{"id":85113,"date":"2015-04-21T09:28:34","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T16:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/?p=85113"},"modified":"2015-04-21T09:29:45","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T16:29:45","slug":"teach-me-to-seek-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/teach-me-to-seek-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Teach Me to Seek You"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Insignificant man, escape from your everyday business for a short while, hide for a moment from your restless thoughts. Break off from your cares and troubles and be less concerned about your tasks and labors. Make a little time for God and rest a while in him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On today’s Memorial of Saint Anselm of Canterbury<\/a>, Bishop, Doctor of the Church, and founder of Scholasticism<\/a>, I thought I’d share some of his wisdom.<\/p>\n

\"Saint<\/a>

Saint Anselm of Canterbury, as depicted on his own seal<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Enter into your mind\u2019s inner chamber. Shut out everything but God and whatever helps you to seek him; and when you have shut the door, look for him. Speak now to God and say with your whole heart: I seek your face; your face, Lord, I desire<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lord, my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you, where and how to find you. Lord, if you are not here where shall I look for you in your absence? Yet if you are everywhere, why do I not see you when you are present? But surely you dwell in \u201clight inaccessible.\u201d And where is light inaccessible? How shall I approach light inaccessible? Or who will lead me and bring me into it that I may see you there? And then, by what signs and under what forms shall I seek you? I have never seen you, Lord my God; I do not know your face.<\/p>\n

Lord most high, what shall this exile do, so far from you? What shall your servant do, tormented by love of you and cast so far from your face? He yearns to see you, and your face is too far from him. He desires to approach you, and your dwelling is unapproachable. he longs to find you, and does not know your dwelling place. He strives to look for you, and does not know your face.<\/p>\n

Lord, you are my God and you are my Lord, and I have never seen you. You have made me and remade me, and you have given me all the good things I possess and still I do not know you. I was made in order to see you, and I have not yet done that for which I was made.<\/p>\n

Lord, how long will it be? How long, Lord, will you forget us? How long will you turn your face away from us? When will you look upon us and hear us? When will you enlighten our eyes and show us your face? When will you give yourself back to us?<\/p>\n

Look upon us, Lord, hear us and enlighten us, show us your very self. Restore yourself to us that it may go well with us whose life is so evil without you. Take pity on our efforts and our striving toward you, for we have no strength apart form you.<\/p>\n

Teach me to seek you, and when I seek you show yourself to me, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor can I find you unless you show yourself to me. Let me seek you in desiring you and desire you in seeking you, find you in loving you.<\/p>\n

(From the Proslogion <\/em>of Saint Anselm<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Insignificant man, escape from your everyday business for a short while, hide for a moment from your restless thoughts. Break off from your cares and troubles and be less concerned about your tasks and labors. Make a little time for God and rest a while in him. On today’s Memorial of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, Bishop, Doctor of the Church, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,20,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-saint","category-silence","category-wisdom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aGBK-m8N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":90368,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/the-fifth-day-of-christmas-becket\/","url_meta":{"origin":85113,"position":0},"title":"The Fifth Day of Christmas: Becket","author":"Thom","date":"29 December 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy fifth day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the martyrdom of the splendid Saint Thomas Becket. Having the birth name \"Thomas\", I take Becket and Aquinas as patrons. As we walk through the Christmas season day by day, many martyrs crowd round the crib of the infant Jesus. Saint\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dom Gu\u00e9ranger"","block_context":{"text":"Dom Gu\u00e9ranger","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/dom-gueranger\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/St-Thomas-Becket.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/St-Thomas-Becket.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/St-Thomas-Becket.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":86372,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/on-pilgrimage\/","url_meta":{"origin":85113,"position":1},"title":"On Pilgrimage","author":"Thom","date":"29 December 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy fifth day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the martyrdom of the splendid Saint Thomas Becket. Having the birth name \"Thomas\", I take Becket and Aquinas as patrons. Each year, I write something about the saint here. Previous articles on Saint Thomas Becket: 2014: A Happy Death (Thoughts on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Saint Thomas Becket","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/St_Thomas_Becket_by_godsandrockers-240x297.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":292,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/becket\/","url_meta":{"origin":85113,"position":2},"title":"Becket","author":"Thom","date":"29 December 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is the Feast of Saint Thomas Becket. Even before my conversion, I always admired Saint Thomas. It might have something to do with his name\u2014as a child the only other famous Thomases I knew were Jefferson and Edison, and I didn't much care for Edison. I'd like to think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church and State"","block_context":{"text":"Church and State","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/church-and-state\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Becket_by_Meister_Francke-262x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34205,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/34205\/","url_meta":{"origin":85113,"position":3},"title":"Becket and Chaucer","author":"Thom","date":"29 December 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Each year on this, his feast day, I write a short article about Saint Thomas Becket. Having the birth name \"Thomas\", I take Becket and Aquinas as patrons. Last year, I quoted a small passage from G.K. Chesterton on the matter of Becket's martyrdom. This year, I'd like to focus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Saint Thomas Becket","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/saintthomasbecket.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":110147,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/the-fifth-day-of-christmas-thomas-and-henry\/","url_meta":{"origin":85113,"position":4},"title":"The Fifth Day of Christmas: Thomas and Henry","author":"Thom","date":"29 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, the Church celebrates the anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket. Over the years, I've written many articles on this, one of my favourite saints. I've provided links to them below. Many of these articles focus on the saint himself, his life and martyrdom, and others on his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Annual"","block_context":{"text":"Annual","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/annual\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/St-Thomas-Becket.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/St-Thomas-Becket.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/St-Thomas-Becket.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1825,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/desire-for-the-vision-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":85113,"position":5},"title":"Desire for the Vision of God","author":"Thom","date":"02 December 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning, the second reading from the Office of Readings struck me, so I thought I'd share it with you. It reminds me of the Dark Night of the Soul of Saint John of the Cross, as well as many of the psalms of longing. It's beautiful. From the Proslogion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Meditations"","block_context":{"text":"Meditations","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/meditations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Saint_anselm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85113"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85123,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85113\/revisions\/85123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}