QUOD HAEC SIT "LUX INACCESSIBILIS QUAM INHABITAT".
The Inaccessible Light
Anselm confesses that God dwells in an inaccessible light that no creature can penetrate, yet through that very light he sees all that he sees.
Truly, Lord, this is the inaccessible light in which you dwell. Truly, for there is nothing else that can penetrate it, so as to see you fully there. Truly, the reason I don't see it is that it's too much for me; and yet whatever I see, I see through it, just as a weak eye sees what it sees by the light of the sun, which it can't bear to look at in the sun itself.
The Soul's Frailty Before God's Brightness
Anselm describes how his mind and soul are overwhelmed, thrown back, and bewildered by the brilliance, vastness, and immensity of God's light.
My mind can't reach it. It shines too brightly — my soul's eye can't take it in, and can't bear to gaze at it for long. It's thrown back by its brilliance, overcome by its vastness, overwhelmed by its immensity, bewildered by its fullness.
Near Yet Unseen
Anselm laments the paradox that God is wholly present, within and around him, yet remains unseen and unperceived.
O highest and inaccessible light, O whole and blessed truth, how far you are from me, when I am so close to you! How remote you are from my sight, when I am thus present to yours! You are everywhere, wholly present, and yet I do not see you. In you I am stirred, and in you I am, yet I cannot come to you. You are within me and around me, and I do not perceive you.
Read the original Latin
Vere, domine, haec est lux inaccessibilis, in qua habitas. Vere enim non est aliud quod hanc penetret, ut ibi te pervideat. Vere ideo hanc non video, quia nimia mihi est; et tamen quidquid video, per illam video, sicut infirmus oculus quod videt per lucem solis videt, quam in ipso sole nequit aspicere. Non potest intellectus meus ad illam. Nimis fulget, non capit illam, nec suffers oculus animae meae diu intendere in illam. Reverberatur fulgore, vincitur amplitudine, obruitur immensitate, confunditur capacitate.
O summa et inaccessibilis lux, o tota et beata veritas, quam longe es a me, qui tam prope tibi sum! Quam remote es a conspectu meo, qui sic praesens sum conspectui tuo! Ubique es tota praesens, et non te video. In te moveor et in te sum, et ad te non possum accedere. Intra me et circa me es, et non te sentio.
Proslogion (Address / Discourse on the Existence of God) companion
One chapter of historic wisdom, every day
Chosen Portion delivers works like the Proslogion as short daily readings with a prayer — free on iOS.
Anselm designed the Proslogion to be read slowly as prayer, and the Chosen Portion app serves it exactly that way — one short portion per day.
- Finish the entire Proslogion in 14 days at about 10 minutes a day
- Modern-English rendering of all 27 chapters, no Latin required
- Each reading paired with Anselm's own prayers so study ends in worship