Monthly Archives: November 2012

The Ninth Chapter: We Should Offer Ourselves and All That We Have to God, Praying for All

Posted on by
Reply

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
The Ninth Chapter: We Should Offer Ourselves and All That We Have to God, Praying for All

The Disciple

ALL things in heaven and on earth, O Lord, are Yours. I long to give myself to You as a voluntary offering to remain forever Yours. With a sincere heart I offer myself this day to You, O Lord, to Your eternal service, to Your homage, and as a sacrifice of everlasting praise. Receive me with this holy offering of Your precious Body which also I make to You this day, in the presence of angels invisibly attending, for my salvation and that of all Your people.

O Lord, upon Your altar of expiation, I offer You all the sins and offenses I have committed in Your presence and in the presence of Your holy angels, from the day when I first could sin until this hour, that You may burn and consume them all in the fire of Your love, that You may wipe away their every stain, cleanse my conscience of every fault, and restore to me Your grace which I lost in sin by granting full pardon for all and receiving me mercifully with the kiss of peace. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER IX.

Posted on by
Reply

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
CHAPTER IX.: We Should Offer Ourselves and All That We Have to God, Praying for All

Wearied with the slavery of our passions, and fatigued with the inefficacy of our desires, we promise God what we never perform, and pretend to be his, without ceasing to be our own, or weaning ourselves from the world and vanity; let us now, after having received Him, make a firm resolution of giving ourselves really to Him, and of dedicating and consecrating ourselves to his love. It is time, O my Saviour, that this heart, which was made for thy love, and redeemed by thy blood, should for ever cease to be devoted to itself, and become wholly and irrevocably thine; and I protest at thy sacred feet, that such is my ardent desire. This heart has received Thee, my Jesus! and Thou desirest to consummate within it that new life which Thou hast assumed on the altar to make it a victim of thy love. Sacrifice then to thy Father thy holy life, and my life of sin; and never suffer me to recall that heart which on this day I wholly give to Thee.

Continue reading →

  1. Right Rev. R. Challoner, D.D., V.A., Imitation of Christ, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ↩

The Eighth Chapter: The Offering of Christ on the Cross; Our Offering

Posted on by
Reply

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
The Eighth Chapter: The Offering of Christ on the Cross; Our Offering

The Voice of Christ

AS I offered Myself willingly to God the Father for your sins with hands outstretched and body naked on the cross, so that nothing remained in Me that had not become a complete sacrifice to appease the divine wrath, so ought you to be willing to offer yourself to Me day by day in the Mass as a pure and holy oblation, together with all your faculties and affections, with as much inward devotion as you can.

What more do I ask than that you give yourself entirely to Me? I care not for anything else you may give Me, for I seek not your gift but you. Just as it would not be enough for you to have everything if you did not have Me, so whatever you give cannot please Me if you do not give yourself. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER VIII.

Posted on by
Reply

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
CHAPTER VIII.: The Offering of Christ on the Cross; Our Offering

Act not after the manner of those many weak Christians, who. when they communicate, give themselves entirely to God, but immediately after return to themselves; whose lives are a constant succession of good desires and sinful actions, and who are therefore never firmly established either in the fear or love of God. It is of such souls, who are thus mean and ungenerous towards a God who is so prodigal of himself towards them, that the prophet speaks, when he says: On account of the iniquity of his covetousness, I was angry, and 1 struck him; I hid my face from thee, and was angry; and he went away wandering in his own heart. –Isaiah 67:17Open Link in New Window.

Continue reading →

  1. Right Rev. R. Challoner, D.D., V.A., Imitation of Christ, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ↩

The Seventh Chapter: The Examination of Conscience and the Resolution to Amend

Posted on by
Reply

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
The Seventh Chapter: The Examination of Conscience and the Resolution to Amend

The Voice of Christ

ABOVE all, God’s priest should approach the celebration and reception of this Sacrament with the deepest humility of heart and suppliant reverence, with complete faith and the pious intention of giving honor to God.

Carefully examine your conscience, then. Cleanse and purify it to the best of your power by true contrition and humble confession, that you may have no burden, know of no remorse, and thus be free to come near. Let the memory of all your sins grieve you, and especially lament and bewail your daily transgressions. Then if time permits, confess to God in the secret depths of your heart all the miseries your passions have caused. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER VII.

Posted on by
Reply

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
CHAPTER VII.: The Examination of Conscience and the Resolution to Amend

There is nothing more useful in itself, nor more indispensable in order to approach worthily the altar, than to descend into your conscience, and to examine, with a salutary severity, its sad depths. We have in ourselves, as it were, an image of the kingdom of darkness; in us lives, increases, and propagates itself the numerous family of vices, sprung from the threefold concupiscence which has infected human life from its otigin. Whoever seriously examines his heart, finds in it the germ of all that is bad; a pride, sometimes bold and violent, sometimes full of duplicity and artifices; an unrestrained curiosity; burning desires; hatred which injuries, outrages, and calumny accompany; envy, the mother of murder; avarice which says without ceasing, Bring, bring (Proverbs 30:15Open Link in New Window); hardness of heart; the guilty joys of the mind: and although these seeds of death do not develope themselves in every man to the same degree, all have them in themselves, and grace alone smothers “-.em more or less. Such is, since his original fall, the lot of the children of Adam. Who, in his terror, would not cry out to the Lord from the depths of his immense misery? He that hideth his sins shall not prosper; but he that shall confess and for* sake them, shall obtain mercy (Proverbs 28:13Open Link in New Window). Touched with compassion for sinners, Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of penance, which regenerates them in the blood of the Lamb, and clothes them again with their primitive innocence. This is the nuptial robe necessary in order to assist at the feast of the bridegroom; ye who bear with grief the weight of your sins, hasten then, go, full of repentance, of faith, of hope, and of love, to lay down that oppressive burden at the feet of him who takes the place, in the sacred tribunal, of the Son of God Himself; go and humiliate yourselves; go and weep: a divine hand will dry your tears, and, re-established in grace with God and in peace with yourselves, you will at last feel gladness and joy in your souls.

