QUOD IN DEO SIT HARMONIA, ODOR, SAPOR, LENITAS, PULCHRITUDO, SUO INEFFABILI MODO.
The Soul's Dark Surroundings
The soul dwells in God's light and blessedness yet still turns in darkness and misery.
You're still hidden, Lord — my soul is in your light and your blessedness, and yet it still turns about in darkness and its own misery.
Senses That Cannot Reach Him
Each faculty of the soul—sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch—fails to perceive God's beauty, harmony, fragrance, flavor, and gentleness.
It looks around — and it doesn't see your beauty. It listens, and it doesn't hear your harmony. It breathes in, and it doesn't perceive your fragrance. It tastes, and it doesn't recognize your flavor. It reaches out, and it doesn't feel your gentleness.
The Numbness of Sin
God holds all these perfections ineffably within himself and gave them to creation, but the soul's senses are stiffened and blocked by the old weariness of sin.
For you have these things, Lord God, in yourself, in your own ineffable way — you who gave them to the things you created, each in its own perceptible way. But the senses of my soul have grown stiff, they've become numb, they're blocked up by the old weariness of sin.1
Read the original Latin
Adhuc lates, domine, animam meam in luce et beatitudine tua, et idcirco versatur illa adhuc in tenebris et miseria sua. Circumspicit enim, et non videt pulchritudinem tuam. Auscultat, et non audit harmoniam tuam. Olfacit, et non percipit odorem tuum. Gustat, et non cognoscit saporem tuum. Palpat, et non sentit lenitatem tuam. Habes enim haec, domine deus, in te tuo ineffabili modo, qui ea dedisti rebus a te creatis suo sensibili modo; sed obriguerunt sed obstupuerunt sed obstructi sunt sensus animae meae vetusto languore peccati.
Notes
- 1 ↩The triple 'sed' (but... but... but...) is rendered as a progressive intensification — 'grown stiff... become numb... blocked up' — to preserve the rhetorical force without sounding mechanical.
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