Saturday, October 15, 2011

Morning Prayer -- From Augustine

I have learned to love You late,
Beauty at once so ancient and so new.
I have learned to love You late.
You were with me/ within me,
and I was in the world

outside myself.

I searched for You outside myself and,
disfigured as I was,
I fell upon the lovely things of Your creation.

You were with me but ...

I was not with You.

The beautiful things of this world
kept me from You and yet,
if they had not been in You,
they would have no being at all.

You called me;
You cried aloud to me;
You broke the barrier of my deafness.
I tasted You and now
I hunger and thirst for You.

You touched me and I am inflamed,
inflamed with love of Your peace.

Augustine, Confessions X, 27

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