In his autobiography “Confessions,” St. Augustine wrote: “You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.”

On the eve of the 1670th birthday of St. Augustine (Nov. 13, 354), the following is a poetic reflection from Greg Foti, a parishioner at St. Mark Parish in Peoria, on how “Confessions” led him back to his faith:

He had been through the arc of the storm.

From the distant rumble of angry air

Electrified and bitter berry black

To the last drop of the down pour gone

On a sunny breeze and the song of a bird.

He felt he shouldered the whole of God’s plan for himself.

From the space carved out in God’s love by the fallen one

To the righteous light of his deliverance from that dark, desolate space.

It was St. Augustinus who lead him through that storm.

Painting of Saint Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne (1650) illustrating how the fire of God’s love led Augustine to the truth (“Veritas”).

The Roman star once rising and shining above

The sun-bleached bones of Carthage.

That reluctant bishop of Hippo.

It was his path he followed from Plato,

To Plotinus, to Christ the Savior.

St. Augustinus – his gate to a deeper truth,

His higher calling above

The ship wrecking wind of his own will.

How grateful he was to this father of the ancient church,

This pillar of God’s word.

The stone rejected now the corner stone

In his storm shelter built

From God’s eternal love and forgiveness.

— Greg Foti