Hide not Thou Thy face from me

Who, O Lord, will grant that I may repose in Thee? Who will grant that Thou mayest enter in my heart and inebriate it, that I may forget all my wicked ways and embrace Thee, my only good? What art Thou unto me O Lord? Have mercy on me that I may speak to Thee. Or what am I to Thee, that Thou shouldst command me to love Thee; yea, and be angry and threaten to lay huge miseries upon me if I love Thee not? Is it perhaps of itself no great misery, if I do not love Thee? Woe be unto me. Tell me, even for Thy mercy's sake, O Lord my God, what Thou art unto me. Say unto my soul, "I am thy salvation," but say it so that I may hear Thee. Behold the ears of my heart are set before Thee, open Thou them, O Lord, and say unto my soul, "I am thy salvation." I will run after the sound of that Voice and thereby lay hold on Thee. Hide not Thou Thy face from me; let me die, that I may see it, lest otherwise I die because I see it not.

from The Confessions of St. Augustine, Chapter V