Wrongly thinking that beauty lay without,
blindly I cast about.
How late did I begin
to realize your beauty lay within.
To one bereft of sight
you said Let there be light.
Thus to my deafened ear
you called, you cried! hoping that I might hear.
I thirsted, hungered, yearned.
You touched me, and I burned.
How late I came to you,
to beauty ever ancient, ever new.
How late I came to you.
-
Augustine’s Confessions, 10.27.38
America's most
influential
journal of
religion and
public life Subscribe Latest Issue Support First Things
influential
journal of
religion and
public life Subscribe Latest Issue Support First Things