Moments with the consoling Christ/Preface
FOREWORD
DURING the last five centuries men and women, weighed down with the cares of fife, have gathered strength and courage and comfort by reflecting on the thoughts of Thomas a Kempis. So personal is the message which his writings convey that, open them where you will, the passage that first meets the eye seems to be singularly suited to the needs of each individual soul.
With the philosophy, reflections and quotations in the works of this ascetical writer are interwoven beautiful prayers, concealed like hidden treasures, just as in Holy Scripture the prayers which so effectively touched the Heart of Christ when He was on earth are sometimes lost sight of, surrounded as they are by the vivid descriptions and striking illustrations of the Sacred Text.
Doctor Dillon has collected the prayers of a Kempis and arranged them under well-chosen titles into this little volume. The words of the text have not been altered. Hence their solidity and efficacy remain.
At no time in the history of the world has prayer been more urgent and imperative. In attendance at Mass, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, preparation and thanksgiving for Confession and Communion, the use of this prayer book will do much to increase fervor and devotion. And when difficulties perplex, temptations assail and sorrow overwhelms, I am confident that troubled souls will find adequate expression of their spiritual wants in "Moments with the Consoling Christ."
✠ John J. O'Connor
Bishop of Newark
Feast of All Saints
1918