What a psychologist Thomas a Kempis was. He understood mankind from the soles of our feet to the tops of our heads. And how well he knew Our Lord. What a spiritual director he would make!
Wait a minute! His wisdom permeates every page of The Imitation of Christ. He offers us his spiritual direction from the grave (and from heaven) and we can avail ourselves of it every day. Book 4 is on the Eucharist and this is what I read this morning:
This most exalted and worthy Sacrament is the health of both soul and body, the remedy for every spiritual sickness.
By it all vices are cured, passions restrained, temptations overcome or diminished, by it grace is poured forth, confirming faith, strengthening hope, inflaming and enlarging charity.
O my God, the support of my soul, the repairer of human infirmity, and the giver of all spiritual consolation. You have given -- and frequently still give -- many blessings in this Sacrament to those beloved souls who receive You with devotion.
Many are the comforts You give them to sustain them in all their troubles; from the depths of their own misery You lift them up, giving Your elect the hope of Your protection. You renew them and enlighten them interiorly -- and with a kind of new grace -- so that those who felt anxiety and abandoned without love before Communion were changed for the better after receiving this heavenly food and drink.
All of us need to prepare well to receive Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Regular Confession prepares us to approach and receive the Bread of Life even though we know we are not worthy and confess that when we say, "Domine, non sum dignus... O Lord I am not worthy" three times before Communion. The three repetitions remind me of Jesus asking Peter, "Do you love Me?" three times on the shore of the Sea of Gallilee. And three times Peter affirms it, atoning for his three-fold denial during the passion.
How many times have I betrayed Christ?
O Lord, I am not worth that Thou should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.
My Daily Latin Missal gives short “My Imitation of Christ” quotes. Yesterday’s was this:
ReplyDelete“When thou art troubled and afflicted, THEN IS THE TIME OF MERIT. Thou must pass through fire and water before thou come to refreshment.”
Reminds me of the Scripture verse: Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.
So if everything is going great and life is easy, that may not be good for your soul.😇
Pope Francis loves The 60s Synod but he does not either recall its teachings or care to actualise some of them.
ReplyDeleteFor example Unitatis redintigrato teaches
All in the Church must preserve unity in essentials. But let all, according to the gifts they have received enjoy a proper freedom, in their various forms of spiritual life and discipline, in their different liturgical rites, and even in their theological elaborations of revealed truth.