The King of Hearts Wantts to Talk with You

THE SECOND BOOK OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
ADMONITIONS CONCERNING THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER I: Of the Interior Conversation

“The kingdom of God is within you,”(Lk 17:21) says the Lord. Turn


Jesus and the Rich Young Man

 with all your heart to the Lord and forsake this miserable world, and you shall find rest unto your soul (Joel 2:12 &tc). Learn to despise outward things and to give yourself to things inward, and you shall see the kingdom of God come within you. For the kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and it is not given to  the wicked. Christ will come to you, and show you His consolation, if you prepare a worthy mansion for Him within you. All His glory and beauty is from within, and there it pleases Him to dwell. He often visits the inward disciple and holds there sweet discourse, giving soothing consolation, much peace, and exceedingly wonderful friendship.

Abraham is Visited by Angels

2. Go then, faithful soul, prepare your heart for the Bridegroom that He may safely to come to you and dwell within you, for so He says, if any love me and will keep my words: “my Father will love you, and we will come to you and make our abode with you.”(Jn 14:23) Give, therefore,  primary place to Christ and refuse entrance to all others. When you have Christ, you are rich, and have fulfillment. Christ shall be your provider and faithful watchman in all things, so that you have no need to trust in others, for they will soon change and swiftly pass away, but Christ remains forever and stands by us firmly even to the end.

Commentary:
In this second book, Thomas opens with a bold statement that the Kingdom of God is within us. We really have no excuses as The Lord has revealed Himself to us through the Natural Law, through our ethical inclinations, through the goodness we see in each other. So Thomas calls us to listen closely to what the Spirit of The Lord is telling us. Turn down the noise of the world.


Like Abraham, God will visit us at our very homes, both figurative and literal. We have to invite Him in.  Go ahead and put up the crucifix, a holy water fountain, a picture of some sacred scene from the Bible.  Put the Bible out in a place of honor....then read it!

Clean out your house by going to Confession.  How much more intimate can you get than telling God of your heavy heart and then receiving Holy Communion? Jesus is the King of Hearts!

My prayer for us during this Year of Faith is that we look to these two key Sacraments to strenghthen us on our journey, our pilgrimage (click here for the plenary indulgence offered in conjunction with the Year of Faith). 

Until next time, be Imitators of Christ!
tim

I Am The Way: Book II of The Imitation of Christ

I AM THE WAY

Book II of The Imitation of Christ
Admonitions Concerning Interior Things

An Overview:
This book is the shortest of the four, but no less important.  We've just finished Book One, where we got a grip on sorting through our vanities, the world, and what it means to seek God's Will as His follower.  In fact the last chapter was on amending our lives through facing our more sinful propensities and then turning these propensities into moments of self-conversion.  Usually this is accomplished more readily by service to God by service to others.

In short, Book One got us on the right path.  Book One got us into answering the question "What must I do to be a follower of Christ?" In Thomas' world, book one got us into the abbey as an acolyte.

In Book Two, Thomas will ask us to look deeper into our very soul for interior conversation and conversion ("The Kingdom of God is within you!" Lk 17:21).

Now that we've rejected the world out-right, Book Two deals with our self-submission, peacefulness, purity, self consideration, having a good conscience, loving Jesus, befriending Jesus, desiring grace over comfort, and being grateful for that grace. 

At the end of Book Two, Thomas talks about the small numbers of those who love the cross of Christ, and then deals with this notion by examining the Royal Way of the Cross. (During Lent, we will take a detour and use these two chapters in our meditations on the Way of the Cross).

From here we progress to Book Three on Interior Consolation, which is the longest book, and for good reason. Book Four will examine the Holy Eucharist.

But for now, we will turn our attention to Book Two and see what we can find out about how we are going to turn our hearts over to Him, who is Love. 

In this book, we will resolve to subdue our senses and get rid of the vain distractions of mind and body and spirit.  We will learn to open the door to The Spirit, to guard our heart from those things that do not promote the love of Christ within us.  And as we imitate Him in embracing our cross, we will learn to walk the royal way of the cross.

Until next time, when we will look at Chapter One, thank you for reading and praying along with me.

Be imitators of Christ!  Especially as we walk deeper through Advent toward Christmas.
tim

Crayons in Hell

A little off the beaten path today:  a huge shout out to the "artist" who created this year's cover to our 2013 Missal (http://www.ocp.org/products/BB-P).

It's so awful, it looks like a second grade crayon-on-wax-paper-melt gone bad. Or, think of it as Crayons in Hell.

One of the comments on the FB page discussing this was that it looked "Like the skull out of a Santeria ritual"

What is wrong with the beautiful art which eminates from the Church's 2000 year history?



Adoration: DaVinci



The Nativity: El Greco

 Inspirational, faith-based art is supposed to be both true and beautiful.  According to Peter Kreeft, one of the many ways to know God is through beauty, as typically expressed in art - be that musical or visual (e.g., There is the music of Mozart, therefore, there must be a God.  There is the art of DaVinci or El Greco, therefore, there must be a God.)

I can think of many pieces of art that could've been used instead of the crayon puke in a blender, shown above.

Or, perhaps an icon could've been used, or a simple picture of the Eucharist in the Monstrance, to remind us of the source and summit of our Faith.  The point is, OCP, quit trying to be edgy.  Try to inspire.

Laughing Jesus

Finally, I can't help but think of an edgier picture than this one, where Jesus is laughing at us for our silly attempts to "empower" artists to think outside the frame.  What's next?  A Crucifix in a Jar of Kool-Aid?  Sorry, that's already been done, only with urine.  Sorry, I'm not going to show that!  But here's an image of Jesus laughing at us!

Until next time.  Thanks for reading and praying along with me:Yours in Christ.
tim