| Author Quoted | Anselmus of Canterbury |
| Title Quoted | Orationes et Meditationes |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1964/01/19 |
| Imprint | |
| Quotation | Then this morning in Anselm's Meditations and Orations-I find his "Digne, certe, digne!" ["Fitting, certainly, fitting!"] (Med. 2). Anselm's meditations and prayers are musical compositions. He can use his themes without inhibition. Themes on which we are condemned to be inarticulate, for if we tried to say what he says we could not be authentic. Those forms have been worn out by tired monks and no longer say what he wanted them to say. Yet how close he comes to existentialist nausea for instance in prayer 8 (on St. John Baptist!). Yet there is always the hope, the presence of the compassionate Christ (not permitted to the existentialist!). I love Anselm. I love these prayers, though I could never attempt to use such language myself. |
| Quotation Source | Dancing in the Water of Life: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 5, 1963-1965.; Edited by Robert E. Daggy. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1997, p. 65 |
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| Link to Merton's Copy |
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