Too late did I love You, O beauty, so ancient, and yet so new! Too late did I love You! For behold, You were within me, and I outside, and there I sought You.

I, unlovely, rushed heedlessly among the things of beauty You made. You were with me, but I was not with You. Those things kept me far from You, which, unless they were in You, would not be. 

You called and cried aloud, and forced open my deafness. You gleamed, shone, and chased away my blindness. You exhaled odours, and I drew in my breath and now pant after You. I tasted and now hunger and thirst. You touched me and I now burn for Your peace. 

Confessions, Book 10, Chapter 27. Reproduced and adapted from:

 http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/110110.htm