Day 15: The Path to Peace (Imitation of Christ. Bk. 3. Ch. 22-25)

1. 
   Explain the 4 things that Thomas Kempis states will bring you peace: Mt 26:39; 10:10; 6:10; Lk 14:10.
2. What else will bring you peace (1 Th 5:18; Gen 32:10)? What will not (1 Jn 2:15-17)? Explain why:
• "There is no peace in the carnal man...but there is peace in the fervent and spiritual man."
• "True peace of heart is to be found in resisting passion, not in yielding to it."
3. How should you think about yourself (Gen 18:27; Job 42:6; Lk 5:8)? How should you not (Rom 12:3)? Consider:
• "I am nothing. I have nothing. I can do nothing."
• "Left to myself I am nothing (but a zero) and totally weak (abound with frailties)."
• "I am nothing other than nothing and nothing more."
4. How should you regard others (Phil 2:3-4)? What happens when you compare yourself with others (Lk 10:38-42)?
5. 
   What/Who is the source of peace (Jn 14:27; Phil 4:7)?
• "All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace."
• What will rob you of peace (Mt 6:34)? 
6. Are you overly affected by what others say about you?
• "Do not let your peace depend on the hearts of men; whatever they say about you, good or bad, you are not because of it another man, for as you are, you are."
7. Should you pry into the affairs of others (Jn 21:22)? Why (Rom 12:6ff; 1 Cor 12:11; 7:7)? Explain why:

• "We should have much more peace if we would not busy ourselves with the sayings and doings of others."
• "You do not need to answer for others but you will have to give an account for yourself."

Day 15: The Path to Peace (The Imitation of Christ. Bk. 3. Ch. 22-25).

• Ch. 22: Remembering God's many benefits. [We are leaky buckets, forgetting so easily the many great things God has done (Jas 1:17). So what if others have more benefits and blessings than you {Martha and Mary}. No one is loved more or less with more or less blessing.] I know and acknowledge that I cannot even give you due praise and thanks for even the smallest instance. I am less than all the goods you have given me (Gen 32:10). The one who thinks of himself as less noble than everyone else and judges himself less deserving is more suited to receive greater gifts. As for the person who has received fewer gifts, he should not be saddened nor indignant nor envious of someone who has more. Instead he should focus on You and praise Your goodness. Everything is from You and so You must be praised in everything. Readily will to be the least, just as others prefer to be the greatest. Find peace and contentment in the last place, as if it were the first, and as ready to be despised and outcast, anonymous and unknown. Your will and the love of Your honor ought to surpass everything and be a greater consolation and pleasure to him than all the benefits he has been given or ever will be.

Ch. 23: 4 things that bring peace.

1. Be eager to do another's will rather than your own (Mt 26:39).
2. Always choose to have less instead of more (Mt 10:10).
3. Always seek the lower place and try to be beneath everyone else (Lk 14:10).
4. Always desire and pray that God's will be done in you (Mt 6:10).

This is the kind of person who enters the realm of peace and rest. If I could faithfully keep these words of yours a sense of trouble would not have to arise within me so easily. For whenever I find myself aggrieved and without peace, I discovered that I have strayed from this teaching. Patiently wait for Your consolation. Evict all darkness from the dwelling place of my heart. Break their power to do me harm. Drive out the evil (wicked) beasts, which is what I call lustful desires (seductive sensual desires) that peace may be within Your walls and abundance of praise resound in Your holy temple that is in a pure conscience. Raise up a mind crushed with a millstone of sins and lift all my desiring up to the things of heaven that having tasted the sweetness of the happiness that is on high, I may be ashamed even to think of earthly things. Grab me and seize (deliver) me from every (all) fleeting consolation of created things, since no creature can fully satisfy my desires and bring me consolation.

• Ch. 24: Avoid prying into the lives of others. Do not be a busybody or harbor pointless concerns. You do not need to answer for others but you will have to give an account for yourself (Jn 21:22). Everything should be entrusted to Me. (To desire) being known by many or being especially loved by people causes distractions and magnify the heart's dark places.

• Ch. 25: What steadfast peace of heart and true progress consist of. Everyone desires peace but not everyone cares about what belongs to true peace (Jn 14:27). Focus on yourself in every matter, what you are doing, what you are saying. Do not think you have found true peace if you have not experienced any burdens. (Perfection consists of) offering yourself to the Divine Will with your whole heart...such that you may remain constant in thanksgiving without even a change of expression on your face in good times and bad. Find your justification in Me according to everything that happens in my Providence and praise Me as holy. If you reach the point of fully despising yourself, know that then you will enjoy as much peace as possible. [Serenity prayer.]

Peace begins when we fix our hearts on Christ. Always remember God’s blessings in your life and guard your heart from comparison and distraction.