Week 10: Book IX — Baptism, Monica's Death, and the Vision at Ostia

1.Immediately after his conversion, Augustine experiences a new relationship with the Psalms: "How did I cry unto Thee, my God, when I read the Psalms of David... I trembled for joy and trembled for sorrow." Why do the Psalms — with their raw grief and soaring praise — become so alive to him now, when they had not reached him before? What had changed?

2.Augustine resigns from his position as rhetoric teacher, though he waits until the end of term to avoid scandal. He reflects on the relief: "How sweet did it at once become to me, to want the sweetnesses of those toys! and what I feared to be parted from, was now a joy to part with." What does this reversal of desires reveal about what conversion actually changes? Is this instant change of desire something we should expect, or something Augustine received as a special gift?

3.Monica is described as a model of the consecrated Christian life — constant at church, fasting moderately, refusing to let devotion become superstition, serving the poor. Her relationship with Ambrose is one of mutual recognition and warmth. What does the portrait of Monica as a mature believer add to the narrative — she is not just a weeping mother but a fully formed person in Christ?