Almost fifty years have passed since the summer when I wrote this book on the shores of a lake in my native land. It is difficult for an elderly person to judge whether the lyrical style of this work says anything to anyone today, but the spiritual content of the book, which decided to appear here in its youthful garb, has remained unchanged over time. Anyone who listens sensitively is able, as then, to hear the uniform beating of the Heart in the roar of our world - perhaps precisely because the more we try to drown out this beating, the calmer, more persistently and more faithfully it reminds us of itself. It appears to both our self-confidence and our helplessness as an incomparable unity of strength and powerlessness - that unity which, ultimately, is the essence of love. And this youth work is dedicated above all to youth.June 1988 Hans Balthasar