A true omen would still be a bad friendship. Augustine will not spare divination because Samuel’s ghost spoke truly, or because a spirit in Acts said the apostles’ names. If it happens, do not hearken. Signs like that mean what a prior pact has taught them to mean—like X to a Greek and to a Latin—and the observer’s own hunger writes the lexicon. The Confessions then turns from scattered signs to a scattered life. Time pulls the soul apart. Mercy gathers it through the Mediator toward what does not come and go. Aquinas will not confuse the bond with the fruit. Perfection is charity. The state of perfection is a solemn promise. A man may be bound and still unfinished. A man may love well without ever taking that name.
### Today’s Readings:
Augustine of Hippo — On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, Chapters 22–24 (Sections 34–37)
Augustine of Hippo — The Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 29 (Section 39)
Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 2–2, Questions 183–184 (States of Life and Christian Perfection)
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