"Oh homeland, my homeland, I see you and salute you from afar, you that harbour nothing ill but only good. The evils rendered so familiar by long and wearisome experience are not there, that I know. Of the good that is, my knowledge is so slight as my experience is brief. Have pity, Lord! Look, I have run and have headed straight for you. Rise up to meet me, and see, let me know my end and the number of my days, that I may know what it is I lack. I stand firm in your faith, I go forward in hope, poor and needy. I beseech you for your love. O love, O fire, O charity, enter into us. Be you are Paradise, our comforter and advocate, the promoter of our prayers. Give us to see what we believe, to embrace what we hope for. Make our face like to the face of God, that we may say 'My heart has said to you, "My face has sought you."'".
- William of St. Thierry (ca. 1075 - 1148)
I like it.
ReplyDelete