Why the Augustinian Succession?

This my maiden post. I hope that the blog will mature and flourish in the course of rediscovering, preserving and defending the Augustinian Succession. It's my desire to be able to this by, inter alia, attempting to conceptualise the line of succession beginning with St. Paul whose Epistle to the Romans has been treated as his magnum opus and most prominent of the classical loci for the exposition of predestination and justification - praedestinatio ante merita praevisa which stand as the core and heart of the Gospel, i.e. justification by faith alone (sola fide) grounded in the eternal and unchangeable decree of God: predestination unto glory. That justification is wholly by faith AND grace alone (sola gratia) and predestination is absolute, infallible and efficacious form the pillar and ground of the true Catholic Church (outside of which there is no truth - 1 Tim. 3:15). This is her authentic and undoubted teaching regarding her very own salvation ...

"We truly and really believe that St. Augustine of Hippo, bishop-confessor and Doctor of Grace par excellence of the Catholic Church, was the faithful expounder of the Pauline teaching concerning predestination. The locus of St. Paul the Apostle's teaching contained in Romans 9 is derived from divine revelation and the pure and inviolate interpretation of the texts of the Old Testament. Thus, the Pauline and Augustinian predestination as ex praevisa fidei (i.e. before or outside of personal faith) and grounded in the eternal and unchangeable will of God the Father as the Source and Origin of The Most Holy Trinity is eminently and wholly biblical. The Son Himself who was born of the ever-Virgin Mary (aiparthenos, semper virgo) taught divine election during His earthly ministry. Our Lord's final petition recorded in John 17 was ecclesio-centric contra a universal salvific will.

Now, this doctrine of predestination is an essential and integral portion of the Apostolic Faith. The Church is expected, on the basis of her calling and witness, to stand firm and continue in the teaching of predestination as taught in the Holy Scriptures. This is the true meaning of Apostolic Succession, which is not defined prominently by visible reference to a demonstrable or verifiable organic continuation of the ministerial priesthood through ordination and consecration, apart from the sensus and consensus of the faithful as they are guided by the Holy Spirit Who leadeth into all Truth. But the Apostolic Succession is the true and faithful preservation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through exposition and propagation of which predestination is but its core, heart and centre ..... And this Gospel has been kept, however obscured and encrustated, throughout the ages by the Catholic remnant in the mainstream a.k.a. magisterial Church. The uninterrupted presence of this theological system we do recognise and confess as the Apostolic Succession, otherwise known polemically and distinctively as the Augustinian Succession of the western Catholic Church."