I wish I had written this - An excerpt from St. Anselm's Proslogion

I was given this excerpt to reflect on... It really touched me deeply because it reminded me so much of the search for God in my own life. It expressed that yearning that God places in our hearts and souls that only He can fill.


A portion of Chapter 1 of Proslogion by St. Anselm:


Come now, you poor creature, turn your back on your busyness for a little while. For a few moments leave the tumult of your thoughts; throw off the burden of your cares and put aside your wearisome occupations. Make some time for God; rest in God for a while. Enter into the chamber of your mind, exclude everything but God, and what will help you find God; shut the door and search for God. Now say how you long to see God's face. Say to God: Lord, it is your face that I seek. Say it with your whole heart.

Come then, Lord my God, come and instruct my heart where and how to search for you, where and how to find you. Where shall I look for you, Lord, if you are absent and not here? And if you are everywhere, why are you not visible to me? But of course, your dwelling is in light inaccessible. Then where is this light inaccessible, and how can I approach it? Who will guide me and conduct me into it so that I may see you? And then, by what signs, by what visible form shall I know you? I have never seen you; I do not know what you look like, Lord my God. What am I, this exile of yours, to do in a far off land, O most high God, what am I to do? Banished far from your presence and distressed by my love for you, what shall your servant do? With burning desire I strive to see you, and your face is very far from me. I long to come to you, and your dwelling is inaccessible. I wish to find you, and have no idea where you live. I want to search for you and I do not know your face...

O Lord how long? How long, Lord, will you forget us? How long will you avert your face from us?... Look upon us, Lord, listen to us, enlighten us, show yourself to us. Give yourself to us again so that all may be well with us, for without you everything goes wrong for us. Look kindly upon our labors, our strivings to come to you, for apart from you, we can do nothing.

Teach me to seek you, and to the searcher show yourself; for I can neither seek you unless you teach me how, nor find you unless you make yourself known. Let me seek you by my desire and grow in desire by seeking you. Let me find you by loving and grow in love by finding you.


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There is so much to reflect on in these few paragraphs. I hope it will be helpful for you also.