The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis

Author:Thomas A Kempis
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Classic Literature, Christian Ministry, Meditations, Christian Life, Christianity, Literature & the Arts, Devotional, Religion, Discipleship, Spiritual Growth
ISBN: 9780883689578
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2005-02-28T22:00:00+00:00

BOOK FOUR

AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION

The Voice of Christ

COME to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. [45] The bread which I will give is My Flesh, for the life of the world. [46] Take you and eat: this is My Body, which shall be delivered for you. Do this for the commemoration of Me. [47] He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him. [48] The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” [49]

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The First Chapter

The Great Reverence With Which We Should Receive Christ The Disciple

THESE are all Your words, O Christ, eternal Truth, though they were not all spoken at one time nor written together in one place. And because they are Yours and true, I must accept them all with faith and gratitude. They are Yours and You have spoken them; they are mine also because You have spoken them for my salvation. Gladly I accept them from Your lips that they may be the more deeply impressed in my heart.

Words of such tenderness, so full of sweetness and love, encourage me; but my sins frighten me and an unclean conscience thunders at me when approaching such great mysteries as these. The sweetness of Your words invites me, but the multitude of my vices oppresses me.

You command me to approach You confidently if I wish to have part with You, and to receive the food of immortality if I desire to obtain life and glory everlasting.

“Come to me,” You say, “all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” [50]

Oh, how sweet and kind to the ear of the sinner is the word by which You, my Lord God, invite the poor and needy to receive Your most holy Body! Who am I, Lord, that I should presume to approach You? Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, and yet You say: “Come, all of you, to Me.”

What means this most gracious honor and this friendly invitation? How shall I dare to come, I who am conscious of no good on which to presume? How shall I lead You into my house, I who have so often offended in Your most kindly sight? Angels and archangels revere You, the holy and the just fear You, and You say: “Come to Me: all of you!”

If You, Lord, had not said it, who would have believed it to be true?

And if You had not commanded, who would dare approach?

Behold, Noah, a just man, worked a hundred years building the ark that he and a few others might be saved; how, then, can I prepare myself in one hour to receive with reverence the Maker of the world?

Moses, Your great servant and special friend, made an ark of incorruptible wood which he covered with purest gold wherein to place the tables of Your law; shall I, a creature of corruption, dare so easily to receive You, the Maker of

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