August 12
When I love my God!
eaven and earth
and all that is in them tell me wherever I look that I should love you,
Lord, and they cease not to tell it to all, so that there is no excuse
for them. But what is it that I love when I love you? Not the beauty of
any bodily thing, nor the order of seasons, not the brightness of light
that rejoices the eye, nor the sweet melodies of all songs, nor the sweet
fragrance of flowers and ointments and spices: not manna nor honey, not
the limbs that carnal love embraces. None of these things do I love in
loving my God. Yet in a sense I do love light and melody and fragrance
and food and embrace when I love my God — the light and the voice and the
fragrance and the food and embrace in the soul, when that light shines
upon my soul which no place can contain, that voice sounds which no time
can take from me, I breathe that fragrance which no wind scatters, I eat
the food which is not lessened by eating, and I lie in the embrace which
satiety never comes to sunder. This it is that I love, when I love my God.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from
Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman
