Awakening

Augustine of Hippo: Falling in Love with God — The Meaning of Life

“God, to know you is life. To serve You is freedom. To praise you is the soul’s joy and delight.”

“The measure of love is to love without measure.”

“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”

To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement. I was not yet in love, yet I loved to love…I sought what I might love, in love with loving.

What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop. Love is the beauty of the soul.

Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe. Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure: where your treasure, there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness.

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. And men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty waves of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, yet pass over the mystery of themselves without a thought. In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.

Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.

God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination. God provides the wind, but Man must raise the sail. God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them. The punishment of every disordered mind is its own disorder.

The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself. Patience is the companion of wisdom.

How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity.

Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.

Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.

“Learn to dance, so when you get to heaven the angels know what to do with you.”

***

~Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian, philosopher, and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa.

Quotes from Confessions of Augustine of Hippo

Excellence Reporter 2021

Categories: Awakening, Wisdom of Life

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