Dear mother, strive to extract all the love from everything and keep this always in mind, and do not waste a moment that is not dedicated to the love of Him who is so worthy of being loved. Let us hurry, dear mother, that we may say with St. Augustine: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new, late have I loved you.” And when we may say that we have begun to love that beauty too late, what shall we say if we hesitate further to love it?
(Br. Šimon of St. Paul OCD, letter to St. Mother Elekta /1605–1663/, July 5, 1647)
