We, this small portion of Your creation

To praise You is what humanity desires,
we, this small portion of Your creation,
“carrying our mortality around” (2 Cor 4:10),
carrying around the testimony of our sin
and the testimony “that You resist the proud” (1 Pt 5:5).
And yet to praise You is what humanity desires,
we, this small portion of Your creation.

You stir us that we take delight
in praising You,
for You have made us for Yourself,
and our hearts are restless ’til they rest in You.

St Augustine, Confessions 1.1.
Text from Augustine in His Own Words, edited by William Harmless SJ.