God does not delay to hear our prayers because He has no mind to give; but that, by enlarging our desires, He may give us the more largely.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that God's delays in answering prayers are purposeful, meant to broaden our desires for greater blessings.
Anselm of Canterbury suggests that the perceived delays in God's response to our prayers are not due to a lack of willingness to provide, but rather a divine strategy to expand our understanding and desires. By taking time to fulfill our requests, God encourages us to seek deeper and more meaningful blessings, ultimately leading to a greater fulfillment of our hopes and aspirations.
In practice
In a sermon discussing the nature of faith and prayer.
A Prayer of Anselm 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.
For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I believe this: unless I believe, I will not understand.
Spare me through your mercy, do not punish me through your justice.
Remove grace, and you have nothing whereby to be saved. Remove free will and you have nothing that could be saved.
I believe in order that I may understand.
A single Mass offered for oneself during life may be worth more than a thousand celebrated for the same intention after death.
I have spent a lot of my career working on normative political philosophy, developing the 'capabilities approach' to social justice. I have also spent a lot of my career working on the structure of the emotions, and their role in human life.
God's Kingdom is "present in its beginnings, but still future in its fullness. This guards us from an under-realized eschatology (expecting no change now) and an over-realized eschatology (expecting all change now). In this stage, we embrace the reality that while we're not yet what we will be, we're also no longer what we used to be.
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought.
You will have to go deep into man. From where comes this violence? From where comes this exploitation? From where come all these ego-trips? From where? They all come from unconsciousness. Man lives asleep, man lives mechanically. That mechanism has to be broken, man has to be re-done. That is the religious revolution that has not been tried.
When you know your name, you should hang on to it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die when you do.
It is with rivers as it is with people: the greatest are not always the most agreeable nor the best to live with.
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