61. Conf. 10.1.1–2.2 (CCL 27:155); trans. Bourke, FOTC 21:263–64.
can hide himself from Your heat" (Ps 18:7). Rather, let my soul praise You so that it may love You, let it confess to You Your mercies so that it may praise You. Your whole creation never stops or grows silent in praising You—every spirit praises You through the mouth that is turned to You, and all animals and bodily things through the mouth of those who look upon them so that our soul springs up to You from its weakness, supported by those things which You have made, and passing over to You who have made these things so wonderfully (Ps 71:18). There, there is refreshment and true strength.60
(iii) Confession in Writing before Witnesses
From Confessions, Book 10:
(1.1) May I know You who know me. "Let me know You even as I am known" (1 Cor 13:12). O strength of my soul, go deep into it and make it fit for You that You may have it and possess it "without spot or wrinkle" (Eph 5:27). This is my hope and that is why I speak . . . "For behold You have loved truth" (Ps 50:8) since "the one who does the truth comes to the light" (Jn 3:21). I desire to do this in my heart before You in confession and in my writing before many witnesses.
(2.2) . . . Before You, then, O Lord, I stand open, whatever I may be. Of the fruit of confessing to You, I have already spoken. Nor am I doing it with fleshly words and speech, but with the words of the soul and the cry of my mind, words Your ear recognizes. For when I am bad, to confess to You is nothing but to be displeased with myself; when I am good, to confess to You is simply not to attribute this good to myself. For You, O Lord, bless the just, but then You first make the impious just. And so my confession, O my God, is made in silence to You in Your sight, yet not in silence. It may be silent in terms of audible sound, but it cries out loud in inner feeling. Nor do I say anything right to people that You have not first heard from me, nor do You hear any such things which You have not said to me first. 61
(iv) Confession of Faith by Interpreting Scripture
From Confessions, Book 11:
(1.1) Since eternity is Yours, O Lord, . . . why then do I tell You the detailed story of so many things? Certainly, not so that you can learn them through me. Rather, it is to stir up my feeling of love toward You and the feelings of
60. Conf. 5.1.1 (CCL 27:57); trans. Bourke, FOTC 21:101–2. 61. Conf. 10.1.1–2.2 (CCL 27:155); trans. Bourke, FOTC 21:263–64.
Confessions 37 those who read these pages so that we may all say, "You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised" (Ps 95:4).62 I have already said it, and I shall say it again: I do this for the love of Your love.63 For while we do pray, Truth says: "Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him" (Mt 6:8). So we lay open our feeling of love by confessing to You our own miseries and Your mercies upon us so that You may deliver us completely, that we may cease to be wretched in ourselves and may become happy in You. You have called us that we may be poor in spirit, meek, mournful, hungry, and thirsty for justice, merciful, pure of heart, and peacemakers (Mt 5:3–9). See, I have told You many things [about my life], to the extent that I could and should, because You first willed that I should confess to You, my Lord God, "for You are good, and Your mercy endures forever" (Ps 117:1).
(2.2) But when can "the tongue of my pen" (Ps 44:2) be adequate to the task of proclaiming all Your encouragements and all Your terrors, Your consolations and the guidance by which You have brought me to be a preacher of Your Word and minister of Your sacrament to Your people? Even if I am up to the task of setting them forth in orderly detail, then time's drops are precious to me. Now I have for a long time burned with a desire to meditate upon Your law and to confess to You both my knowledge of it and my ignorance of it— the beginnings of Your illumination and what remains in darkness for me— until my weakness may be engulfed in Your strength. I do not want the hours to flow away, those I find free from the necessary tasks of refreshing the body and of intellectual labor and of the service I owe people and that which we give even though we do not owe it.
(2.3) O Lord my God, "be attentive to my prayer" (Ps 60:2), and let Your mercy hear my desire, because it burns with concern not only for myself, but it also longs to serve others in fraternal charity. You see in my heart that it is so. May I offer up to You this service of my thought and tongue, and may You grant what I may offer to You. "For I am needy and poor" (Ps 85:1), while "You are rich towards all who call upon You" (Rom 10:12), You who, being without cares, take care of us. Circumcise my lips, inwardly and outwardly, from all recklessness and all lying. Let Your Scriptures be my chaste delights to the end that I not be deceived in them and that I not deceive others through them . . . "Yours is the day, and Yours is the night" (Ps 73:16). At Your nod, the moments fly away. Grant space for our meditations on the secrets of Your Law and do not close it against those who knock (Mt 7:7). Not for nothing did you will so many pages of dark secrets be written; not for nothing do those forests have their stags (Ps 28:9), taking refuge in them, recovering, walking
62. " 'You are great . . . ' ": Augustine echoes here the opening words of conf. 1.1.1. 63. "I do this for the love of Your love": Augustine refers here to conf. 2.1.1.