Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm with the Proslogion Book

The prayers of Anselm of Aosta will inspire the devout; and the student of medieval history, whether devout or not, will benefit from a reading of Anselm's meditations and prayers - and particularly from a review of the Proslogion, a short book of reflections in which Anselm sets forth his sense of the nature of God, with what he hopes will serve for the reader as logical proof of the existence of God.

Anselm was born in 1033, into a noble family in the town of Aosta in the Alpine region of northwestern Italy. But it eventually became apparent that his interest was not in aristocratic wealth and status, but rather in the life of the spirit; he withdrew from the world in which he could have enjoyed a lifetime of privilege, and began his career as a monk at a monastery in Normandy in 1059. His insights as a theologian and skill as a writer contributed to his rise within the church hierarchy, and in 1093 King William II nominated him Archbishop of Canterbury.

Listed as a saint as early as 1170, around the time of the murder of Thomas à Becket, Anselm of Aosta was formally canonized toward the end of the 15th century - for which reason he is also widely known as Saint Anselm of Canterbury. That it might sound strange to a modern reader to hear of an Italian Catholic being named Archbishop of Canterbury speaks to the immensity of the changes that have occurred in Western Christianity since Anselm's time.

This Penguin Books edition of Anselm's work benefits from a thoughtful and helpful introduction, written by Sister Benedicta Ward. Sister Benedicta is an Oxford University theology professor who is also a member of the Sisters of the Love of God, an Anglican community of women who seek God through prayer and contemplation in a state of withdrawal from the temporal world - a state of living that is somewhat similar to that from which Anselm of Aosta wrote the Proslogion and his prayers and meditation. Sister Benedicta has very specific recommendations regarding how the prayers are to be read:

"[T]he prayers are meant to be said in solitude, and the aim is to stir the mind out of its inertia to know itself thoroughly and so come to contrition and the love of God. This is to be done by a quiet and thoughtful reading of the text of the prayers, but only as much of them as achieves this aim; they are not to be read for the interest of reading them but as a way into prayer" (p. 51).

Yet whether you read Anselm's work as a way into prayer, or for insights into the life of the mind during the Middle Ages, these works are likely to make a lasting impression upon you.

This volume of the work of Anselm of Aosta begins with prayers to God (presumably to the Triune God, and not merely to God the Father), and to Jesus Christ as God the Son, along with a prayer to the Holy Cross that is couched in such a way as to remind the Christian believer of the cross on which Jesus of Nazareth died sometime around the year 33 A.D. A "Prayer Before Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ" reminds the reader just how very Catholic these prayers are; Anselm's reflections on Holy Communion are couched in terms of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, the belief that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Jesus Christ:

Thank you for the good gift
Of this your holy Body and Blood,
Which I desire to receive, as cleansing from sin,
And for a defence against it.

Lord, I acknowledge that I am far from worthy
To approach and touch this sacrament;
But I trust in that mercy
Which caused you to lay down your life for sinners
That they might be justified,
And because you gave yourself
Willingly as a holy sacrifice to the Father. (p. 100)

The prayers that follow are offered to the Virgin Mary as Mother of God; to Saint John the Baptist, whose ministry foretold that of Jesus Christ; to Saint Peter as the first pope; and to Saint Paul as the author of the epistles that helped spread the gospel of Christ throughout the world. In each case, Anselm shows his familiarity with the Biblical passages relevant to that figure from the New Testament, and couches his pleas for that saint's help in terms of what that saint is recorded as having said or done in the Bible - as with this passage from the prayer to Saint Paul:

Lord God, you said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you."
St. Paul, you said, "I can do all things";
And see, the effect of your words is that this dead man
Waits for this hope to be realized.
You have spoken, and hearing you the dead man hopes.
You have promised, and the dead man desires to pray. (p. 150)

Other prayers to saints follow - each one couched in terms of the particular role that each saint plays in Catholic tradition. Saint John the Evangelist is addressed as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," the Apostle with whom Jesus of Nazareth had a particularly close friendship - and the only one of the Apostles who stood by Jesus at the Crucifixion; no fear of death or torture would keep him from being there for his friend. Saint Stephen is addressed as Christianity's first martyr; Saint Nicholas, as the great confessor; Saint Benedict, as the founder of monasticism; Saint Mary Magdalene, as a woman whose prior life of fleshly sin was redeemed by the spiritual love of Jesus.

My dearest lady,
Well you know by your own life
How a sinful soul can be reconciled with its creator,
What counsel a soul in misery needs,
What medicine will restore the sick to health. (p. 201)

These prayers partake of the long-standing tradition of intercession - the idea that asking a saint to speak on one's behalf to God can be an important step forward toward forgiveness, reconciliation, and reunion with God. At the same time, the deeply personal quality of these prayers might appeal to many Protestants - for whom, traditionally, the idea of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ holds great importance.

In terms of the intellectual history of the West, the Proslogion is probably Anselm's most important work. Going back and forth between passages of prose and prayer, this short book of 26 chapters represents Anselm's attempt "to find one single argument, needing no other proof than itself, to prove that God really exists" (p. 238).

The Proslogion, the title of which draws from the Latin proslogium ("discourse"), seems, in its efforts to establish an ontological proof of the existence of God, to draw upon Aristotle's concept of the "unmoved mover" from the Metaphysics. And readers who appreciate the Zen Buddhist concept of the koan (a seeming paradox that resolves itself only after deep and sustained contemplation) might find it interesting to watch Anselm struggle with seeming contradictions within the Christian faith, as with his consideration of the idea that God can forgive the wicked: "[A]lthough one can see why you should deal out good to the good and bad to the bad, what is indeed to be wondered at is why you who are entirely righteous and want for nothing should give good gifts to your wicked and guilty sons" (p. 250).

With meditations and letters of Anselm, as well as a helpful appendix chronicling the development of the prayers and discussing their importance in ecclesiastical and intellectual history, this edition of the work of Anselm of Aosta is a striking and invigorating look into the faith journey of an exceptionally gifted philosopher and writer.