The Practices of a Good Religious
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The text discusses the characteristics of a good religious life, emphasizing the importance of inner virtue and the necessity for daily resolutions to maintain spiritual fervor. It highlights the reliance on God's grace for perseverance in religious practices and warns against carelessness in fulfilling resolutions. Additionally, it stresses the need for self-examination and the balance of personal piety with community prayer.
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The practices of a Good Religious
The Imitation of Christ
Book I – Thoughts Helpful in the Life of the Soul
The Nineteenth Chapter
• Furthermore, beware of indifference to community prayer
through love of your own devotions.
• If, however, after doing completely and faithfully all you
are bound and commanded to do, you then have leisure, use
it as personal piety suggests.
Let us try, meanwhile, to prepare ourselves better for
death.
“Blessed is the servant,” says Christ, “whom his master,
when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to
you: he shall make him ruler over all his goods.” (Luke
12: 43, 44)
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[Piety: The state or quality of being pious, especially:
religious devotion and reverence to God; devotion
and reverence to parents and family: filial piety.]
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The Practices of a Good Religious
- 1. 1 The practices of a Good Religious The Imitation of Christ Book I – Thoughts Helpful in the Life of the Soul The Nineteenth Chapter The Practices of a Good Religious The life of a good religious ought to abound in every virtue so that he is interiorly what to others he appears to be. • With good reason there ought to be much more within than appears on the outside, for He who sees within is God, Whom we ought to reverence most highly wherever we are and in Whose sight we ought to walk pure as the angels. Each day we ought to renew our resolutions and arouse ourselves to fervor as though it were the first day of our religious life. • We ought to say: “Help me, O Lord God, in my good resolution and in Your holy service. Grant me now, this very day, to begin perfectly, for thus far I have done nothing.” As our intention is, so will be our progress; and he who desires perfection must be very diligent. • If the strong-willed man fails frequently, what of the man who makes up his mind seldom or half-heartedly? • Many are the ways of failing in our resolutions; even a slight omission of religious practice entails a loss of some kind. Just men depend on the grace of God rather than on their own wisdom in keeping their resolutions. In Him they confide every undertaking, for man, indeed, proposes but God disposes, and God’s way is not that of man.
- 2. 2 The practices of a Good Religious The Imitation of Christ Book I – Thoughts Helpful in the Life of the Soul The Nineteenth Chapter • If a habitual exercise is sometimes omitted out of piety or in the interests of another, it can easily be resumed later. • But if it be abandoned carelessly, through weariness or neglect, then the fault is great and will prove hurtful. • Much as we try, we still fail too easily in many things. Yet we must always have some fixed purpose, especially against things which beset us the most. • Our outward and inward lives alike must be closely watched and well ordered, for both are important to perfection. If you cannot recollect yourself continuously, do so once a day at least, in the morning or in the evening. • In the morning make a resolution and in the evening examine yourself on what you have said this day, what you have done and thought, for in these things perhaps you have often offended God and those about you. Arm yourself like a man against the devil’s assaults. Curb your appetite and you will more easily curb every inclination of the flesh. • Never be completely unoccupied, but read or write or pray or meditate or do something for the common good. • Bodily discipline, however, must be undertaken with discretion and is not to be practiced indiscriminately by everyone. Devotions not common to all are not to be displayed in public, for such personal things are better performed in private.
- 3. 3 The practices of a Good Religious The Imitation of Christ Book I – Thoughts Helpful in the Life of the Soul The Nineteenth Chapter • Furthermore, beware of indifference to community prayer through love of your own devotions. • If, however, after doing completely and faithfully all you are bound and commanded to do, you then have leisure, use it as personal piety suggests. Let us try, meanwhile, to prepare ourselves better for death. “Blessed is the servant,” says Christ, “whom his master, when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you: he shall make him ruler over all his goods.” (Luke 12: 43, 44) ******* [Piety: The state or quality of being pious, especially: religious devotion and reverence to God; devotion and reverence to parents and family: filial piety.] *******