Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Augustine on Coming to Love

Augustine writes,

"Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you.
And
see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you
there, and
in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created
things which you
made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The
lovely things kept me far
from you, though if they did not have their
existence in you, they had no
existence at all. You called and cried out
loud and shattered my deafness. You
were radiant and resplendent, you put
to flight my blindness. You were
fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now
pant after you. I tasted you, and I
feel but hunger and thirst for you.
You touched me, and I am set on fire to
attain the peace which is yours."

(X. XXVII(38), Chadwick trans., p. 201)

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:55 PM

    A lovely post on St. Augustine. His writing teems with life and love, and reminds me both of Rumi and many of the Desert Fathers of early Christianity. I am adding you to my blogroll.

    Ya Haqq!

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  2. Theological differences aside, of all the Christian thinkers and theologians I came across during my undergraduate study of religion, something about St. Augustine made him stand apart...some of his writings are beautiful indeed.

    And Allah knows best.

    Shukran for adding me to your blogroll.

    ReplyDelete