Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
CHAPTER XVI.: We Should Show Our Needs to Christ and Ask His Grace
It is not by forcing ourselves to raise our minds to sublime thoughts, that we shall gather the fruit of the holy communion; but by adoring, full of love, Jesus Christ in us, by opening to him our hearts with great confidence and with great simplicity, as a man is wont to speak to his friend (Exodus. 33:11). We have wants; it is necessary to make them known to Him We are covered with wounds; we must show them to Him, in order that he may wash them with his divine blood. We are weak; it is necessary to beseech Him to strengthen us. We are naked, hungry and thirsty; we must say to Him: Have pity on this poor beggar. From him flow all graces; listen to his words: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me although he be dead, shall live; and every one that liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die for ever (John 11:25, 26

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