Week 1: Introduction — "Our Heart Is Restless"

1.Augustine opens not with his biography but with praise: "Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised." Why do you think he begins a memoir this way? What does it tell you about what kind of book the Confessions is?

2.Augustine wrestles immediately with a philosophical puzzle: How can God "come into" him when God already fills all things? He asks, "What room is there within me, whither my God can come into me?" In your own words, what is Augustine struggling with here, and why does it matter for prayer?

3.The line "our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee" is the book's thesis. Where do you see that restlessness in your own life — in what things have you sought rest that could not ultimately provide it?

4.Augustine offers a breathtaking list of God's paradoxical attributes: "Most highest, most good, most potent, most omnipotent; most merciful, yet most just; most hidden, yet most present..." Pick two or three of these paradoxes that most surprise or move you. Why do they strike you?

5.Augustine confesses: "Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge Thou it, that Thou mayest enter in. It is ruinous; repair Thou it." What does this image of the soul as a ruinous, narrow dwelling say about Augustine's view of human nature? Do you share that assessment of yourself?

6.Even before he recounts any specific sins, Augustine insists that God's mercy is what makes confession possible: "Yet suffer me to speak unto Thy mercy, me, dust and ashes." Why is it significant that he addresses God directly throughout the book, rather than simply writing about God?

7.How does Augustine's opening prayer connect to the gospel — to the idea that God has not waited for us to find Him, but has come to us first?