“Lord, I seek your face; your face I seek, Lord, do not hide your face from me.”
— Anselm of Canterbury[verifiable: Proslogion, chapter 1 (Vultum tuum, Domine, requiram); translated by Davies and Evans (1998)]
Commentary
This verse, a version of the Psalmist's language, opens Anselm's address to God and frames the whole of the Proslogion as a search for the face of the Lord. The repetition of the seeking and the request not to be hidden expresses the anxiety of a mind that has turned away from God and longs to return. R. W. Southern notes that Anselm's devotional writing drew heavily on the Psalms and the Augustinian tradition of inward search. Jasper Hopkins's companion (1972) shows how the prayer prepares the argument by setting the terms of the search. Brian Davies and Gillian Evans's translation (1998) renders the Latin with attention to its liturgical rhythm. The sentence presents the spiritual condition from which the rational inquiry begins.
Commentary
This verse, a version of the Psalmist's language, opens Anselm's address to God and frames the whole of the Proslogion as a search for the face of the Lord. The repetition of the seeking and the request not to be hidden expresses the anxiety of a mind that has turned away from God and longs to return. R. W. Southern notes that Anselm's devotional writing drew heavily on the Psalms and the Augustinian tradition of inward search. Jasper Hopkins's companion (1972) shows how the prayer prepares the argument by setting the terms of the search. Brian Davies and Gillian Evans's translation (1998) renders the Latin with attention to its liturgical rhythm. The sentence presents the spiritual condition from which the rational inquiry begins.