Letter 37: 1. I received the letter which your Holiness kindly sent — a letter full of occasions of much joy to me, because assuring me that you remember me, that you love me as you used to do, and that you take great pleasure in every one of the gifts which the Lord has in His compassion been pleased to bestow on me. In reading that letter, I have eagerly...

Augustine to Simplicius, greetings. Your letter filled me with joy, dearest brother — because in it I recognized a mind in love with the truth and eager for understanding. You are right to press me on these questions, and I will do my best to answer them, though I freely admit that there is more here than I can fully grasp. You ask about the passage in the Apostle Paul where he says: "I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing" [Romans 7:19]. This is indeed a passage that has been much debated and much misunderstood. Some have read this as Paul speaking in his own person, describing the continuing struggle of a man who has received grace but still battles with the remnants of sin in his flesh. Others have read it as Paul adopting a rhetorical persona — speaking in the voice of someone still under the law, not yet freed by grace. I have come to believe — after much reflection and no small amount of internal wrestling — that Paul is speaking of the genuine condition of the human being under grace. Even the redeemed person finds within himself a war between what he knows to be right and what his deeply ingrained habits and desires pull him toward. The will is present, but the full power to carry it out is not — not yet. This is not despair. It is honesty. And honesty before God is the beginning of every healing. The man who says "I do what I do not want" is not making excuses. He is confessing. And confession is the first breath of freedom. Farewell, dearest brother. Continue to ask. The one who seeks will find — not because the answers are easy, but because the one who gives them is faithful.

Letter 37 (A.D. 397) To Simplicianus, My Lord Most Blessed, and My Father Most Worthy of Being Cherished with Respect and Sincere Affection, Augustine Sends Greeting in the Lord. 1. I received the letter which your Holiness kindly sent — a letter full of occasions of much joy to me, because assuring me that you remember me, that you love me as you used to do, and that you take great pleasure in every one of the gifts which the Lord has in His compassion been pleased to bestow on me. In reading that letter, I have eagerly welcomed the fatherly affection which flows from your benignant heart towards me: and this I have not found for the first time, as something short-lived and new, but long ago proved and well known, my lord, most blessed, and most worthy of being cherished with respect and sincere love. 2. Whence comes so great a recompense for the literary labour given by me to the writing of a few books as this, that your Excellency should condescend to read them? Is it not that the Lord, to whom my soul is devoted, has purposed thus to comfort me under my anxieties, and to lighten the fear with which in such labour I cannot but be exercised, lest, notwithstanding the evenness of the plain of truth, I stumble through want either of knowledge or of caution? For when what I write meets your approval, I know by whom it is approved, for I know who dwells in you; and the Giver and Dispenser of all spiritual gifts designs by your approbation to confirm my obedience to Him. For whatever in these writings of mine merits your approbation is from God, who has by me as His instrument said, Let it be done, and it was done; and in your approval God has pronounced that what was done is good. Genesis 1:3-4 3. As for the questions which you have condescended to command me to resolve, even if through the dulness of my mind I did not understand them, I might through the assistance of your merits find an answer to them. This only I ask, that on account of my weakness you intercede with God for me, and that whatever writings of mine come into your sacred hands, whether on the topics to which you have in a manner so kind and fatherly directed my attention, or on any others, you will not only take pains to read them, but also accept the charge of reviewing and correcting them; for I acknowledge the mistakes which I myself have made, as readily as the gifts which God has bestowed on me.

EPISTOLA 37 Scripta circa a. 397. A. laetatur litterarias suas lucubrationes legi atque adprobari a Simpliciano (n. 1-2), eiusque censurae subicit tum ceteros suos libros tum eos quos de quaestionibus ab ipso propositis conscripsit (n. 3).   Domino beatissimo et venerabiliter sincerissima caritate amplectendo patri Simpliciano, Augustinus, in Domino salutem A. a Simpliciano diligitur magnique aestimatur. 1. Plenas bonorum gaudiorum litteras, quod sis memor mei, meque ut soles diligas, magnaeque gratulationi tibi sit quidquid in me donorum suorum Dominus conferre dignatus est misericordia sua, non meritis meis, missas munere Sanctitatis tuae accepi: in quibus affectum in me paternum de tuo benignissimo corde non repentinum et novum hausi, sed expertum sane cognitumque repetivi, domine beatissime, et venerabiliter sincerissima caritate amplectende. Augustini scripta a Simpliciano probantur. 2. Unde autem tanta exorta est felicitas litterario labori nostro, quo in librorum quorumdam conscriptione sudavimus, ut a tua Dignatione legerentur? nisi quia Dominus, cui subdita est anima mea, consolari voluit curas meas, et a timore recreare, quo me in talibus operibus necesse est esse sollicitum, necubi forte indoctior vel incautior, quamvis in planissimo campo veritatis, offendam. Cum enim tibi placet quod scribo, novi cui placeat; quoniam quis te inhabitet novi. Idem quippe omnium munerum spiritalium distributor atque largitor per tuam sententiam confirmavit obedientiam meam. Quidquid enim habent illa scripta delectatione tua dignum, in meo ministerio dixit Deus, Fiat, et factum est: in tua vero approbatione vidit Deus quia bonum est 1. A. Simpliciani censurae suos libros subicit. 3. Quaestiunculas sane, quas mihi enodandas iubere dignatus es, etsi mea tarditate implicatus non intellegerem, tuis meritis adiutus aperirem. Tantum illud quaeso, ut pro mea infirmitate depreceris Deum, et sive in iis quibus me exercere benigne paterneque voluisti, sive in aliis quaecumque nostra in tuas sanctas manus forte pervenerint, quia sicut Dei data, sic etiam mea errata cognosco, non solum curam legentis impendas, sed etiam censuram corrigentis assumas. Vale.