Fri.-Sabbath, 1/16-18/26 Devotion

Bless God, the Sabbath Day (Sunday) is almost here! We get to go back to church. In order to help us get ready for worship, here are great words from Augustine’s “City of God” book. (This comes from Book 7, Chapter 31). . . .

“ . . . We can, to be sure, never give [God] adequate thanks for our existence, our life, our sight of sky and earth, or our possession of intelligence and rea-son, which enable us to search for Him who created all these things. But there is more than this. When we were overwhelmed by the load of our sins, when we had turned away from the contemplation of His light and been blind-ed by our love of darkness, that is, of wickedness, even then He did not abandon us. He sent us His Word, who is His only Son, who was born and who suffered in the flesh which He assumed for our sake—so that we might know the value God placed on mankind, and might be purified from all our sins by that unique sacrifice, and so that, when love has been diffused in our hearts by His Spirit, and when all difficulties have been surmounted, we may come to eternal rest and to the ineffable sweetness of the contemplation of God. In view of all that, what heart or what tongue would claim to be compe-tent to give Him thanks?"