For anyone far from God
St Augustine’s prayer for those far from God
Surely those who flee from You do not knowthat You are everywhere,You Whom no place can hold,and that You alone are neareven to those who go far from You.
So let them turn back and seek You.For You have not abandoned Your creaturesas they have abandoned their Creator.Let them turn back.
And see, You are there in their heart,in the heart of those who confess to You,who throw themselves on Youand weep in Your embraceafter the hard roads they have taken.
And You gently wipe away their tears.They weep all the more,and are glad in their weeping.For You, Lord, not some man of flesh and blood,but You, Lord, Who made them,make them new and comfort them.
Traditional wording, 1886
Forsooth, they know not that Thou art everywhere Whom no place encompasseth,and that Thou alone art near even to those that remove far from Thee.
Let them, then, be converted and seek Thee;because not as they have forsaken their Creator hast Thou forsaken Thy creature.
Let them be converted and seek Thee;and behold, Thou art there in their hearts,in the hearts of those who confess to Thee, and cast themselves upon Thee,and weep on Thy bosom after their obdurate ways,even Thou gently wiping away their tears.
And they weep the more, and rejoice in weeping,since Thou, O Lord, not man, flesh and blood,but Thou, Lord, Who didst make, remakest and comfortest them.
St Augustine was far from God himself while his mother Monica wept and prayed for him. Here he asks that all who run from God turn back, because God has never left them.
Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin, with Pilkington’s 1886 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: J. G. Pilkington, The Confessions of St. Augustin, 1886.
Pilkington repeats “and seek Thee” the second time; the Latin printed here says only “let them turn back”.
