Signs of the Times  

      Lord, what we know not, teach us.

      Lord, what we have not, give us.

      Lord, what we are not, make us.

     O Lord, forgive us what we have been.

     Sanctify what we are, and order what we shall be.

     O Lord, thou hast made us for thyself,
 
     And our hearts shall find no rest

     Until they rest in thee.                                Prayer of St. Augustine



   Late have I loved you, O eternal truth and goodness : late have I sought you, my Father!
 
   But you sought me, and when you shone forth upon me, then, I knew you, then I learned, so late, to love you.

    I thank you, O my light, that you taught my soul what you would be to me, and inclined your face to me in pity.  You, O Lord, have become my hope, my comfort, my strength, my all: my soul rejoiced in you.  The darkness vanished from before my eyes, nd I beheld you, the sun of righteousness!

     When I loved darkness, then I knew you not, but wandered on from night to night.  But you led me out at last from that blindness.  You took me by my hand, and yu called me, then to you.

    And now I can thank you, and your mighty voice, which has penetrated to my inmost heart.  Amen.
                                                                                                                  St. Augustine


     "LATE IT WAS THAT I LOVED YOU, BEAUTYSO ANCIENT AND SO NEW, LATE HAVE I LOVD YOU!  AND LOOK, YOU WERE WITHIN ME AND I WAS OUTSIDE, AND THERE I SOUGHT FOR YOU AND IN MY UGLINESS I PLUNGED INTO THE BEAUTIES THAT YOU HAVE MADE.  YOU WERE WITH ME, AND I WAS NOT WITH YOU.  THOSE OUTER BEAUTIES KEPT ME FAR FROM YOU, YET IF THEY HAD NOT BEEN IN YOU, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE EXISTED AT ALL.  YOU CALLED, YOU CRIED OUT, YOU SHATTERED MY DEAFNESS, YOU FLASHED, YOU SHONE, YOU SCATTERED MY BLINDNESS; YOU BREATHED PERFUME, AND I DREW IN MY BREATH AND I PANT FOR YOU; I TASTED, AND I AM HUNGRY AND THIRSTY; YOU TOUCHED ME AND I BURNED FOR YOUR PEACE."
                                                                          --Excerpt from "The Confessions; Bk.X,Ch.28