The heart's delight
First return to yourself from what is outside you, and then give yourself back to him who made you; for he is the sum of all our happiness and our perfect good. To worship him is to love him, to long to see him, and to hope and believe that you will see him. This is to long for happiness - to reach him is happiness itself.
Ask yourself how much your love has increased: the answer your heart gives is the measure of your advancement. We now see him confusedly, as our love increases - but then we shall see him clearly.
Beloved, this love does not come to us of our own free choice, but by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us; for how could we have cleaved to God if he had not spoken to our hearts?
At the last we shall all receive the reward of salvation, like the labourers in the vineyard who came at different times, yet all were given the same wage. With the Prophets, apostles and martyrs we shall contemplate the glory of God, and looking in his face sing his praises for ever. There will be no more sin, no more falsehood, and in love we shall cleave to him for whom we now sigh. We shall live for ever in that city whose light is God, finding in him that happiness we now labour for.
DAILY READING WITH
St Augustine --- The Heart at Rest
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