O Lord our God, directing my purpose by the rule of faith, so far as I
have been able, so far as Thou hast made me able, I have sought Thee,
and have desired to see with my understanding what I have believed; and
I have argued and labored much. O Lord my God, my only hope, hearken to
me, lest through weariness I be unwilling to seek Thee, but that I may
always ardently seek Thy face. Do Thou give me strength to seek, who
hast led me to find Thee, and hast given the hope of finding Thee more
and more. My strength and my weakness are in Thy sight; preserve my
strength and heal my weakness. My knowledge and my ignorance are in Thy
sight; when Thou hast opened to me, receive me as I enter; when Thou
hast closed, open to me as I knock. May I remember Thee, understand
Thee, love Thee. Increase these things in me, until Thou renew me
wholly. But oh, that I might speak only in preaching Thy word and in
praising Thee. But many are my thoughts, such as Thou knowest, "thoughts
of man, that are vain." Let them not so prevail in me, that anything in
my acts should proceed from them; but at least that my judgment and my
conscience be safe from them under Thy protection. When the wise man
spake of Thee in his book, which is now called by the special name of
Ecclesiasticus, "We speak," he says, "much, and yet come short; and in
sum of words, He is all." When therefore we shall have come to Thee,
these very many things that we speak, and yet come short, shall cease;
and Thou, as One, shalt remain "all in all." And we shall say one thing
without end, in praising Thee as One, ourselves also made one in Thee. O
Lord, the one God, God the Trinity, whatever I have said in these books
that is of Thine, may they acknowledge who are Thine; if I have said
anything of my own, may it be pardoned both by Thee and by those who are
Thine. Amen.
The three immediately preceding citations, from 'A Select
Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the
Christian Church, First Series,' are reprinted by permission
of the Christian Literature Company, New York.