Late have I loved You,Augustine · Confessions, Book X
Beauty ever ancient, ever new,
late have I loved You!
One thing I ask from the Lord,Psalm 27:4
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord.
You were within me,Augustine · Confessions, Book X
but I was outside myself,
and there I searched for You.
In my ugliness I plunged into the beauties You had made.
You were with me, but I was not with You.
Where have you glimpsed beauty
that drew you toward its Source?
Francis of Assisi saw God's beauty reflected in all creation:
Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures,Francis of Assisi · The Canticle of the Creatures
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day and through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor;
and bears a likeness of You, Most High One.
John of the Cross saw all creation's beauty as an image of the Beloved Himself:
My Beloved is the mountains,John of the Cross · Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 14
the solitary wooded valleys,
strange islands,
and resounding rivers,
the whistling of love-stirring breezes.
The soul that walks in loveJohn of the Cross · Sayings of Light and Love
neither tires others nor grows tired.
The heavens declare the glory of God;Psalm 19:1
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Every beauty you have loved
is a fragment of the Beauty that awaits.
A Prayer for Those Who See Beauty
Beauty ever ancient, ever new—
late have I loved You!
You were within me,
but I was outside myself,
plunging into the beauties You had made
without recognizing their Source.
Now I see—
Brother Sun bears Your likeness,
the mountains are my Beloved,
the rivers resound with Your presence.
Through the intercession of Augustine,
who loved Your beauty late but truly,
Francis, who praised You in all creatures,
and John, who saw You in mountains and valleys—
draw me deeper into the Beauty that awaits.
Amen.
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