Discovering Your Heart's Rest: Dr. Shane Owens' New Book on St. Augustine, Timely for an Augustinian Papacy

In a providential alignment, as the Catholic Church welcomes its first Augustinian Pope, Leo XIV, the release of my good friend Dr. Shane Owens' new book, Return to the Heart: The Biblical Spirituality of St. Augustine’s Confessions, couldn't be more timely. This insightful work invites readers to delve into the enduring wisdom of one of Christianity's most influential figures, offering a roadmap for personal conversion and a deeper encounter with God.

St. Augustine's Confessions holds a unique place in Western literature as the very first autobiography. It's a profound narrative of one man's tumultuous journey away from and ultimately back to God, a journey rich with human experience. As Augustine himself famously penned, "He is most intimately present to the human heart, but the heart has strayed from him. Return to your heart, then, you wrongdoers, and hold fast to him who made you."

This profound call to the heart resonates deeply with our own contemporary struggles for love, happiness, and peace. Dr. Owens, with his new book, bridges the centuries, making Augustine's wisdom accessible to a new generation. He masterfully demonstrates that true wholeness and self-understanding are found only in a heart-to-heart encounter with our Creator.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church echoes Augustine's central insight, stating that "The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God" and that only "in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for" (CCC No.¹ 27). Return to the Heart offers convincing testimony from St. Augustine's own life and writings to this fundamental truth: an ever-present God is ceaselessly at work, guiding us toward conversion and eternal life.

With Pope Leo XIV, himself a "son of St. Augustine," leading the Church, there's a renewed emphasis on the Augustinian charism. This papacy promises to reacquaint the universal Church with Augustine's intellectual depth and missionary zeal. As Pope Leo XIV's own motto, "In Illo uno unum" ("In the One, we are one"), drawn from Augustine, suggests, his pontificate will likely emphasize unity in Christ, rooted in a profound understanding of the human heart's restless yearning for God.

Now more than ever, as we navigate a world often characterized by restlessness and a search for meaning, Dr. Shane Owens' book provides a vital guide. It's an invitation to follow in the footsteps of St. Augustine, returning to the very core of our being to discover the ultimate peace and fulfillment found only in God.

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