Since going through
TKIC (Thomas Kempis, Imitation of Christ) from a month ago, it seemed good to go through it again.
- What takes priority in your life?
- Is your heart tempted to treat good things—like knowledge, beauty, or success—as ultimate things?
- Is your peace coming only from imitating Christ?
- There is much good in the world. But is there a greater good?
- How is your soul?
- Are you living wisely?
- What do you value?
- What is your goal?
- What are your priorities?
- What is the greatest good?
- What is a greater hindrance to you than your own unmortified affection of heart (uncontrolled passions)?
Book I: Useful Advice for the Spiritual Life. [TKIC is approachable and basic.
Basic to the entire spiritual life is priorities. It is not self-centered. It tries to teach the interior life.]
- Ch. 1: Imitating Christ while disregarding the world and all its vanities. John 8:12. Our greatest attention should be given to meditating on the life of Jesus. Strive to withdraw your heart from love of visible things and set yourself on what is invisible (2 Cor 4:18). Those who follow their own sensuality stain their conscience and lose God's grace. [A virtuous life is what makes you dear to God.]
- Ch. 2: Humble self-knowledge. What is knowledge without the fear of God? Don't take delight in human praises. God will judge me by my deeds (Rom 2:6). A pure conscience affords great confidence toward God. To be useful, love not being known (to be unknown/inconspicuous) and being thought of as nothing. The most profound & helpful lesson is knowing oneself truly and thinking less of (despise) oneself. We are all weak (frail), but you will not find anyone weaker than yourself. [2 truths: who God is and who you are.]
- Ch. 3: The teaching of truth. Reading and listening to many things often wearies me. Be interiorly (inwardly) simple to understand more profound (sublime) things. Make no effort at self-seeking. Arrange internally the works you must carry out externally. Strive to defeat and conquer yourself (Prov 16:32). There is no insight of ours that does not lack some cloudiness (fuzziness). When Judgment Day comes, God will not ask what you read, but what you did. Truly great is the one who is small in himself and considers his highest honors a mere nothing. [Do you spend too much time about that which would pass away? Think more of what won't pass away.]
- Ch. 4: Prudence in actions. How prone we are to evil and loose lips. Don't be too hasty in action, or too stubborn in your own point of view. [Not every word, not every piece of information, every instinct deserves belief.]
- Ch. 5: Reading the sacred Scriptures. Don't worry about who said what. Focus instead on what it says. To make progress, read humbly, simply and faithfully. Seek truth in the holy Scriptures, not eloquence. God does not care about anyone's status. Ask questions readily and silently.
- Ch. 6: Disordered affections. Whenever you desire something in a disordered way (inordinately), you immediately become restless (dissatisfied) inside. One who is not yet perfectly dead interiorly is quickly tempted in little and trivial matters. It is by resisting the passions that one finds true peace of heart, not by serving them.
- Ch. 7: Fleeing vain hope and haughtiness. Don't take pride in riches or in powerful friends. Don't exalt yourself over how built up or attractive your body is. Don't think of yourself better than anyone else (Phil 2:3; Rom 12:10). God knows what is in you (Jn 12:25; Ps 139:23-24). God is often displeased at what we find pleasing (1 Sam 16:7). It does no harm to put yourself below everyone else. But it does much harm to place yourself above even just one other person. [Don't be obsessed with your appearance. Whatever talent or advantage you have is God's gift. Our temptation is to make gods of things God created, and especially of ourselves!]
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