Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vol. LIV: Augustini Epistulae Pars I

because my own transgressions have brought this about, so that a head burdened with every crime might not be joined to the fellowship of the blessed, therefore I beseech you—for I do not doubt that you have the power to obtain this—that you might liberate me from the darkness of this age through your prayer. And I had said previously, when present, and now I do not cease to indicate through 5 letters my vow, that my mind is swept away by every desire toward that study; now it is yours to ensure that the effect follows the intention. It is mine to wish; it is yours, through your supplications, that I should both wish and be able. I am as it were a sickly sheep straying from the entire flock. cf. Luke 15:5 Unless the good shepherd 10 should carry me back to his stalls upon his shoulders, my steps will falter, and in the very effort of rising, my footprints will collapse. I am that prodigal son cf. Luke 15:11ff who, having squandered all the portion my father had entrusted to me, have not yet submitted myself to the knees of my progenitor and have not yet begun to dispel the enticements of my former luxury. And because 15 I have not so much ceased from vices as I have begun to wish to cease,