imagine

Imagine if all the tumult of the body were to quiet down, 

along with our busy thoughts. 

Imagine if all things that are perishable grew still. 

And imagine if that moment were to go on and on, 

leaving behind all other sights and sounds 

but this one vision 

which ravishes and absorbs 

and fixes the beholder in joy, 

so that the rest of eternal life were like 

that moment of illumination which leaves us breathless. 

~ Saint Augustine

unnoticed

There are many going afar to marvel at the heights of mountains, 

the mighty waves of the sea, the long courses of great rivers, 

the vastness of the ocean, the movements of the stars, 

yet they leave themselves unnoticed! 

~ Saint Augustine

late have I loved thee

.

Late have I loved thee, O Beauty 

so ancient and so new;
late have I loved thee! For behold, 

thou wert within me and I outside;
and I sought thee outside

 and in my unloveliness
fell upon these lovely things 

that thou hast made. 

Thou wert with me and I

 was not with thee.
I was kept from thee by those things,
yet had they not been in thee,

 they would not have been at all. 

Thou didst call and cry to me

 and break open my deafness. . . .

I tasted thee, and now hunger

 and thirst for thee;
thou didst touch me,
and now I burn for thy peace. 

~ Saint Augustine of Hippo
from Confessions

 

 

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