Late Have I Loved Thee

Late have I loved thee,

O Beauty so ancient and so new;

late have I loved thee:

for behold you were within me,

and I outside;

and I sought you outside and

in my unlovedness fell upon those lovely 

things that you had made.

You were with me,

and I was not with you.

I was kept from you by those things,

yet had they not been in you,

they would not have been at all.

You called and tried 

to break open my deafness:

and you sent forth your beams

and shone upon me

and chased away my blindess:

you breathed your fragrance upon me,

and I drew in my breath

and I do now pant for you:

I taste you,

and now hunger

and I thirst for you:

you touched me,

and I have burned for your peace.

-Saint Augustine of Hippo

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