Too Late Have I Loved You – St. Augustine

Recall now the piercing words of St. Augustine of Hippo as we set out on today’s new journey. But remain confident in the knowledge that it is He who first sought us. 

And that He is ever with us:

Too late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient, O Beauty so new.

Too late have I loved you! You were within me but I was outside myself, and there I sought you!

In my weakness I ran after the beauty of the things you have made. You were with me, and I was not with you.

The things you have made kept me from you – the things which would have no being unless they existed in you! You have called, you have cried, and you have pierced my deafness.

You have radiated forth, you have shined out brightly, and you have dispelled my blindness. You have sent forth your fragrance, and I have breathed it in, and I long for you. I have tasted you, and I hunger and thirst for you.

You have touched me, and I ardently desire your peace*

St. Augustine’s The Confessions was one of two key books in my travels back to the Church after 41 years – the other being Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain (which some have dubbed a 20th century version of St. Augustine’s conversion story).

Neither is light summer reading.

But I am confident that neither will leave you unchanged.

If you’ve yet to read them, today might be a fine day to start.

Peace

* (Sam Rocha’s Late to Love sets this search to music. You can buy the CD here).

Prayer Translation Provided Here.

Image Credit Here, via Wikimedia Commons,  Nheyob (Author), St. Augustine