My school seminary produces a publication called Windows three times a year. A year ago the central topic of the 2009 summer issue was Prayer. Many of the professors, and graduating DMin. students, contributed a favorite prayer. My adviser, Dave contributed this prayer by Augustine, which was found at the conclusion of Augustine's theological treatise "The Trinity"
O Lord, my God, my one hope,
listen to me lest out of
weariness I should stop
wanting to seek you, but let me
seek your face always, and with
ardor. Do you yourself give me
the strength to seek, having
caused yourself to be found
and having given me the hope
of finding you more and more.
Before you lies my strength and
my weakness; preserve the one,
heal the other. Before you lies
my knowledge and my
ignorance; where you have
opened to me, receive me as I
come in; where you have shut
to me, open to me as I knock.
Let me remember you, let me
understand you, let me love
you. Increase these things in
me until you refashion
me entirely.
In Dave's explanation of why he chose this prayer, he wrote that Augustine's prayer deals with the importance of knowledge and love, always genuine and growing when it comes directly from God. In class, Dave always would say something to the effect that yes many of the great theologians are old and dead, and some are older and deader than others, but they still have something great to teach us.
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