The Second Chapter: Truth Speaks Inwardly Without the Sound of Words

Posted on April 27, 2020 by

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Second Chapter: Truth Speaks Inwardly Without the Sound of Words

The Disciple

SPEAK, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” [26] “I am Thy servant. Give me understanding that I may know Thine ordinances [27] . . . Incline my heart to Thine ordinances [28] . . . Let Thy speech distil as the dew.” [29]

The children of Israel once said to Moses: “Speak thou to us and we will hear thee: let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die.” [30] Continue reading →

The First Chapter: The Inward Conversation of Christ with the Faithful Soul

Posted on April 24, 2020 by

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The First Chapter: The Inward Conversation of Christ with the Faithful Soul

I WILL hear what the Lord God will speak in me.” [25]

Blessed is the soul who hears the Lord speaking within her, who receives the word of consolation from His lips. Blessed are the ears that catch the accents of divine whispering, and pay no heed to the murmurings of this world. Blessed indeed are the ears that listen, not to the voice which sounds without, but to the truth which teaches within. Blessed are the eyes which are closed to exterior things and are fixed upon those which are interior. Blessed are they who penetrate inwardly, who try daily to prepare themselves more and more to understand mysteries. Blessed are they who long to give their time to God, and who cut themselves off from the hindrances of the world.

Consider these things, my soul, and close the door of your senses, so that you can hear what the Lord your God speaks within you. “I am your salvation,” says your Beloved. “I am your peace and your life. Remain with Me and you will find peace. Dismiss all passing things and seek the eternal. What are all temporal things but snares? And what help will all creatures be able to give you if you are deserted by the Creator?” Leave all these things, therefore, and make yourself pleasing and faithful to your Creator so that you may attain to true happiness. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER I.

Posted on April 24, 2020 by

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ¹
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSULTATION
CHAPTER I.: The Inward Conversation of Christ with the Faithful Soul

Let us listen to the Divine Wisdom: My delight U to he with the children of men (Proverbs, 8:31). Rut the greater part of mankind, not understanding this language, or fearing to understand it, withdraw from Him to take delight in the company of creatures. He was in the world and the world knew him not (John, i. 10). This is why the Apostle cautions us against loving the world or the things which are in the world. If we wish, then, to draw to ourselves the spirit of God, to which the unction teacheth all things (i John, 2:27), let us separate ourselves from the world; let us renounce its maxims, its pleasures, its tumultous societies. Jesus is only found in the desert; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets (Matthew, x2:19); but when He has resolved to pour out His favours on the faithful soul, He leads her unto the wilderness, and there He speaks to her heart (Osee, 2:14). How can the delights of this celestial conversation be described? Those who have tasted the pleasure of it once can no longer bear the conversations of men:

ASPIRATION.

O Jesus! speak to my heart; henceforth I wish to hear thy voice alone, amid the silence of all creatures.

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

The Twelfth Chapter: The Royal Road of the Holy Cross

Posted on April 20, 2020 by

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK TWO: THE INTERIOR LIFE
The Twelfth Chapter: The Royal Road of the Holy Cross

TO MANY the saying, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me,” [20] seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” [21] Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the day of judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who during life made themselves one with the Crucified, will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge.

Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul nor hope of everlasting life but in the cross.

Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory. Continue reading →

The Eleventh Chapter: Few Love the Cross of Jesus

Posted on April 17, 2020 by

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK TWO: THE INTERIOR LIFE
The Eleventh Chapter: Few Love the Cross of Jesus

JESUS has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus–love that is free from all self-interest and self-love!

Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands.

If a man give all his wealth, it is nothing; if he do great penance, it is little; if he gain all knowledge, he is still far afield; if he have great virtue and much ardent devotion, he still lacks a great deal, and especially, the one thing that is most necessary to him. What is this one thing? That leaving all, he forsake himself, completely renounce himself, and give up all private affections. Then, when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him consider it as nothing, let him make little of what may be considered great; let him in all honesty call himself an unprofitable servant. For truth itself has said: “When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: we are unprofitable servants.'” [18] Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER XI.

