# “O unfading Beauty of the most high God” by Anselm of Canterbury

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2023/09/23/o-unfading-beauty-of-the-most-high-god-by-anselm-of-canterbury/
- Published: 2023-09-23T16:00:09-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“O how good and sweet Thou art, Lord Jesus, to the soul that seeks Thee, Jesus, 
Redeemer of the captives; Saviour of the lost; Hope of the exiles; Strength of those
that labour; Repose of the anxious spirit; dear Solace and sweet Refreshment of 
the tearful soul that runs toiling after Thee; Crown of them that conquer; sole 
Reward and only Joy of the citizens above; full Fountain overflowing with all graces;
glorious Offspring of great God; Thyself great God.

Great God, let all things that are in heaven above and in earth beneath bless Thee,
for Thou art great and great is Thy Name.

O unfading Beauty of the most high God, and purest Brightness of Eternal Light; 
O Life enlivening all life, O Light enlightening all light, and sustaining in eternal
splendour the thousand thousand thousands of lights that blaze before the Throne
of Thy Divine Majesty, on from the distant dawn of their first early shining.

O Thou welling Fountain, hidden from mortal sight in the eternal and exhaustless
outgushing of Thy fresh limpid floods, Whose springs have no beginning, Whose deeps
are deep and infinitely deep, Whose height attains no limit, Whose breadth broadens
onwards marginless for ever, Whose purity is unruffled through eternity!

The Bosom of unfathomable God pours thee forth from the unsearchable abyss of His
own profound, Life begetting Life, Light begetting Light, God begetting God, eternal
God begetting eternal God, infinite God, God infinite and in all things coequal 
with Himself. And, Of Thy fulness we have all received (**John 1:16**).

Thee too, all-plentiful Spring of every good, priceless Light of sevenfold grace,
Thee, O most merciful Spirit, I implore to vouchsafe to illuminate me by Thy visitation,
whereinsoever, by reason of my frailty, I have too feebly grasped the truth of Thy
majesty and grandeur, and whatsoever of all that I have understood of Thy Divine
precepts I have by carnal wantonness disesteemed; so may I correct what is amiss,
and, helped by Thee, whom, voyaging over this life’s sea of perils, I have invoked
to my assistance, may I be guided without shipwreck to the harbour of eternal peace.

Thee, too, I entreat, all-pitiful Father, that, as Thou didst first make me and 
then remake by the Passion of Thy only-begotten Son, so Thou wouldst give me to 
think and love whatsoever tends to Thy glory. I am frail and unequal to my undertaking,
but do Thou grant me by diligent confession to attain the grace of redemption and
salvation.

And whatever work I undertake henceforth, make it tend altogether, by Thy grace,
through Thy grace, and in Thy grace, to Thine only praise.

Keep me henceforth from sin, teach me to be more constant and courageous in good
works; and so long as I live in this body, let me show myself some way Thy servant.
And so grant me, after my soul’s exit from the flesh, to obtain pardon of all my
sins and reap life everlasting.

Through Him who with Thee liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.”

–Anselm of Canterbury, [_Saint Anselm’s Book of Meditations and Prayers_](https://amzn.to/3t5lIKh)(
London: Burns and Oates, 1872), 130–132.

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