Dominican College of San Rafael - Firebrand Yearbook (San Rafael, CA)

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dencies, two loves built two cities— earthly, which is built up by love of self to the contempt of God, and the heavenly, which is built up by the love of God to the contempt of self . During his thirty years of ecclesiastical life, Saint Augustine not only carried on a continual warfare against the evil forces from within and without the Church, but he also laid the foundation for much of the Church ' s political thought and attitude toward history. By analyzing the pleas of the Church today for the world to go back to God one can see that, although the words have been rearranged to suit the modern situation, the theory is the same as that which was introduced by Saint Augustine in the fifth cen- tury. The answer then and now: ... for he looked for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God . Eleanor Bernardis ' 49. 126

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Saint Augustine professed that every human society finds its structural principle in a common will, a will to life, a will to enjoyment, and a will to peace . In The City of God Saint Augustine defines people as a multitude of rational creatures associated in a com- mon agreement as to the things which it loves . If one knows the objects loved, one knows the people and their society, becatise the moral life of the individual and the social life are the same. Saint Augustine ' s sociology is based on the prin- ciples of the all importance of the will and the sover- eignty of love. A striking simile was made by Augus- tine in showing the strength of love. He said that the power of love has the same importance in the spiritual world as the force of gravity possesses in the physical world: As a man ' s love moves him, so must he go . Saint Augustine also claims that all men desire happiness and all seek peace, but not all after one fashion. The only essential difference in the nature of peace and happiness is in his spiritual independence, because man has the power to choose his own good. The natural man, or man of the world, lives for him- self and wishes only a material bliss and a temporal peace. On the other hand, the spiritual man lives for God and seeks a spiritual ecstasy and a lasting peace. Since there were two kinds of men with different ten- 125

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MESSAGE FOR DAVID Thou hast seen Israel, David, my prophet. And thy wisdom is God; Nor do thy rejoicing people live against thee. Thy love of them is God, and they That have loved thee Are one with God of the heavens. Wilt thou walk toward Bethlehem, My gentle shepherd, as a sheep-tender. Going unto thy people. Invisible, Swathed in shepherd raiment; To the darkened hills of thy youth. To stir an ancient lyre. Continuing in antiphonal To Saul at Gilead, Thy greatest sorrow remaining with Jonathan At Gilboa? Let free such grief and sing. Sing to Jehovah, To the vaulted firmament. Prophesying! 127