St. Anselm

SAINT ANSELM
Archbishop of Canterbury
(1034-1109) Today is the day we honor yet another Bishop and Doctor of the Church. He was a martyr, also, at least in desire and in merit too. When we think about Anselm, we picture to ourselves a man in whom are combined the humility and meekness of the cloister (since he was a monk), and with the zeal and courage of the episcopal dignity; a man who was both a sage and a saint; a man whom it was impossible not to love and respect. We need more like him today, if you ask me. I like his writings. He puts things so simply, yet with a force to be reckoned with, just as our Lord did. As Bishop, his whole life was spent in fighting for the liberty of the Church. Though gentle as a lamb by nature, he was all energy for this great cause. He used to say: "Christ would not have His Spouse be a slave; there is nothing in this world that God loves more than the liberty of His Church." There was a time when the Son of God allowed Himself to be fettered with bonds in order that He might loosen us from the chains of our sins; but now that He has risen in triumph from the dead, He wills that His Spouse should be, like Himself, free.

As our beloved Abbot Gueranger states: 'St. Anselm would have abominated all such theories such as progress and modern society; he knows that there is nothing on earth equal to the Church; and when he sees the world convulsed by revolutions; he knows that all comes from the Church having been deprived of her rights. One of these is that she should not only be recognized, in the secret of our conscience, as the one only True Church, but that, as such, she should be publicly confessed and outwardly defended against every opposition or error. Jesus, her divine Founder, promised to give her all nations as her inheritance; He kept His promise, and she was once the queen and mother of them all. But nowadays, a new principle has been asserted, to the effect that the Church and all sects must be on an equal footing as far as the protection of the State goes. The principle has been received with acclamation, and hailed as a mighty progress achieved by modern enlightenment: even Catholics, whose previous services to religion had endeared them to our hearts and gained our confidence, have become warm defenders of the impious theory.'
Keep in mind that these books (The Liturgical Year) were written over a hundred years ago. Seems like nothing changes, doesn't it? We have leaders today who spit out this same nonsense to us; this tripe; and expect us to say: "Yum"! Don't eat this tripe, and don't drink the grape-flavored drink(cruel-aid).

Saint Anselm of Canterbury - More Quotes (exercising your mind): 'I acknowledge, Lord, and I give thanks that you have created your image in me, so that I may remember you, think of you, love you. But this image is so obliterated and worn away by wickedness, it is so obscured by the smoke of sins, that it cannot do what it was created to do, unless you renew and reform it. I am not attempting, O Lord, to penetrate your loftiness, for I cannot begin to match my understanding with it, but I desire in some measure to understand your truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this too I believe, that "unless I believe, I shall not understand." (Isaiah 7:9)'

"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."

"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."

"God often works more by the life of the illiterate seeking the things that are God's, rather than by the ability of the learned seeking the things that are their own."

"No created being has anything from itself. For how could a thing which does not exist from itself have anything from itself? Moreover, if there is not anything except the One Who has created and the things created by Him, it is clear that nothing at all can exist except the One Who has created and what He has created."
De Casu Diaboli I. 1085-90.


"[The Devil] freely lost the will which he had. And just as he received the possession of it for as long as he had it, so he was able to receive the permanent keeping of what he deserted. But because he deserted, he did not receive. Therefore, that which he did not receive to keep because he deserted it, he did not receive not because God did not give it, but, rather, God did not give it because he did not receive it."
De Casu Diaboli III. 1085-90.

"Then, since [Satan] cannot be called just or unjust merely because he wills happiness or merely because he wills what is fitting (for he would will these of necessity), and since he neither can nor ought to be happy unless he wills to be happy and wills justly, it is necessary for God to make both wills so agree in him that he wills to be happy and wills justly.."
De Casu Diaboli XIV. 1085-90.

"Since we believe that God is truth, and since we say that truth is in many other things, I would like to know whether in whatever things it is said to be we ought to affirm that truth is God. For in your Monologion, by appealing to the truth of a statement, you too demonstrate that the Supreme Truth has no beginning and no end:"
DeVeritate I. 1080-86.

"By whose evil will it is committed (concipitur), it ought not to be. In this way, then, the Lord Jesus ought not to have undergone death because He alone [among men] was innocent; and no one ought to have inflicted death upon Him; nevertheless, He ought to have undergone death because He wisely and graciously and usefully willed to undergo it."
DeVeritate VIII. 1080-86.


"Let us see, then, how extensive the truth of signification is. For there is a true or a false signification not only in those things which we ordinarily call signs but also in all the other things which we have discussed. For since someone should do only what he ought to do, then by the very fact that someone does something, he says and signifies that he ought to do it. Now, if [morally speaking] he ought to do what he does, he speaks the truth. But if [morally speaking] he ought not [to do what he does], he speaks a lie."
DeVeritate IX. 1080-86.

"0 Lord: my heart is made bitter by its own desolation; sweeten it by Your consolation. I beseech You, 0 Lord, that having begun in hunger to seek You, I may not finish without partaking of You. I set out famished; let me not return still unfed."
Prologion, I. 1077/78.

"To what was I aspiring?, for what do I sigh? I sought after good things and, behold, [here is] turmoil. I was striving unto God but collided with myself."
Prologion, I. 1077/78.

