Late have I loved you....

This is a famous excerpt from st. Augustine's Confessions. A Doctor of the Church and a Love Mystic. A realization very relevant for a soul...

Late have I loved you,
Oh Beauty so ancient and so new,
late have I loved you!

Lo, you were within,
but I outside, seeking there for you,
and upon the shapely things you have made
I rushed headlong – I, misshapen.
You were with me, but I was not with you.
They held me back far from you,
those things which would have no being,
were they not in you.

(Late have I loved you,
Oh Beauty so ancient and so new,
late have I loved you!)

You called, shouted, broke through my deafness;
you flared, blazed, banished my blindness;
you lavished your fragrance, I gasped; and now I pant for you;
I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst;
you touched me, and I burned for your peace.

(Late have I loved you,
Oh Beauty so ancient and so new,
late have I loved you!)