Confessions
by St. Augustine
North Africa, around the year 400. A bishop sits down to write his life story, and he does it in an unusual way: as a long prayer addressed to God. St. Augustine holds nothing back. There's the childhood theft of pears, stolen for the thrill of it. There's the brilliant career and the restless appetites. There are years among the Manichees and the philosophers, and a mistress he loved. And all along there's his mother, St. Monica, praying without letup.
Then comes the garden in Milan. Augustine, in tears, hears a child's voice chanting “take up and read.” He opens Paul's letters, and his heart turns. The later books shift to memory, time and the opening of Genesis, and they grow more philosophical. But the line that frames the whole book comes at the start: our heart is restless until it rests in you.
It suits anyone who has wandered, doubted or delayed, readers who like memoir, and catechumens who need to hear that conversion can take years. Choose a modern translation and begin with the first nine books, the story of his life.
Key Takeaways
- Conversion as a long, patient work of grace.
- St. Monica's persevering prayer for her son.
- The famous garden scene in Milan.
- “Our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
It is one of Christianity's oldest and most searching accounts of conversion.
