Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) was the foremost theologian of his day. Many regard him as the first great Christian philosopher. His father urged him to go into politics, but Anselm wanted to study in a monastery. It was before the age of universities, so monasteries were the go-to place for learning and scholarship. When his dad died, Anselm promptly joined the Bec Abby in France and quickly distinguished himself as a first-rate scholar. Anselm is famous for proposing the ontological argument for the existence of God (called Anselm’s argument before the 1700’s). I’ll be honest. I tried summarizing it in a few sentences but couldn’t pull it off! Anselm was not only brilliant; he knew his place before God. His scholarship emerged from his life of prayer. He did not separate the life of the mind from the life of the soul. Prayer and scholarship go together. It was not uncommon for him to break away from his philosophical train of thought to lead his readers in prayer. While we associate him with the ontological argument, his writings read more like a meditation than an attempt at persuasive rhetoric.
In researching prayers, I sometimes encounter people who criticize prayer as an excuse to do nothing. Prayer is no excuse for laziness. John Perkins said bluntly, “When you see someone who needs a handicapped ramp, don’t go praying for a ramp; build them a ramp!” Jesus not only taught his disciples to pray for God’s will but intended them to do something about it. Prayer fueled Anselm’s scholarship and ordered his monastic reform. He compiled twenty-one meditations in Meditations and Prayers to aid fellow monks in deepening their prayer life. He sent his first meditation in a letter to Adelaide, daughter of William the Conqueror, so-called for his ruthless conquest of England. She asked for help with prayer, so he sent her a booklet of selected psalms, adding seven of his own prayers. Prayer is not an excuse to do nothing; prayer shapes the way we live. A portion of Anselm’s first meditation leads us to pray:
Anselm of Canterbury
Let me give love, that I may have love.
No, rather, because I am loved,
let me love You more and more,
that I may all the more be loved by You.
Let my heart’s will be one with You;
let my one sole aim be all with You;
for with You our nature, embraced by You,
in mercy, now reigns glorified.
Let me cling to You inseparably,
and adore You unweariedly,
and serve You perseveringly,
and seek You faithfully,
and find You happily,
and possess You eternally.
Entrusting to my God these words,
O my soul, take fire and burn,
and break forth in flames,
and become all ablaze with yearnings after You.
Anselm of Canterbury, Meditations, and Prayers.
Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.