Sunday, May 28, 2006

What, then, is my God?

"For who is Lord but the Lord? Or who is God save our God? O highest and best, most powerful, most all-powerful, most merciful and most just, most deeply hidden and most nearly present, most beautiful and most strong, constant yet incomprehensible, changeless, yet changing all things, never new, never old, making all things new; bringing the proud to decay and they know it not: always acting and always at rest, still gathering yet never wanting: upholding, filling, and protecting, creating, nourishing and bringing to perfection: seeking, although in need of nothing. You love, but with no storm of passion: you are jealous, but with no anxious fear: You repent, but do not grieve; in your anger calm; you change your works, but never change your plan: you take back what you find and yet have never lost: never in need, you are yet glad of gain: never greedy, yet still demanding profit on your loans: to be paid in excess, so that you may be the debtor, and yet who has anything which is not yours? You pay back debts which you never owed and cancel debts without losing anything. "

St. Augustine: The Confessions. I.4

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