Of the Imitation of Christ/Book IV/Chapter VII

by Thomas à Kempis

CHAPTER VII.

OF THOROUGHLY SEARCHING OUR OWN CONSCIENCE, AND OF HOLY PURPOSE OF AMENDMENT.

BOVE all things, with very great humility and with reverential supplication, with a full faith and a dutiful regard for God's honour, God's priest ought to come to celebrate and to receive this holy sacrament.

Examine diligently thy conscience, and to the utmost of thy power purify it with true contrition and humble confession; so as there may be nothing in thee, that may be burdensome unto thee, or that may breed in thee remorse of conscience, and hinder thy free access to the throne of grace.

Be grieved at the recollection of all thy sins in general, and in particular bewail and lament thy daily transgressions.

And if thou hast time, confess unto God in the secret of thine heart the wretchedness of thy disordered passions.

2. Lament and grieve, that thou art yet so carnal and worldly, so unmortified in thy passions, so full of the motions of concupiscence:

So unwatchful over thy outward senses, so often entangled with many vain fancies:

So much inclined to outward things, so negligent in things inward and spiritual:

So prone to laughter and unbridled mirth, so indisposed to tears and compunction: So prompt to ease and pleasures of the flesh, so dull to strictness of life:

So curious to hear what is new, and to see what is beautiful, so slow to embrace what is humble and low:

So covetous of abundance, so niggardly in giving, so close in keeping:

So inconsiderate in speech, so reluctant to keep silence:

So eager about food, so deaf to the word of God:

In such a hurry to rest, so slow to labour:

So wakeful in vain talk, so drowsy at sacred services:

So hasty to arrive at the end thereof, so inclined to be wandering and inattentive:

So negligent in the prayers, so lukewarm in celebrating the holy eucharist, so dry and heartless in receiving it:

So quickly distracted, so seldom entirely collected within thyself.

So suddenly moved to anger, so apt to take displeasure against another:

So ready to judge, so severe to reprove:

So joyful in prosperity, so weak in adversity:

So often making good resolutions, and yet bringing them at last to none effect.

3. These and other thy defects being confessed and bewailed with sorrow and great displeasure at thine own infirmity, make thou a firm resolution always to amend thy life, and to endeavour always after progress in holiness.

Then with full resignation and with thy whole will do thou offer up thyself a perpetual whole burnt offering on the altar of thy heart, faithfully committing unto Me thy body and soul.

And then thou mayest be accounted worthy to draw near to celebrate this eucharistic sacrifice, and to receive profitably the sacrament of My body and blood.

4. For man hath no oblation more worthy, nor any means greater for the destroying of sin, than to offer himself unto God purely and wholly, in the holy communion of the body and blood of Christ.

And when a man shall have done what lieth in him, and shall be truly penitent, how often soever he shall come to Me for pardon and grace, "As I live," saith the Lord, "who will not the death of a sinner, but rather that he be converted and live, I will not remember his sins any more, but they shall all be forgiven him."