LATE HAVE I LOVED YOU!

Today we celebrate St. Augustine, who had a great influence in the Church. He was a professor, when finally came to believe in Jesus as the Christ and the Saviour. Later, he would write the book Confessions, which is a reflection on his own life and on God's love. He wrote beautifully about God searching for us and breaking through the darkness of our hearts, until he illumines them with his light. Let us listen to him and learn with him.

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 now I hunger and thirst;

  you touched me, and I burned for your peace.

(St. Augustine, from his autobiography Confessions)