I am attached to Christianity at large; much from conviction; more from affection.

The more the soul is conformed to Christ, the more confident it will be of its interest in Christ.

Their souls touch and I seem to be more aware of God because of it.

...and clung more closely to the dear human love, from which our Father never means us to be weaned, but through which He draws us closer to Himself.

The same bond which unites believers to Christ binds them to each other. The love which is exercised towards the Head extends to the members. The union itself necessarily involves a union of affection. Those who love Christ love those who are like Him and those who are beloved by Him.

It seems to me that truth has taken its place again in our little room, and become incarnate; that the greatest bond which can bind two beings together is being confessed, the great bond we did not know of, though it is the whole of salvation: "Before, I loved you for my own sake; to-day, I love you for yours."

He wills that we take ourselves with great strength to the faith of holy Church and find there our most precious mother in comfort and true understanding with the whole communion of blessed ones. For a person by himself can frequently be broken, as it seems to himself, but the whole body of holy Church was never broken and never shall be, without end. Therefore it is a sure thing, a good thing, and a gracious thing to will meekly and powerfully to be fastened and joined to our mother, holy Church - that is Christ Jesus.

Greater still is the truth of our connectedness.

Christ goes deeper than I do, but I have had a wider experience.

The idea is that we discover Christ in our life – Christ who is risen – and this experience is so powerful that we cannot preserve it for ourselves. We need to share.

The saint enjoys real attachment to God when he experiences states of contentment and satisfaction.

I could not say I believe. I know! I have had the experience of being gripped by something that is stronger than myself, something that people call God.

While I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw;
For I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being....And I saw that it was holy

One of the things that comes to mind when I think of St Augustine, his vision and his understanding of what it means to belong to the Church, is what he says about not being able to say you are a follower of Christ without being part of the Church. Christ is part of the Church. He is the head. So anyone who thinks they can follow Christ ‘in their own way’ without being part of the body is, unfortunately, a distortion of what is an authentic experience. St Augustine has an omnipresent wisdom that helps us to live in communion. Unity and communion are essential charisms of the life of the Order and a fundamental part of understanding what the Church is and what it means to be in the Church.