"So even the Fool is convinced that something than which nothing greater can be thought is at least in his understanding; for when he hears of this [being], he understands [what he hears], and whatever is understood is in the understanding. But surely that than which a greater cannot be thought cannot be only in the understanding. For if it were only in the understanding, it could be thought to exist also in reality."
Prologion, II. 1077/78.

"Hence, something than which a greater cannot be thought exists so truly that it cannot even be thought not to exist. And You are this , 0 Lord our God. Therefore, 0 Lord my God, You exist so truly that You cannot even be thought not to exist. And this is rightly the case. For if any mind could think of something better than You, the creature would rise above the Creator and would sit in judgment over the Creator; something which is utterly absurd. Indeed, except for You alone, whatever else exists can be thought not to exist. Therefore, You alone exist most truly of all and thus most greatly of all; for whatever else exists does not exist as truly [as do You] and thus exists less greatly [than do You]. Since, then, it is so readily clear to a rational mind that You exist most greatly of all, why did the Fool say in his heart that God does not exist? Why , except because [he is] foolish and a fool!"
Prologion, III. 1077/78

"Yet, it is also just that You punish those who are evil. For what is more just than for those who are good to receive good things and for those who are evil to receive bad things? But, then, how is it just for You to punish those who are evil and likewise just for You to spare them? Do You justly punish them in one respect and justly spare them in another? For when You punish those who are evil, it is just because suits their merits. But when You spare them, it is just, not because [sparing them] suits their merits but because it befits Your goodness. For in sparing them, You are just in Yourself but are not just from our viewpoint, even as You are merciful from our viewpoint but are not merciful in Yourself. For in saving us whom You could justly damn, You are just not because You requite us as we deserve but because You do what befits You as supremely good, even as You are merciful not because You experience any emotion but because we experience the effect [of Your mercy]. So, then, without inconsistency, You both punish justly and spare justly."
Prologion, X. 1077/78.

"How vast that Truth is in which resides everything that is true and outside of which there is only nothing and what is false! How immense that Truth which beholds in one spectrum all created things and beholds by whom, through whom, and in what manner [all things] were created from nothing! What purity, what simplicity, what assurance and splendor are present there! Surely, [these] surpass what can be understood by any creature."
Prologion, XIV. 1077/78.

"Amidst Your blessedness and light, 0 Lord, You are still hidden from my soul. Therefore, my soul still dwells in darkness and in its own unhappiness. For it looks in all directions but does not see Your beauty. It listens but does not hear Your harmony. It fills its nostrils but does not smell Your fragrance. It tastes but does not savor Your succulence. It feels but does not detect Your softness. For in Your ineffable manner, 0 Lord God, You have these [features] within You; and You have bestowed them, in their own perceptible manner, upon the things created by You. But the senses of my soul have been stiffened and deadened and impaired by the old-time infirmity of sin."
Prologion, XVII. 1077/78.


"Therefore, since it is certain that if compared with one another all good things are either equally or unequally good, it is necessary that all things are good through something which is understood to be identical in different goods; although at times, ostensibly, some things are said to be good through something else."
Monologion, Chapter one. 1075/76.

"Just as something has been found to be supremely good inasmuch as all good things are good through some one thing which is good through itself, so it follows necessarily that something is supremely great inasmuch as whatever things are great are great through some one thing which is great through itself. I do not mean great in size, as is a material object; but that the greater the better or more excellent it is; as in the case of wisdom. Now, since only what is supremely good can be supremely great, it is necessary that something be the greatest and the best, i.e., the highest, of all existing things"
Monologion, Chapter two. 1075/76.


"But to question whether or not [the rational soul] will enjoy Supreme Beatitude endlessly would be very foolish. For while enjoying this Beatitude, [the soul] cannot be tormented by fear or deceived by a false security. Nor having experienced the need of this Beatitude can [the soul] keep from loving it. Nor will Supreme Beatitude forsake [a soul] which loves it. Nor will there be anything more powerful which will separate it and the soul against their wills. Therefore, any soul which once begins to enjoy Supreme Beatitude will be eternally happy."
Monologion, Chapter seventy. 1075/76.

"[And, most clearly, this Spirit is the one] from whom alone good fortune is to be hoped for, to whom alone flight from adversity is to be taken, and of whom alone supplication is to be made for anything whatsoever. Truly, then, this Spirit not only is God but is the only God; ineffably Three and One."
Monologion, Chapter eighty. 1075/76.


Our beloved Abbot Gueranger ends with this:

'Obtain for us, O holy Doctor, that 'our Faith,' like thine, 'may seek understanding.' Nowadays, there are many who blaspheme what they know not (Jude 10); but there are many also who know little or nothing of what they believe. Hence arise a deplorable confusion of ideas, compromises are made between Truth and error, and the only True doctrines are despised, scouted, or at least undefended. Pray to our heavenly Father, O Anselm, that He would bless the world with holy and learned men, who may teach the path of Truth, and dispel the mists of error; that thus the children of the Church may not be led astray.'
Like I said at the beginning, these books were written over a hundred years ago, but seem to be written today, which is experiencing so much turmoil.

And, please pray for my life-long friend Rick, who has his birthday today. Pray for his conversion. He won't know what hit him!