Return to Answer

The problem with references to church fathers is that they get paraphrased from time to time. Unless you can provide a more precise source for where you heard that quote you will have to look in Augustine for similar terminology and see if you can find the concept alluded to.

That being said this seems the closest citation I've encountered to how you worded it, in Augustine's Marriage and Virginity from the Works of Saint Augustine (Vol. 9 Part 1):

You will not be going to the one who did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven because of the burden of his sinfulness, but to the one who came down from heaven under the weight of his love

Or an alternate rendering:

Thou shall not go unto him, who dared not by reason of the burden of unrighteousness to lift up his eyes to heaven, but unto Him, Who by the weight of charity came down from heaven

You may see the text here.

In general it seems that Augustine in several of his writings associates love with weight:

For the specific gravity of bodies is, as it were, their love, whether they are carried downwards by their weight, or upwards by their levity. For the body is borne by its gravity, as the spirit by love, wherever it is borne. (City of God 11.28)

There is also a prolonged quote in his book Confessions book 13 chapter 9 where at one point he talks about being carried upward to God by such a weight:

My weight is my love. By it I am carried wherever I am carried. By thy gift, we are enkindled and are carried upward. We burn inwardly and move forward. We ascend thy ladder which is in our heart, and we sing a canticle of degrees...

An attempt to explain this Augustinian concept of weight in simple terms may be found here. For a scholarly source perhaps see "‘Pondus meum amor meus’: The Weight-Metaphor in St. Augustine’s Early Philosophy" which I saw cited in footnotes in a few scholarly works that turned up from searches.

I hope this is what you were looking for.

The problem with references to church fathers is that they get paraphrased from time to time. Sometimes you will just have to look in Augustine for similar terminology and see if you can find the concept alluded to.

That being said this seems the closest citation I've encountered to how you worded it, in Augustine's Marriage and Virginity from the Works of Saint Augustine (Vol. 9 Part 1):

You will not be going to the one who did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven because of the burden of his sinfulness, but to the one who came down from heaven under the weight of his love

Or an alternate rendering:

Thou shall not go unto him, who dared not by reason of the burden of unrighteousness to lift up his eyes to heaven, but unto Him, Who by the weight of charity came down from heaven

You may see the text here.

In general it seems that Augustine in several of his writings associates love with weight:

For the specific gravity of bodies is, as it were, their love, whether they are carried downwards by their weight, or upwards by their levity. For the body is borne by its gravity, as the spirit by love, wherever it is borne. (City of God 11.28)

There is also a prolonged quote in his book Confessions book 13 chapter 9 where at one point he talks about being carried upward to God by such a weight:

My weight is my love. By it I am carried wherever I am carried. By thy gift, we are enkindled and are carried upward. We burn inwardly and move forward. We ascend thy ladder which is in our heart, and we sing a canticle of degrees...

An attempt to explain this Augustinian concept of weight in simple terms may be found here. For a scholarly source perhaps see "‘Pondus meum amor meus’: The Weight-Metaphor in St. Augustine’s Early Philosophy" which I saw cited in footnotes in a few scholarly works that turned up from searches.

I hope this is what you were looking for.

The problem with references to church fathers is that they get paraphrased from time to time. Unless you can provide a more precise source for where you heard that quote you will have to look in Augustine for similar terminology and see if you can find the concept alluded to.

That being said this seems the closest citation I've encountered to how you worded it, in Augustine's Marriage and Virginity from the Works of Saint Augustine (Vol. 1 of 9):

You will not be going to the one who did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven because of the burden of his sinfulness, but to the one who came down from heaven under the weight of his love

Or an alternate rendering:

Thou shall not go unto him, who dared not by reason of the burden of unrighteousness to lift up his eyes to heaven, but unto Him, Who by the weight of charity came down from heaven

You may see the text here.

In general it seems that Augustine in several of his writings associates love with weight:

For the specific gravity of bodies is, as it were, their love, whether they are carried downwards by their weight, or upwards by their levity. For the body is borne by its gravity, as the spirit by love, wherever it is borne. (City of God 11.28)

There is also a prolonged quote in his book Confessions book 13 chapter 9 where at one point he talks about being carried upward to God by such a weight:

My weight is my love. By it I am carried wherever I am carried. By thy gift, we are enkindled and are carried upward. We burn inwardly and move forward. We ascend thy ladder which is in our heart, and we sing a canticle of degrees...

An attempt to explain this Augustinian concept of weight in simple terms may be found here. For a scholarly source perhaps see "‘Pondus meum amor meus’: The Weight-Metaphor in St. Augustine’s Early Philosophy" which I saw cited in footnotes in a few scholarly works that turned up from searches.

I hope this is what you were looking for.

