As a cradle Catholic and lifer at Catholic school, I'd always known some about the great reform of St. Augustine. His Confessions are proof that history does indeed repeat itself: 20-and-30-something guy dabbles in astrology and premarital sex for a while and isn't spiritually fulfilled then finds God and lives happily ever after. The best parts of his work, though, are his ruminations of the nature of sin, of lust, of familial/friendly love versus spiritual and romantic love. I wish I had read this four years ago when my Latin was still fresh, but there were thorough footnotes regarding the different words for 'love' in Latin and the impossibility of precise, uni-word translation into English: in particular, amor and caritas as representing different manifestations of love. I remember a long time ago, as a senior in high school, we read Plato's Socrates (in Latin) and we had a long discussion about Plato's argument that eros (erotic love) is the root of all human desire; in Confessions, Augustine argues that amor can be used to describe his relationship with God. I loved the pear tree anecdote, too: reminds me of the parables I learned in Catholic school as a child. I guess I'm feeling some sort of Catholic mood, come springtime.