Thomas à Kempis
Born about 1380
When Jesus is near, all is
well and nothing seems difficult. When He is absent, all is hard. When Jesus
does not speak within, all other comfort is empty, but if He says only a word,
it brings great consolation.
Did not Mary
Magdalen rise at once from her weeping when Martha said to her: “The Master is
come, and calleth for thee?” Happy is the hour when Jesus calls one from tears
to joy of spirit.
How dry and hard
you are without Jesus? How foolish and vain if you desire anything but Him! Is
it not a greater loss than losing the whole world? For what, without Jesus, can
the world give you? Life without Him is relentless hell, but living with Him is
a sweet paradise. If Jesus be with you, no enemy can harm you.
He who finds
Jesus finds a rare treasure, indeed, a good above every good, whereas he who
loses Him loses more than the whole world. The man who lives without Jesus is
the poorest of the poor, whereas no one is so rich as the man who lives in His
grace.
It is a great
art to know how to converse with Jesus, and great wisdom to know how to keep
Him. Be humble and peaceful, and Jesus will be with you. Be devout and calm,
and He will remain with you. You may quickly drive Him away and lose His grace,
if you turn back to the outside world. And, if you drive Him away and lose Him,
to whom will you go and whom will you then seek as a friend?
You cannot live
well without a friend, and if Jesus be not your friend above all else, you will
be very sad and desolate. Thus, you are acting foolishly if you trust or
rejoice in any other.
Choose the
oppositio0n of the whole world rather than offend Jesus. Of all those who are
dear to you, let Him be your special love.
Let all things
be loved for the sake of Jesus, but Jesus for His own sake.
Jesus Christ
must be loved alone with a special love for He alone, of all friends, is good
and faithful. For Him and in Him you must love friends and foes alike, and pry
to Him that all may know and love Him.
Never desire
special praise or love, for that belongs to God alone Who has no equal. Never
wish that anyone’s affection be centered in you, not let yourself be taken up
with the love of anyone, but let Jesus be in you and in every good man. Be pure
and free within, unentangled with any creature.
You must bring
to God a clean and open heart if you wish to attend and see how sweet the Lord
is. Truly you will never attain this happiness unless His grace prepares you
and draws you on so that you may forsake all things to be united with Him
alone.
When the grace
of God comes to a man he can do a lot things, but when it leaves him he becomes
poor and weak, abandoned, as it were, to affliction. Yet, in this condition he
should not become dejected or despair. On the contrary, he should calmly await
the will of God and beat whatever befalls him in praise of Jesus Christ, for
after winter comes summer, after night, the day, and after the storm, the great
calm.
The Netherlands
Translated by Aloysius Croft and Harold
Bolton
A complete and unabridged edition of The
Imitation of Christ – 139 pp – may be obtained for $2.50 plus shipping from
the publisher
Mineola, New York
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sponsored by
The Tom
Shepherd World Educational Foundation