January 21 - A New Commandment I Give You

The Lord Jesus declared that he was giving his disciples a new commandment, that they should love one another.  A new commandment, he said, I give you, that you love one another.

Augustine was born in north Africa to a pagan Roman father and a Christian Berber mother.  He spent his youth as a true pagan and in his Confessions, describes his time in a heretical sect in Rome and how he came to Christ by the grace of God and the preaching of Bishop Ambrose of Milan, who baptized him in 386.  Having entered fully into the way of Christ, Augustine  returned to Africa to become bishop of Hippo, and is recognized as one of the early Church's greatest theologians.