Beauty So Ancient, by Augustine

Lent, Day 6

Late have I loved you, 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.
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 I hunger and thirst;
you touched me, and I burned for your peace.

(trans. Maria Boulding)

Visited my Mum, and think she is dying after all. Driving back, feeling shaken, saw a swathe of daffodils shining in the sun on Minworth Common. Stopped the car as soon as I could, and the time spent trying to capture the beauty steadied me.

I am grateful for the "shapely things", and for the Beauty which gives them being, and for my Mum's steady faith throughout her faithful life.