St. Augustine on prayer part 2
The Latin:
Fit ergo in oratione conversio cordis ad eum, qui semper dare paratus est, si nos capiamus quod dederit: et in ipsa conversione purgatio interioris oculi, cum excluduntur ea quae temporaliter cupiebantur; ut acies cordis simplicis ferre possit simplicem lucem, divinitus sine ullo occasu aut immutatione fulgentem: nec solum ferre, sed etiam manere in illa; non tantum sine molestia, sed etiam cum ineffabili gaudio, quo vere ac sinceriter beata vita perficitur.
The English:
For in prayer there occurs a turning of the heart to he who is always ready to give if we will but take what he gives: and in that turning is the purification of the inner eye when the things we crave in the temporal world are shut out; so that the vision of the pure heart can bear the pure light that shines divinely without setting or wavering: and not only bear it, but abide in it; not only without difficulty, but even with unspeakable joy, with which the blessed life is truly and genuinely brought to fulfillment.[From On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, taken directly from here.]