Continue reading →

  1. Right Rev. R. Challoner, D.D., V.A., Imitation of Christ, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ↩

The Sixth Chapter: An Inquiry on the Proper Thing to Do Before Communion

Posted on by
Reply

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
The Sixth Chapter: An Inquiry on the Proper Thing to Do Before Communion

The Disciple

WHEN I consider Your dignity, O Lord, and my own meanness, I become very much frightened and confused. For if I do not receive, I fly from Life, and if I intrude unworthily, I incur Your displeasure. What, then, shall I do, my God, my Helper and Adviser in necessity? Teach me the right way. Place before me some short exercise suitable for Holy Communion, for it is good to know in what manner I ought to make my heart ready devoutly and fervently for You, to receive Your Sacrament for the good of my soul, or even to celebrate so great and divine a sacrifice.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER VI.

Posted on by
Reply

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
CHAPTER VI.: An Inquiry on the Proper Thing to Do Before Communion

Ont of the best dispositions for worthily receiving the holy communion, is to be resolved that Jesus shall reign for ever in our hearts; that is, that we will obey Him in all things, and refuse Him nothing that He demands of us; for it is in quality of king that He comes to us, and as the king of all bounty He comes into our souls, to be again born there, and to reign over our passions and affections.

Continue reading →

  1. Right Rev. R. Challoner, D.D., V.A., Imitation of Christ, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ↩

The Fifth Chapter: The Dignity of the Sacrament and of the Priesthood

Posted on by
Reply

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
The Fifth Chapter: The Dignity of the Sacrament and of the Priesthood

The Voice of Christ

HAD you the purity of an angel and the sanctity of St. John the Baptist, you would not be worthy to receive or administer this Sacrament. It is not because of any human meriting that a man consecrates and administers the Sacrament of Christ, and receives the Bread of Angels for his food. Great is the Mystery and great the dignity of priests to whom is given that which has not been granted the angels. For priests alone, rightly ordained in the Church, have power to celebrate Mass and consecrate the Body of Christ.

The priest, indeed, is the minister of God, using the word of God according to His command and appointment. God, moreover, is there–the chief Author and invisible Worker to Whom all is subject as He wills, to Whom all are obedient as He commands. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER V.

Posted on by
Reply

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
CHAPTER V.: The Dignity of the Sacrament and of the Priesthood

In order to comprehend the grandeur of the Christian Priesthood, it is necessary to consider the characteristics which unchangeably distinguish it, and form, as it were, the divine seal with which it was stamped at its origin. In the first place it is one: as there is one God, and one Mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 3:5Open Link in New Window), the apostle and high-priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:1Open Link in New Window), always living to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25Open Link in New Window.) Every priest, in the exercise of his heavenly functions, represents Jesus Christ, or rather is Jesus Christ Himself, who alone truly operates what the words and the acts of his minister announce–alone binds and unbinds, alone dispenses grace, alone immolates and offers to his Father the Victim of propitiation, which is one also; for Jesus, by his own blood, entering once into the Holies, has obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12Open Link in New Window.), Thus there is but one sacrifice, one priest, one priesthood, which in its immense hierarchy, is but the invisible High-priest of the good things to come (Hebrews 9Open Link in New Window. 11), and is multiplied visibly on every part of the earth, in order to continue there its great mission even unto the end of time. And not only is the priesthood one but it is universal: for all nations have been give as an inheritance to Jesus Christ (Psalms 2:8Open Link in New Window), From the rising of the sun even to the going down, in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to the Lord a clean oblation (Malac, i. 11). It is eternal; for, from all eternity, God said to Christ; Thou art my Son, this day have 1 begotten Thee; and again: Thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Milchisedech (Hebrews 5:5, 6Open Link in New Window; 6:20). It is holy; For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens (Hebrews 7:26Open Link in New Window); and even the demons, conquered by Him who hath an everlasting priesthood (Hebrews 7:24Open Link in New Window), have rendered this testimony to it: I know who thou art the holy one of God (Mark 1:24Open Link in New Window). Oh! how lofty, how sublime is the dignity of the priest! But also how fearful is it! Associated to the power of Jesus Christ, the High-priest, in the unity of his priesthood; minister with Him and in Him of the sacrifice of the cross, renewed each day on the altar, in an unbloody manner; distributer of the bread of life, of the body and of the blood of the Redeemer, over which power has been given to him; entrusted with the mission of the Son of God for the salvation of the world, his duties are in proportion to so high a vocation, and it is to him especially that there has been said: Be ye holy, because I, the Lord your God am holy (Levit. x9. 2). Poor sinner that I am; so weak, so languishing, so infirm, how shall I be able to raise myself, O Jesus! to the state of holiness which Thou demandest of me? I tremble at this thought, and I would lose all hope, if thy goodness did not deign to re-assure me, saying: with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible (Matthew x9. 26).

Continue reading →

  1. Right Rev. R. Challoner, D.D., V.A., Imitation of Christ, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ↩