A Place of Brightness: Learning Latin with Saint Augustine: Da Mihi Castitatem...

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Learning Latin with Saint Augustine: Da Mihi Castitatem...

Saint Augustine is the source of several notable Latin quotes. Here is a grammatical explanation of one worth knowing.

As a young man, he grappled with his carnal lusts and his desire to live a purer life.

In his Confessions (8.7.17) he sums up this struggle as he prays to God:

Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo.
Give to me chastity and temperance, but not yet.

I discuss the sad parting with his concubine in this post.

Here's a grammatical explanation of the Latin:

Latin	English	Parsing	Grammar Points
Da	Give	sing. imp.	do, dare, dedi, datus
mihi	to me	dat. sing. pronoun	tu, tui
castitatem	chastity	acc. sing. fem. noun	castitas, castitatis
et	and		conj.
continentiam	temperance	acc. sing. fem. noun	continentia, continentiae
sed	but		conj.
noli	don’t (do it)	sing. imp. verb	nolo, nolle, nolui
modo	now/yet		adv.

No comments:

Post a Comment

In Saecula Saeculorum, the 4th Novel in the Valquist Series

In this fourth novel of the Valquist Series, Andrew Valquist is retired (?) from the National Security Agency and teaching Latin at a Classical Academy in the Washington DC area. But in the world of espionage, looks can be deceiving. He's not necessarily happy with the role he has played in all this, but the school was actually a joint NSA/MI-6 Project in which four young people have been unwittingly prepared for a mission to travel back in time to ancient Rome to retrieve information from a library that may save the modern world from certain destruction. They know they have to at least try to save humanity, but can they also save each other?

Next Stop: Spanish, the 3rd Novel in the Valquist Series

This third novel in the Valquist Series can be read as an espionage action-adventure in its own right, but also you can use it as a way to either brush up on your Spanish or learn functional Spanish for the first time! John Valquist needs to learn Spanish. But he's in luck, since his uncle Andrew is a language expert and a former (?) spy who is taking him on a vacation to Spain so he can study the language. In Next Stop: Spanish, you have the chance to see and study the words John studies, and then watch him add more and more Spanish into his dialogue as the story progresses. During this vacation, they get pulled into espionage intrigue (why do these things always happen to the Valquist family?). In the dramatic conclusion, John will need to put together everything he has learned to save his uncle!

Amor Vincit Omnia: the 2nd Novel in the Valquist Series

In this second novel of the Valquist Series, Keith Massey takes you into the halls of the National Security Agency, where he himself worked for four years after 9/11 and an Arabic linguist. You follow our hero Andrew Valquist, as he starts work as a new recruit at the NSA. Little does he know that on his first on the job, he's about to fly off on an unexpected overseas assignment. He'll be even more surprised when he learns that his background in ancient Latin will be crucial to the mission!

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Learning Latin with Saint Augustine: Da Mihi Castitatem...

No comments:

Post a Comment

AddThis