Friday Prayer: Augustine, Praise for Beauty, Happiness, Wisdom, and Light

In my Friday prayer, I seek to echo some of the great prayers of the early church. Today we recount Augustine’s adoration of God in Solilquies,

O God, who from nothing hast created this world which every eye sees to be most beautiful O God, the Father of Truth, the Father of Wisdom, Father of True and Supreme Life, Father of Happiness, Father of the Good and the Beautiful, Father of Intelligible Light, Father of our watching and our enlightenment, Father of the covenant by which we are admonished to return to Thee.

I call upon Thee, O God the Truth, in whom and by whom and through whom all those things are true which are true. O God, Wisdom, in whom and by whom and through whom all those are wise who are wise. O God, True and Supreme Life, in whom and by whom and through whom all those things live which truly and perfectly live. O God, Happiness, in whom and by whom and through whom all those things are happy which are happy. O God, the Good and the Beautiful, in whom and by whom and through whom all those things are good and beautiful which are good and beautiful. O God, Intelligible Light, in whom and by whom and through whom all those things which have intelligible light have their intelligible light.

The Fathers of the Church, Saint Augustine, The Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil, trans. Robert P. Russell, OSA, and Soliloquies, trans. Thomas F. Gilligan, OSA, New York, CIMA Publishing Co. Inc., 1948. para. 2 and 3, p. 344-5.