The Twenty-Second Chapter: Remember the Innumerable Gifts of God

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION

The Twenty-Second Chapter: Remember the Innumerable Gifts of God


The Disciple

OPEN my heart, O Lord, to Your law and teach me to walk in the way of Your commandments. Let me understand Your will. Let me remember Your blessings–all of them and each single one of them–with great reverence and care so that henceforth I may return worthy thanks for them. I know that I am unable to give due thanks for even the least of Your gifts. I am unworthy of the benefits You have given me, and when I consider Your generosity my spirit faints away before its greatness. All that we have of soul and body, whatever we possess interiorly or exteriorly, by nature or by grace, are Your gifts and they proclaim Your goodness and mercy from which we have received all good things.

If one receives more and another less, yet all are Yours and without You nothing can be received. He who receives greater things cannot glory in his own merit or consider himself above others or behave insolently toward those who receive less. He who attributes less to himself and is the more humble and devout in returning thanks is indeed the greater and the better, while he who considers himself lower than all men and judges himself to be the least worthy, is the more fit to receive the greater blessing. Continue reading

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER XXII.

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSULTATION

CHAPTER XXII.: Remember the Innumerable Gifts of God


Let us profit by the grace which is given to us, without enquiring whether others have received a fuller measure of it. God communicates Himself as He pleases; He is the master of his gifts; and what are we that we can require Him to render an account of them? Let us bless Him for those which He accords to us in his gratuitous goodness, and let us bless Him again for those which He refuses to us; acknowledging that we are unworthy of the least of his benefits. If you are humble, you will not aspire to extraordinary favours; and if you want humility, those favours, far from being useful to you, will only serve to destroy you, by nourishing in you vain selfesteem and pride. A lively gratitude towards the Lord, a perfect submission to his will, fidelity to the path through which he leads you–that is what you should desire. With that you will repose in peace, because you will repose in God; and because in Him you will find aid against temptations, peace in sufferings, consolations in the miseries and pains of life, and in short the love which makes all things easily borne.

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

The Twenty-first Chapter: Above All Goods and All Gifts We Must Rest in God

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION

The Twenty-first Chapter: Above All Goods and All Gifts We Must Rest in God


The Disciple

ABOVE all things and in all things, O my soul, rest always in God, for He is the everlasting rest of the saints.

Grant, most sweet and loving Jesus, that I may seek my repose in You above every creature; above all health and beauty; above every honor and glory; every power and dignity; above all knowledge and cleverness, all riches and arts, all joy and gladness; above all fame and praise, all sweetness and consolation; above every hope and promise, every merit and desire; above all the gifts and favors that You can give or pour down upon me; above all the joy and exultation that the mind can receive and feel; and finally, above the angels and archangels and all the heavenly host; above all things visible and invisible; and may I seek my repose in You above everything that is not You, my God. Continue reading

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER XXI.

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSULTATION

CHAPTER XXI.: Above All Goods and All Gifts We Must Rest in God


In proportion as the faithful soul disengages itself from the earth and from itself, all its thoughts, all its desires arise and rush to confound themselves with Him whom it alone loves. There it groans on account of the bonds which tie it down and keep it on the earth. Urged on by a love which increases every moment, it would wish to break its envelope of clay, and spring into the breast of the infinite Being to whom it aspires, and to lose itself eternally in Him. There is no rest for it, until it is completely united to the object of its ardent desires, until it can say, in a transport of delight, in the divine inebriation of its happiness, in the enver-ending enjoyment and possession of its celestial spouse: My beloved to me, and I to Him (Song of Solomon 2:16Open Link in New Window).

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

The Twentieth Chapter: Confessing Our Weakness in the Miseries of Life

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION

The Twentieth Chapter: Confessing Our Weakness in the Miseries of Life


The Disciple

I WILL bring witness against myself to my injustice, and to You, O Lord, I will confess my weakness.

Often it is a small thing that makes me downcast and sad. I propose to act bravely, but when even a small temptation comes I find myself in great straits. Sometimes it is the merest trifle which gives rise to grievous temptations. When I think myself somewhat safe and when I am not expecting it, I frequently find myself almost overcome by a slight wind. Look, therefore, Lord, at my lowliness and frailty which You know so well. Have mercy on me and snatch me out of the mire that I may not be caught in it and may not remain forever utterly despondent. Continue reading

The Nineteenth Chapter: True Patience in Suffering

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION

The Nineteenth Chapter: True Patience in Suffering


The Voice of Christ

WHAT are you saying, My child? Think of My suffering and that of the saints, and cease complaining. You have not yet resisted to the shedding of blood. What you suffer is very little compared with the great things they suffered who were so strongly tempted, so severely troubled, so tried and tormented in many ways. Well may you remember, therefore, the very painful woes of others, that you may bear your own little ones the more easily. And if they do not seem so small to you, examine if perhaps your impatience is not the cause of their apparent greatness; and whether they are great or small, try to bear them all patiently. The better you dispose yourself to suffer, the more wisely you act and the greater is the reward promised you. Thus you will suffer more easily if your mind and habits are diligently trained to it.

Do not say: “I cannot bear this from such a man, nor should I suffer things of this kind, for he has done me a great wrong. He has accused me of many things of which I never thought. However, from someone else I will gladly suffer as much as I think I should.” Continue reading

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER XIX.

Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSULTATION

CHAPTER XIX.: True Patience in Suffering


If we have often to suffer from our neighbour, he has not the less to suffer from us. But you say: there are many things hard to bear. Well then, your merit will be the greater on that account. Grace is given to you only for the purpose of doing by its means what would be totally impossible to unaided human nature. Besides, what is there that happens to you, which God has not foreseen, which God has not willed. Patience then is only a sweet and calm submission to what He ordains, and without it we live in perpetual trouble; for who hath resisted Goa and hath had peace? (Job. 9:4). Who after that will dare to murmur, to be passionate, or to return evil for evil?

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

The Eighteenth Chapter: Temporal Sufferings Should Be Borne Patiently, After the Example of Christ

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION

The Eighteenth Chapter: Temporal Sufferings Should Be Borne Patiently, After the Example of Christ


The Voice of Christ

MY CHILD, I came down from heaven for your salvation and took upon Myself your miseries, not out of necessity but out of love, that you might learn to be patient and bear the sufferings of this life without repining. From the moment of My birth to My death on the cross, suffering did not leave Me. I suffered great want of temporal goods. Often I heard many complaints against Me. Disgrace and reviling I bore with patience. For My blessings I received ingratitude, for My miracles blasphemies, and for My teaching scorn.

The Disciple Continue reading