Posted on April 17, 2020 by

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ¹
BOOK TWO: THE INTERIOR LIFE
CHAPTER XI.: Few Love the Cross of Jesus

We must love God for God Himself, and not on account of the joys we feel in serving Him; for if He withdrew his consolations from us, what would become of this mercenary love? He who still seeks himself in anything does not know how to love. Look to your model, contemplate Jesus; He sought Himself in nothing. For Christ did not please Himself (Romans xv. 3). He sacrificed everything for you, his repose, his life, even his will: Not as I will, He said, but as Thou wilt (

). He suffered everything; even to the cross, even to the desertion of His Father: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? (

,) Let us enter, after his example, into this spirit of sacrifice; and, detached henceforth from every interest of our own, let us accept, with equal serenity, the goods and the ills, the pains and the joys, so that having no thoughts nor desires but those of Jesus, we may be united with Him in that perfect unity, which, when about to leave j,this world, He asked from his Father for us, as the last and greatest of his gifts.

ASPIRATION.

Grant, O most sweet Jesus that I may follow thy cross, and that being detached from all things, I may attach myself only to Thee for all eternity. Amen.

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

The Tenth Chapter: Appreciating God’s Grace

Posted on April 13, 2020 by

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK TWO: THE INTERIOR LIFE
The Tenth Chapter: Appreciating God’s Grace

WHY do you look for rest when you were born to work? Resign yourself to patience rather than to comfort, to carrying your cross rather than to enjoyment.

What man in the world, if he could always have them, would not readily accept consolation and spiritual joy, benefits which excel all earthly delights and pleasures of the body? The latter, indeed, are either vain or base, while spiritual joys, born of virtue and infused by God into pure minds, are alone truly pleasant and noble.

Now, since the moment of temptation is always nigh, since false freedom of mind and overconfidence in self are serious obstacles to these visitations from heaven, a man can never enjoy them just as he wishes. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER X.

Posted on April 13, 2020 by

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ¹
BOOK TWO: THE INTERIOR LIFE
CHAPTER X.: Appreciating God’s Grace

Man is so poor, that he has not even a good thought, a good desire, which does not come to him from on high. Of himself he can do nothing, not even desire to be freed from his misery, which he knows of only by supernatural light. If the divine mercy did not prevent him, he would languish in an eternal incapacity of all good. Therefore the more abundantly grace is given to him, the more reason has he to humiliate himself, seeing what he would be without it; what he is if left to himself. Madman! why should you take pride in the gifts of God? what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? (i Corinthians, iv„ J). Pride must yield to these words, and man must annihilate himself in the presence of Him who alone can draw him forth from the abyss into which sin has cast him.

Continue reading →

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

The Ninth Chapter: Wanting No Share in Comfort

Posted on April 10, 2020 by

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK TWO: THE INTERIOR LIFE
The Ninth Chapter: Wanting No Share in Comfort

IT IS not hard to spurn human consolation when we have the divine. It is, however, a very great thing indeed to be able to live without either divine or human comforting and for the honor of God willingly to endure this exile of heart, not to seek oneself in anything, and to think nothing of one’s own merit.

Does it matter much, if at the coming of grace, you are cheerful and devout? This is an hour desired by all, for he whom the grace of God sustains travels easily enough. What wonder if he feel no burden when borne up by the Almighty and led on by the Supreme Guide! For we are always glad to have something to comfort us, and only with difficulty does a man divest himself of self.

The holy martyr, Lawrence, with his priest, conquered the world because he despised everything in it that seemed pleasing to him, and for love of Christ patiently suffered the great high priest of God, Sixtus, whom he loved dearly, to be taken from him. Thus, by his love for the Creator he overcame the love of man, and chose instead of human consolation the good pleasure of God. So you, too, must learn to part with an intimate and much-needed friend for the love of God. Do not take it to heart when you are deserted by a friend, knowing that in the end we must all be parted from one another. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER IX.

Posted on April 10, 2020 by

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ¹
BOOK TWO: THE INTERIOR LIFE
CHAPTER IX.: Wanting No Share in Comfort

Although the holy humanity of the Saviour did not cease to enjoy, by its intimate union with the divine Word, an unchangeable peace and joy, still He often felt in his soul the afflictions and grief which have become a part of human nature. Who has not present to his mind these great words: My soul is sorrowful even unto death (

). My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me (

)? Thus also the Christian soul, without losing its peace is proved by sadness and interior tribulations. If it always tasted consolation, it is to be feared that it might fall into carelessness. Instead then of grieving and troubling yourself, rather rejoice; for it is written: They that sow in tears shall reap in joy (

)