20 October 2023
O Truth Who art Eternity! and Love Who art Truth! and Eternity Who art
Love! Thou art my God, to Thee do I sigh night and day. Thee when I first knew,
Thou liftedst me up, that I might see there was what I might see, and that I
was not yet such as to see. And Thou didst beat back the weakness of my sight,
streaming forth Thy beams of light upon me most strongly, and I trembled with
love and awe: and I perceived myself to be far off from Thee, in the region of
unlikeness, as if I heard this Thy voice from on high: “I am the food of grown
men, grow, and thou shalt feed upon Me; nor shalt thou convert Me, like the
food of thy flesh into thee, but thou shalt be converted into Me.” And I
learned, that Thou for iniquity chastenest man, and Thou madest my soul to consume
away like a spider. And I said, “Is Truth therefore nothing because it is not
diffused through space finite or infinite?” And Thou criedst to me from afar:
“Yet verily, I AM that I AM.” And I heard, as the heart heareth, nor had I room
to doubt, and I should sooner doubt that I live than that Truth is not, which
is clearly seen, being understood by those things which are made. And I beheld
the other things below Thee, and I perceived that they neither altogether are,
nor altogether are not, for they are, since they are from Thee, but are not,
because they are not what Thou art. For that truly is which remains
unchangeably. It is good then for me to hold fast unto God; for if I remain not
in Him, I cannot in myself; but He remaining in Himself, reneweth all things.
And Thou art the Lord my God, since Thou standest not in need of my goodness.
Saint Augustine
No comments:
Post a Comment