Sero Te Amavi

Sero Te Amavi

Where then did I find Thee, that I might learn Thee? For in my memory Thou wert not, before I learned Thee. Where then did I find Thee, that I might learn Thee, but in Thyself above me? . . . Everywhere, O Truth, dost Thou give audience to all who ask counsel of Thee, and at once answerest all, though on manifold matters they ask Thy counsel. Clearly dost Thou answer, though all do not clearly hear. All consult Thee on what they will, though they hear not always what they will. He is Thy best servant who looks not so much to hear that from Thee which is conformable to his own will, as rather to conform his will to what he hearth from Thee.

To late loved I Thee, O Thou Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! Too late I loved Thee! And behold Thou wert within, and I abroad, and there I searched for Thee; deformed as I was, running after those beauties which Thou hast made. Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee. Things held me far from Thee—things which, unless they were in Thee, were not at all. Thou calledst and shoutedst and didst pierce my deafness. Thou flashedst and shonest and didst dispel my blindness. Thou didst send forth Thy fragrance, and I drew in breath and panted for Thee. I tasted, and still I hunger and thirst. Thou touchedst me, and burned for Thy peace. . . .

And now my whole life is in nothing but in Thine exceeding great mercy. Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.


St. Augustine (354-430), Confessions, book X; tr. E. B. Pusey