Another Augustine MUST READ!

Here's another goldmine of a quote from Augustine of Hippo. I am really falling in love with his writings. As Agostino Trapè says, he is a "a philosopher, theologian, mystic, and poet in one." After many years of being in bondage to sexual sin and lust (involving a 15 year relationship with a concubine) he was finally converted by the irresistible power of God's sovereign grace. He realized the deceitful emptiness of worldly pleasure compared to the eternal fullness of the pleasures of God. This is what he wrote:

"How sweet did it suddenly become to me to be without the sweetness of trifles! And it was now a joy to put away what I formerly feared to lose. For thou didst cast them away from me, O true and highest Sweetness. Thou didst cast them away, and in their place thou didst enter in thyself -- sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light, but more veiled than all mystery; more exalted than all honor, though not to them that are exalted in their own eyes. Now was my soul free from the gnawing cares of seeking and getting, of wallowing in the mire and scratching the itch of lust. And I prattled like a child to thee, O Lord my God -- my light, my riches, and my salvation." (Confessions, IX, I).