Perfect for the last Sunday of summer, which also happens to be his feast day, is a poem from Saint Augustine of Hippo, one of the great Doctors of the Church and one of the great authors and intellects in the history of civilization. Enjoy it like you would a warm summer breeze – on an evening you have been out of the air conditioning for a while; or a perfect, ripe peach.
Monsignor Smith
Question the beauty of the earth,
the beauty of the sea,
the beauty of the wide air around
you,
the beauty of the sky;
question the order of the stars,
the sun whose brightness lights the
days,
the moon whose splendor softens the
gloom of night;
question the living creatures that
move in the waters,
that roam upon the earth, that fly
through the air;
the spirit that lies hidden, the
matter that is manifest;
the visible things that are ruled,
the invisible things that rule them;
question all these.
They will answer you:
"Behold and see, we are
beautiful."
Their beauty is their confession to
God.
Who made these beautiful, changing
things,
if not one who is beautiful,
and changeth not?
Saint Augustine (354 - 430 AD)
