Ever Ancient, Ever New
| Sero te amavi, pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova, sero te amavi! Et ecce intus eras et ego foris, et ibi te quaerebam. Et in ista formosa, quae fecisti, deformis inruebam. Mecum eras, et tecum non eram. Ea me tenebant longe a te, quae si in te non essent, non essent. Vocasti et clamasti et rupisti surditatem meam: |
Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved Thee! And, behold, Thou wert within me and I myself on the outside, and it was there that I sought Thee. And into those lovely things, which Thou madest, All unlovely did I rush. Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee. Those things kept me far from Thee, things that would not exist, unless they were in Thee. Thou didst call, and shout, and shatter my deafness: |
From Augustine’s Confessions (Book Ten)
Augustine (354-430 A.D.)was the most prolific writer of Christian antiquity and the most influential theologian in Church history.” “In his first encyclical,” God Is Love, “current Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges his indebtedness to him. When we read Augustine today, we encounter the same direct, eloquent passions his original listeners experienced, infused with his deep sense of human weakness and burning desire for union with God.
Memorial-August 28
The Death Of Augustine
Benozzo Gozzoli (1421-1497)
