For I seek not to understand in order that I may believe; but I believe in order that I may understand, for I believe for this reason: that unless I believe, I cannot understand.
And if man cannot be admitted unless the aforesaid satisfaction for sin be first made, then necessarily One must make it who is both God and man.
It would not have been right for the restoration of human nature to be left undone, and…it could not have been done unless man paid what was owing to God for sin. But the debt was so great that, while man alone owed it, only God could pay it, so that the same person must be both man and God. Thus it was necessary for God to take manhood into the unity of His Person, so that he who in his own nature ought to pay and could not should be in a person who could… The life of this Man was so sublime, so precious, that it can suffice to pay what is owing for the sins of the whole world, and infinitely more.
A Scholastic Miscellany, Anselm to Ockham.
The debt was so great, that while man alone owed it, only God could pay it.
Now then, little man, for a short time fly from your business; hide yourself for a moment from your turbulent thoughts. Break off now your troublesome cares, and think less of your laborious occupations. Make a little time for God, and rest for a while in Him. Enter into the chamber of your mind, shut out everything but God and whatever helps you to seek Him, and, when you have shut the door, seek Him. Speak now, O my whole heart, speak now to God: “I seek Thy face; Thy face, Lord, do I desire.”
Proslogion.
O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire Thee with our whole heart; that, so desiring, we may seek, and seeking find Thee; and so finding Thee may love Thee; and in loving Thee, may hate those sins from which Thou hast redeemed us.
I pray, O God, that I may know Thee, that I may love Thee, so that I may rejoice in Thee. And if I cannot do this to the full in this life, at least let me go forward from day to day until that joy comes to fullness.
Proslogion, LCC edition, page 92.