St. Michael's Lent 2026 - Reading #1 - Vigilance
Reading
Augustine opens his great work with a city under siege — and a promise to defend it.
"The glorious city of God is my theme in this work, which you, my dearest son Marcellinus, suggested, and which is due to you by my promise. I have undertaken its defence against those who prefer their own gods to the Founder of this city,--a city surpassingly glorious, whether we view it as it still lives by faith in this fleeting course of time, and sojourns as a stranger in the midst of the ungodly, or as it shall dwell in the fixed stability of its eternal seat, which it now with patience waits for, expecting until 'righteousness shall return unto judgment,' and it obtain, by virtue of its excellence, final victory and perfect peace. A great work this, and an arduous; but God is my helper."
The first lesson for a watchman: humility, not pride, raises a soul.
He continues, "For I am aware what ability is requisite to persuade the proud how great is the virtue of humility, which raises us, not by a quite human arrogance, but by a divine grace, above all earthly dignities that totter on this shifting scene. For the King and Founder of this city of which we speak, has in Scripture uttered to His people a dictum of the divine law in these words: 'God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.' But this, which is God's prerogative, the inflated ambition of a proud spirit also affects, and dearly loves that this be numbered among its attributes, to
'Show pity to the humbled soul, And crush the sons of pride.'
And therefore, as the plan of this work we have undertaken requires, and as occasion offers, we must speak also of the earthly city, which, though it be mistress of the nations, is itself ruled by its lust of rule."
Two cities — begin watching which one you build.
Reflection
St. Michael's Lent begins today. From the Feast of the Assumption to the Feast of the Archangel, the Church's older custom hands her sons forty days to fast, watch, and prepare — a soldier's season, kept by St. Francis himself, who climbed a mountain to keep it.
That is the question this season puts to you as a husband and father: which city are you actually building at your address? One rises on pride and the lust of rule; the other on humility, under the King who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Every soul, every household, is enrolled in one of them.
Today Mary is taken up, body and soul, into the city Augustine calls glorious — proof that the destination is real and that a human being has already arrived. For forty days, walk through his account of the war between the two cities, and keep watch. The watchman's first duty is to know which walls he is actually defending.