Today is the Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church. I have posted this before, and remembered it today, vividly and painfully, for I read it more passionately in July 2006. Now it is simply a prayer from a saint, and not something my own heart is able to echo, given the burdens I carry. Someday my heart will beat like this again. For love. For love of the Lord.
"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."
I also remember St. Augustine well for the opening of his Confessions, for he truly described the state of heart of those who have given their lives to the Lord:
God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.
Amen.
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