Alive Again

In honor of the great St. Augustine, whose memorial we celebrate this day:

Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new,
late have I loved you!
Lo, you were within,
but I outside, seeking there for you,
and upon the shapely things you have made I rushed headlong,
I, misshapen.
You were with me, but I was not with you.
They held me back far from you,
those things which would have no being
were they not in you.
You called, shouted, broke through my deafness;
You flared, blazed, banished my blindness;
You lavished your fragrance, I gasped, and now I pant for you;
I tasted you, and I hunger and thirst;
You touched me, and I burned for your peace.
When at last I cling to you with my whole being there will be no more anguish or labor for me, and my life will be alive indeed, because filled with you. 

– Confessions, Book X

O, St. Augustine, great sinner turned saint & Doctor of Grace… pray for us. Pray for us that we may daily start anew and come to understand (especially in the darkest times) the power of God’s saving, abundant grace. May that grace bring our restless hearts back to the Lord, in Whose Heart we can only find rest. Amen.