Anselm of Canterbury

"All this I hold with unwavering faith, 

and weep over the hardship of exile, 

hoping in the sole consolation of your coming, 

ardently longing for the glorious contemplation of your face."

This is the last stanza of Anselm's "Prayer to Christ". This weeks blog post is on Anselm of Canterbury. His "Prayer to Christ" is a 12 stanza prayer admitting his lukewarm faith and love for God. His prayer goes through many different stages, first admitting that he is not where he wants to be with his faith, then asking God to rekindle that flame within him. He goes on to express his longing for God and to know God. It ends with his feeling that he still isn't fully possessing God in the way that he thinks he ought to be. But what is expressed is that he has this unwavering hope, this unwavering faith that he will one day reach that point.

What I really appreciated about this prayer of Anselm is that he is so blatantly truthful. What I have noticed within myself, in conversations with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, in sitting in on conversations with different small groups, is that we sometimes   99% of the time try and sugar coat our relationship with Jesus Christ. We use phrases like "it's not the best, but it's better than other peoples," or "I figure I have time to get my relationship with Christ on the right path again, it's fine how it is right now," or "I read my Bible [and then think to ourselves 'for class that is']", but we don't often come out in the open and say "I am struggling with my walk with Christ, I fear that I am becoming lukewarm, and I need help to stay accountable." Those aren't easy things for us to admit, I for one don't like to talk about my shortcomings or my struggles for fear that I will be judged or laughed at. 

But isn't what Anselm is saying in his prayer exactly how we should approach it? We should want to struggle with our lukewarm feelings, we should openly be able to discuss with fellow believers the issues that distress us, the doubts that cause conflict in us. We should always be "ardently longing for the glorious contemplation of your [God's] face."