April 21 was the Feast of St. Anselm of Canterbury. Anselm is known for, among other things, the ontological proof of the existence of God: “God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived.” He is also largely responsible for articulating the theory of penal substitutionary atonement (Cur Deus Homo). But for all of his intellectual brilliance, he was also a deeply spiritual man, and is credited with investing prayer in the west with a depth of feeling not expressed since the patristic period. His Proslogion, in which he sets out the ontological argument, is a tapestry of logical argument woven together with prayer. He concludes the work with the following:

“I pray, 0 God, to know you, to love you, that I may rejoice in you. And if I cannot attain to full joy in this life may I at least advance from day to day, until that joy shall come to the full. Let the knowledge of you advance in me here, and there be made full. Let the love of you increase, and there let it be full, that here my joy may be great in hope, and there full in truth. Lord, through your Son you do command, nay, you do counsel us to ask; and you do promise that we shall receive, that our joy may be full. I ask, O Lord, as you do counsel through our wonderful Counsellor. I will receive what you do promise by virtue of your truth, that my joy may be full. Faithful God, I ask. I will receive, that my joy may be full. Meanwhile, let my mind meditate upon it; let my tongue speak of it. Let my heart love it; let my mouth talk of it. Let my soul hunger for it; let my flesh thirst for it; let my whole being desire it, until I enter into your joy, O Lord, who are the Three and the One God, blessed for ever and ever. Amen.”