The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life: Learning to Listen to God with a Discerning Heart with Kris McGregor

Episode 40 – St. Anslem of Canterbury – Proslogion: Faith Seeking Understanding

In this episode of The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Life, Kris McGregor turns to St. Anselm of Canterbury, the Benedictine monk, abbot, and Doctor of the Church, whose well-known phrase “faith seeking understanding” captures a deeply prayerful approach to truth. Anselm does not begin with doubt, nor does he treat understanding as something to be won apart from God. He begins with faith already received and seeks to understand more deeply what the heart has already come to trust.

This movement fits naturally within the Benedictine way. The Holy Rule does not separate prayer from thought, or devotion from the life of the mind. It forms a soul in attention, listening, and obedience, so that both heart and mind remain under God. Anselm helps show that thought itself can become an act of fidelity. The mind is not meant to master divine truth, but to remain before it in reverence, love, and humility.

This episode also explores how Anselm protects the spiritual life from two errors: treating faith as blind and unexamined, or treating understanding as something achieved apart from faith. For Anselm, belief comes first as gift. Understanding follows as a faithful response. Christ remains at the center, not as an abstraction, but as the One in whom God is revealed and known. This episode invites listeners to see that seeking understanding is not a rival to prayer, but one of its fruits when the heart remains rooted in trust.

Citations

St. Anslem of Canterbury, The Proslogion

Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions

1. Do I ever feel tension between faith and understanding in my own spiritual life?
2. Am I tempted to treat faith as something that should never ask questions, or to treat understanding as something I must achieve on my own?
3. How have prayer, silence and lectio divina helped shape the way I think about God?
4. In what ways does humility need to guide my desire to understand divine truth more deeply?
5. How might Christ be inviting my mind, not just my heart, into a more faithful and prayerful relationship with Him?

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