Prayer of praise to God of Saint Augustine

“Question the beauty of the earth, the sea, the rarefied and everywhere expanded air; interrogate the beauty of the sky ... interrogate all these realities. All will answer you: look at us and see how beautiful we are. Their beauty is like their hymn of praise ["confessio"]. Now, these creatures, so beautiful but changing, who made them if not one who is immutably beautiful ["Pulcher"]? ".

You are great, Lord, and well worthy of praise; great is your virtue and your incalculable wisdom. And man wants to praise you, a particle of your creation who carries around his mortal destiny, who carries around him the proof of his sin and the proof that you resist the proud. Yet man, a particle of your creation, wants to praise you. It is you who stimulate him to delight in your praise, because you have made us for yourself and our heart has no rest until it rests in you.