Yesterday I posted a 1400 year old prayer from Augustine. It’s good for my heart to make these prayers my own. So today, after reading through 1 John, I also meditated on this much newer prayer from Anselm of Canterbury, which he wrote almost 1,000 years ago:
Lord Jesus Christ,
my Redeemer, my Mercy, and my Salvation:
I praise you and give you thanks.
They are far beneath the goodness of your gifts,
which deserve a better return of love;
but although I requite so poorly
the sweet riches of your love
which I have longed to have,
yet my soul will pay its debt
by some sort of praise and thanks,
not as I know I ought,
but as I can.
Hope of my heart, Strength of my soul,
Help of my weakness,
by your powerful kindness complete
what in my powerless weakness I attempt.
My life, the end to which I strive,
although I have not yet attained to love you as I ought,
still let my desire for you
be as great as my love ought to be.
-Anselm, The Prayers and Meditations of Saint Anselm with the Proslogion. New York: Penguin Books, 1973.