Passage from the text:
"You, my God, are supreme, utmost in goodness, mightiest and all-powerful, most merciful and most just. You are the most hidden from us and yet the most present amongst us, the most beautiful and yet the most strong, ever enduring and yet we cannot comprehend you. You are the unchangeable and yet you change all things. You are never new, never old, and yet all things have new life from you. You are the unseen power that brings decline upon the proud. You are ever active, yet always at rest."
- Book I Chapter IV
Commentary:
I'm really digging the paradox motif St.Augustine has going here. It illustrates the elusiveness of God that few can comprehend. "Unchangeable and yet you change all things" Augustine tells us. Who is so immutable and of such strong a will as to be capable of changing all things? But for God, is Augustine's constant refrain. What's interesting about this passage is that it's sandwiched between Augustine's account of his childhood and his boyhood. In a way, this prayer to God symbolizes the fact that Augustine, himself, is changing- whether or not he wants to.
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