember his name, then rejoice nonetheless in the Lord.

______

Denise offers the prompt word “lace” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 KJV – 1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

2 Peter 3:9 KJV – 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Romans 10:9-13 KJV – 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Saint Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, Chapter 16: Faith, then, as well in its beginning as in its completion, is God’s gift; and let no one have any doubt whatever, unless he desires to resist the plainest sacred writings, that this gift is given to some, while to some it is not given. But why it is not given to all ought not to disturb the believer, who believes that from one all have gone into a condemnation, which undoubtedly is most righteous; so that even if none were delivered therefrom, there would be no just cause for finding fault with God. Whence it is plain that it is a great grace for many to be delivered, and to acknowledge in those that are not delivered what would be due to themselves; so that he that glories may glory not in his own merits, which he sees to be equalled in those that are condemned, but in the Lord. But why He delivers one rather than another —His judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out. Romans 11:33 For it is better in this case for us to hear or to say, O man, who are you that repliest against God? Romans 9:20 than to dare to speak as if we could know what He has chosen to be kept secret. Since, moreover, He could not will anything unrighteous.