Do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh

Painting of Saint Augustine by Tomás Giner, year 1458

In August of 386, at the age of 31, Saint Augustine converted to Christianity. As Augustine later told it, his conversion was prompted by hearing a child's voice say "Take up and Read". He opened the Bible at random and read Romans 13:13-14: Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. He later wrote an account of his conversion in his Confessions, which has since become a classic of Christian theology and a key text in the history of autobiography.

Augustine of Hippo (13 November 354 – 28 August 430 AD) was a Catholic bishop and theologian, doctor of the Church and Philosopher whose writings influenced the development of the Western Church and philosophy, and indirectly all of Christianity. He was the bishop of Hippo in North Africa and is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church.

Human person is naturally inclined to sin

Saint Augustine

The young St.Augustine's first insight into the nature of sin occurred when he and a number of friends stole fruit they did not want from a neighborhood garden. He tells this story in his autobiography, The Confessions. He remembers that he stole the fruit, not because he was hungry, but because "it was not permitted". His very nature, he says, was flawed. 'It was foul, and I loved it. I loved my own error—not that for which I erred, but the error itself." From this incident he concluded the human person is naturally inclined to sin, and in need of the grace of Christ.

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