The problem with references to church fathers is that they get paraphrased from time to time. Unless you can provide a more precise source for where you heard that quote you will have to look in Augustine for similar terminology and see if you can find the concept alluded to.

That being said this seems the closest citation I've encountered to how you worded it, in Augustine's Marriage and Virginity from the Works of Saint Augustine (Vol. 9 Part 1):

You will not be going to the one who did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven because of the burden of his sinfulness, but to the one who came down from heaven under the weight of his love

Or an alternate rendering:

Thou shall not go unto him, who dared not by reason of the burden of unrighteousness to lift up his eyes to heaven, but unto Him, Who by the weight of charity came down from heaven

You may see the text here.

In general it seems that Augustine in several of his writings associates love with weight:

For the specific gravity of bodies is, as it were, their love, whether they are carried downwards by their weight, or upwards by their levity. For the body is borne by its gravity, as the spirit by love, wherever it is borne. (City of God 11.28)

There is also a prolonged quote in his book Confessions book 13 chapter 9 where at one point he talks about being carried upward to God by such a weight:

My weight is my love. By it I am carried wherever I am carried. By thy gift, we are enkindled and are carried upward. We burn inwardly and move forward. We ascend thy ladder which is in our heart, and we sing a canticle of degrees...

An attempt to explain this Augustinian concept of weight in simple terms may be found here. For a scholarly source perhaps see "‘Pondus meum amor meus’: The Weight-Metaphor in St. Augustine’s Early Philosophy" which I saw cited in footnotes in a few scholarly works that turned up from searches.

I hope this is what you were looking for.

The problem with references to church fathers is that they get paraphrased from time to time. Unless you can provide a more precise source for where you heard that quote you are just going to have to look in Augustine for similar terminology and see if you can find the concept alluded to.

In Augustine in more than one of his writings he associates love with weight:

For the specific gravity of bodies is, as it were, their love, whether they are carried downwards by their weight, or upwards by their levity. For the body is borne by its gravity, as the spirit by love, wherever it is borne. (City of God 11.28)

There is also a prolonged quote in his book Confessions book 13 chapter 9 where at one point he talks about being carried upward to God by such a weight:

My weight is my love. By it I am carried wherever I am carried. By thy gift, we are enkindled and are carried upward. We burn inwardly and move forward. We ascend thy ladder which is in our heart, and we sing a canticle of degrees...

An attempt to explain this Augustinian concept of weight in simple terms may be found here. For a scholarly source perhaps see "‘Pondus meum amor meus’: The Weight-Metaphor in St. Augustine’s Early Philosophy" which I saw cited in footnotes in a few scholarly works that turned up from searches.

Perhaps Augustine develops this elsewhere such that not only are men pulled toward God because of the weight of love but also the compliment: God being drawn to men because of his love for them. Or perhaps the pastor was mistaken and Augustine was rather only saying that mankind is drawn to God by the weight of love (I am leaning this way since the discussions I saw on this always were about mankind being the one drawn or "carried" by this weight, not God).

I found one additional paper which addresses this topic somewhat, titled "The Weight of Love: Augustinian Metaphors of Movement in Dante's Souls" if you wish to peruse it.

Sorry that I can't come up with something more definitive, but it seems like your quote is likely a paraphrase. I hope this points you in the right direction.

The problem with references to church fathers is that they get paraphrased from time to time. Unless you can provide a more precise source for where you heard that quote you will have to look in Augustine for similar terminology and see if you can find the concept alluded to.

That being said this seems the closest citation I've encountered to how you worded it, in Augustine's Marriage and Virginity from the Works of Saint Augustine (Vol. 1 of 9):

You will not be going to the one who did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven because of the burden of his sinfulness, but to the one who came down from heaven under the weight of his love

Or an alternate rendering:

Thou shall not go unto him, who dared not by reason of the burden of unrighteousness to lift up his eyes to heaven, but unto Him, Who by the weight of charity came down from heaven

You may see the text here.

In general it seems that Augustine in several of his writings associates love with weight:

For the specific gravity of bodies is, as it were, their love, whether they are carried downwards by their weight, or upwards by their levity. For the body is borne by its gravity, as the spirit by love, wherever it is borne. (City of God 11.28)

There is also a prolonged quote in his book Confessions book 13 chapter 9 where at one point he talks about being carried upward to God by such a weight:

My weight is my love. By it I am carried wherever I am carried. By thy gift, we are enkindled and are carried upward. We burn inwardly and move forward. We ascend thy ladder which is in our heart, and we sing a canticle of degrees...

An attempt to explain this Augustinian concept of weight in simple terms may be found here. For a scholarly source perhaps see "‘Pondus meum amor meus’: The Weight-Metaphor in St. Augustine’s Early Philosophy" which I saw cited in footnotes in a few scholarly works that turned up from searches.

I hope this is what you were looking for.