St. Augustine in David Brooks’ column
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
I got an email this morning from a colleague expressing wonderment at David Brooks’ op-ed column today (see previous post). How does Brooks do it? I have not read this passage from Augustine’s Confessions for a long time. In fact, I had forgotten it. What a blessing to read it this morning in–yes!–The New York Times, no less.
“It is not physical beauty nor temporal glory nor the brightness of light dear to earthly eyes, nor the sweet melodies of all kinds of songs, nor the gentle odor of flowers, and ointments and perfumes, nor manna or honey, nor limbs welcoming the embraces of the flesh; it is not these I love when I love my God. Yet there is a light I love, and a food, and a kind of embrace when I love my God — a light, voice, odor, food, embrace of my innerness, where my soul is floodlit by light which space cannot contain, where there is sound that time cannot seize, where there is a perfume which no breeze disperses, where there is a taste for food no amount of eating can lessen, and where there is a bond of union that no satiety can part. That is what I love when I love my God.”
–The Confessions of St. Augustine, 10.vi.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/opinion/brooks-alone-yet-not-alone.html?hp&rref=opinion
(I don’t know why this link to David Brooks’ column is not “hot.” Sorry…you will have to cut-and-paste.)
