Augustine wrote on the example of repentance,
I was weeping in the most
bitter contrition of my heart, when I heard the voice of children from a
neighboring house chanting, “Take up and read; take up and read.” I could not
remember ever having heard the like, so checking the torrent of my tears, I
arose, interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book
and read the first chapter I should find. Eagerly then I returned to the place
where I had laid the volume of the apostle. I seized, opened, and in silence
read that section on which my eyes first fell: “Not in revelry and drunkenness,
not in licentiousness and lewdness, not is strife and envy; but put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” No
further would I read, nor did I need to. For instantly at the end of this
sentence, it seemed as if a light of serenity infused into my heart and all the
darkness of doubt vanished away.
