My prayer poem for Wednesday 21 April 2021St Anselm’s Day

My prayer poem for Wednesday 21 April 2021
St Anselm’s Day


Recognised now as the leading Christian thinker of the eleventh century, Anselm was born in Italy and became abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Bec in France before moving to England where he was appointed archbishop of Canterbury in the wake of the Norman conquest.  He is best remembered today for his contribution to three areas of philosophical and theological reflection: his ‘ontological argument’ for the existence of God; his explanation of how Jesus atoned with his death on the cross for the fall of the human race; and his definition of theology as ‘faith seeking understanding.’


He thought of You with mind alight
and all that sparks imaginings.
Faith seeking understanding,
a life devoted and a mind soaring
heavenward with holy reason.
And in our time
we crave such calculation
and people now, as then,
long to know You, Lord,
through the gift of Faith
nourishing, little by little,
hungry, expectant minds.


©️Mark Andrew Smith