Augustinian Exercises

1. MEMORIA: Remembering One’s Story

1.2 Review of Life

Augustine uses a familiar classic pattern of the six ages of life to present his story in books I-VII, as the stages of a journey (O’Donnell, 1992, I, l). In retrospect, as adults do at certain critical junctures, he realizes that he needs to review his life: “I was reflecting with anxiety and some perplexity how much time has elapsed since my nineteenth year when I had first been fired with passion for the pursuit of wisdom .…Yet here I was in my thirtieth year sticking fast in the same muddy bog” (VI, 11, 18). Augustine focuses his attention on different contexts of a developmental arc. He selects and interprets events to make particular points about his experience, in an attempt to establish a continuity of the self.

In psychological interventions, the revision of one’s life is the initial task that sets the healing process in motion. Its main objective is understanding the life structure (Levinson, 1986) formed by components that have a lasting influence on the individual, such as family and friendships, work and lifestyle, faith, and political and social causes. Each of these imposes some degree of involvement and participation, generating questions, conflicts and demands that a person must negotiate in the course of adult development.

-Andrés G. Niño, Ph.D., OSA

Suggestion:

Take a look at the pictures you have of yourself from the earliest to the latest. Who have been the people most important to you? Have there been changes? Do you notice any patterns thoughout your life? Is there something you longed for when you were young? How do you feel about that?

Carlos J. Medina