St. Augustine on Heaven

St. Augustine, at the end of the great work of the City of God, beautifully describes heaven:

 “How great that felicity will be, where there will be no evil, where
no good thing will be lacking, and where we shall be free to give
ourselves up to the praise of God, Who will be all in all”

St. Augustine elaborates on what he means by praise of God. It is specifically praising the greatest, most divine attribute of God: His mercy. However, Augustine reasons that if the saints are to know the mercies of God, they must also know their own past sufferings (and the suffering of the damned even). Here is what he says:

“Yet the power of knowledge will be so great in the saints that they will be aware not only of their own past suffering, but also of the everlasting misery of the damned. For if they were not to know that they had been miserable, how could they, as the psalm says, for ever sing the mercies of God?”

What brings the saints the most joy, Augustine continues, is praising the mercy of God mediated through the grace of Christ. He ends the passage beautifully and, in a sense, the whole work with the following:

“Nothing will give more joy to that City than this song of the glory of the grace of Christ, by Whose blood we are redeemed. Then shall these words be fulfilled: ‘Be still, and know that I am God’”

The stillness of God is the only answer to the restlessness of the heart enflamed by grace.