Anselm Of Canterbury

A Prayer of Anselm My God, I pray that I may so know you and love you that I may rejoice in you. And if I may not do so fully in this life let me go steadily on to the day when I come to that fullness . . . Let me receive That which you promised through your truth, that my joy may be full.

For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I believe this: unless I believe, I will not understand.

Spare me through your mercy, do not punish me through your justice.

Remove grace, and you have nothing whereby to be saved. Remove free will and you have nothing that could be saved.

I believe in order that I may understand.

A single Mass offered for oneself during life may be worth more than a thousand celebrated for the same intention after death.

I have written the little work that follows . . . in the role of one who strives to raise his mind to the contemplation of God and one who seeks to understand what he believes.

God does not delay to hear our prayers because He has no mind to give; but that, by enlarging our desires, He may give us the more largely.