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Posted on 09/21/2007 6:50:49 AM PDT by Salvation
Monastic Life - Imitation of Christ
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IF YOU wish peace and concord with others, you must learn to break your will in many things. To live in monasteries or religious communities, to remain there without complaint, and to persevere faithfully till death is no small matter. Blessed indeed is he who there lives a good life and there ends his days in happiness.
If you would persevere in seeking perfection, you must consider yourself a pilgrim, an exile on earth. If you would become a religious, you must be content to seem a fool for the sake of Jesus Christ. Habit and tonsure change a man but little; it is the change of life, the complete mortification of passions that endow a true religious. He who seeks anything but God alone and the salvation of his soul will find only trouble and grief, and he who does not try to become the least, the servant of all, cannot remain at peace for long. You have come to serve, not to rule. You must understand, too, that you have been called to suffer and to work, not to idle and gossip away your time. Here men are tried as gold in a furnace. Here no man can remain unless he desires with all his heart to humble himself before God. |
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Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Imitation of Christ Devotional Ping List.
Also, many Protestants have asked me to put them on this ping list. I have gladly done so, and will add your name also if you FReepmail me. I reassure you that will not get all the Catholic pings.
Absolutely no flaming! These daily threads are intended to be devotional in nature. If a particular day's offering says nothing to you, please just go on and wait for the next day. Consider these threads a DMZ of sorts, a place where a perpetual truce is in effect and a place where all other arguments and disagreements from other times and places are left behind.
I can attest from personal experience (Salvation's) that reading from Imitation of Christ daily will almost certainly change - not one's faith - but one's perspective of his/her own faith, and open up new vistas in your spiritual life. If - when - this happens to a reader of these threads, and they choose to share what has happened within them - we are treading on hallowed ground. Be respectful.
- Religion Moderator
THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
BY
THOMAS KEMPIS
A very powerful spiritual guidance for the soul who seeks to imitate Jesus Christ.
Learn from me, because I am meek and humble of heart. Mat. 11:29
Oops. I see that I forgot the word [Devotional] at the end of the title. Could you please add it.
I appreciate your work in dealing with my inconsistencies.
**Habit and tonsure change a man but little; it is the change of life, the complete mortification of passions that endow a true religious. **
So true, as we have witnessed recently.
I know sometimes people think I am a fool. What difference does it make to me? What difference does it make to God?
Very interesting, usually, because I have done nothing on purpose to offend that person or those persons.
Monastic life? No thanks.
I totally understand, but there are a lot of married people out there who are members of a Third Order. Don’t know if there is a thread somewhere on it of FR. I’ll look later.
Must go now. Thanks for your two cents.
This is an excellent point. As busy as life can get nowadays, we sometimes forget the real reason Christ put us here.
“...you must consider yourself a pilgrim, an exile on earth.”
Good words for anyone who wishes to retain sanity in this insane place.
I really think that all Christians will be looking at themselves as “spat upon”, dishonored, exiled on this earth.
Our reward will be in heaven, whether priest, religious, monk, single or married.
A lot of people can concentrate on the work, can’t they. But the thing that we don’t want to accept is suffering. Yet all the saints suffered.
In all the apparitions, Mary tells the children that they will suffer on this earth and receive their reward in heaven.
Imitation of Christ: 1, 7, Avoiding False Hope and Pride [Devotional]
Imitation of Christ: 1, 8, Shunning Over- Familiarity [Devotional]
Imitation of Christ: 1, 9, Obedience and Subjection [Devotional]
Imitation of Christ: 1, 10, Avoiding Idle Talk [Devotional]
Imitation of Christ: 1, 11, Acquiring Peace and Zeal for Perfection [Devotional]
Imitation of Christ: 1, 12, The Value of Adversity [Devotional]
Imitation of Christ: 1, 13, Resisting Temptation [Devotional]
Imitation of Christ: 1. 14, Avoiding Rash Judgment [Devotional]
Imitation of Christ: 1, 15, Works Done in Charity [Devotional]
Imitation of Christ: 1, 16, Bearing With the Faults of Others [Devotional]
Imitation of Christ: 1. 17, Monastic Life [Devotional]
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