Let me know You and love You,
so that I may find my joy in You
From the Proslogion by Saint Anselm, bishop
My soul, have you found what you are looking for?
You were looking for God, and you discovered
that He is the supreme being, and that you could not possibly imagine anything
more perfect. You have discovered that His
supreme being is life itself, light, wisdom, goodness, eternal blessedness and
blessed eternity. He is everywhere, and
He is timeless.
Lord my God, You gave me life and restored it when I lost
it. Tell my soul that so longs for You
what else You are besides what it has already understood, so that it may see You
clearly.
It stands on tiptoe to see
more, but apart from what it has seen already, it sees nothing but
darkness. Of course it does not really
see darkness, because there is not darkness in You, but it sees that it can see
no further because of the darkness in itself.
Surely, Lord, inaccessible light is Your dwelling place, for
no one apart from Yourself can enter into it and fully comprehend You.
If I fail to see this light it is simply
because it is too bright for me. Still,
it is by the light that I do see all that I can, even as weak eyes, unable to
look straight at the sun, see all they can by the sun’s light.
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| Light of God |
The light in which You dwell, Lord,
is beyond my
understanding.
It is so brilliant that I
cannot bear it, I cannot turn my mind’s eye toward it for any length of time. I am dazzle by its brightness, amazed by its
grandeur, overwhelmed by its immensity, bewildered by its abundance.
O supreme and inaccessible light, O complete and blessed
truth, how far You are from me, even though I am so near to You! How remote You are from my sight, even though
I am present in Yours! You are everywhere in Your entirety, and yet I do not
see You; in You I move and have my being, and yet I cannot approach You; You
are within me and around me, and yet I do not perceive You.
O God, let me know You and love You so that I may find my
joy in You;
and if I cannot do so fully in this life, let me at least make some
progress every day, until at last that knowledge, love and joy come to me in
all their plenitude.
While I am here on
earth let me learn to know You better, so that in heaven I may know You fully;
let my love for You grow deeper here, so that there I may love You fully. On earth then I shall have great joy in hope,
and in heaven complete joy in the fulfillment of my hope.
O Lord, through Your Son You command me, no, You counsel us
to ask, and You promise that You will hear us so that our joy may be
complete. Lord, I am making the request
that You urge us to make through Your Wonder-Counselor. Give me then what you promise to give through
Your Truth. You, O God, are faithful;
grant that I may receive my request, so that my joy may be complete.
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| St. Anselm, Bishop of Canterbury |
Meanwhile, let this hope of mine be in my thoughts and on my
tongue; let my heart be filled with it, my voice speak of it; let my soul
hunger for it, my body thirst for it, my whole being yearn for it, until I
enter into the joy of the Lord, who is Three in One, blessed forever.
Amen.
Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours, April 21 St. Anselm, bishop and doctor
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