John Joseph

“The house of my soul is too small to receive Thee: let it be enlarged by Thee. It is all in ruins: do Thou repair it.”
― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

“The mother of my flesh was in heavy anxiety, since with a heart chaste in Your faith she was ever in deep travail for my eternal salvation, and would have proceeded without delay to have me consecrated and washed clean by the Sacrament of salvation, while I confessed You, Lord Jesus, unto the remission of sins: but I made a sudden recovery. This caused my baptismal cleansing to be postponed: for it was argued that if I lived I should inevitably fall again into the filth of sin: and after baptism the guilt of sin’s defilement would be in itself graver and put the soul in graver peril.”
― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

“For Thy mercies’ sake, O Lord my God, tell me what Thou art to me. Say unto my soul, I am Thy salvation. 18 So speak that I may hear, Lord, my heart is listening; open it that it may hear Thee say to my soul I am Thy salvation. Hearing that word, let me come in haste to lay hold upon Thee. Hide not Thy face from me. 19 Let me see Thy face even if I die, 20 lest I die with longing to see it.”
― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

“But You, Lord, by whom the very hairs of our head are numbered, 51 used for my good the error of those who urged me to study; but my own error, in that I had no will to learn, you used for my punishment—a punishment richly deserved by one so small a boy and so great a sinner. Thus, You brought good for me out of those who did ill, and justly punished me for the ill I did myself. So You have ordained and so it is: that every disorder of the soul is its own punishment.”
― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions