The Confessions
Book XII, Chapter X: He Begs of God that He May Live in the True Light, and May Be Instructed as to the Mysteries of the Sacred Books.
Chapter X.—He Begs of God that He May Live in the True Light, and May Be Instructed as to the Mysteries of the Sacred Books.
10. Oh, let Truth, the light of my heart, not my own darkness, speak unto me! I have descended to that, and am darkened. But thence, even thence, did I love Thee. I went astray, and remembered Thee. I heard Thy voice behind me bidding me return, and scarcely did I hear it for the tumults of the unquiet ones. And now, behold, I return burning and panting after Thy fountain. Let no one prohibit me; of this will I drink, and so have life. Let me not be my own life; from myself have I badly lived,—death was I unto myself; in Thee do I revive. Do Thou speak unto me; do Thou discourse unto me. In Thy books have I believed, and their words are very deep.
Edition and rights
NPNF1-01. The Confessions and Letters of St. Augustine, with a Sketch of his Life and Work. Historical English edition; series volume first published 1886.
J. G. Pilkington, translator of the Confessions
Ancient work and historical English translation: public domain in the United States (published before 1931). Copyright rules vary by country. This is a historical source transcription, not an official Church edition. Modern website material is not reproduced.
Historical footnotes and publisher introductions are omitted. Author-written openings are retained. Paragraph whitespace is normalized. Transcriptions can contain errors; this is not a critical edition. Attribution follows the historical edition, not universal scholarly agreement.
Digitization provenance (not an external reading link): https://www.ccel.org/ccel/s/schaff/npnf101.xml
Source section: vi.XII.X · Text SHA-256: 7cf4bdaa509d6b51d7730332bb21a2e1ef2c73ef66c6f52630e35f65b90836c3