Friday, February 20, 2015

Of not troubling ourselves about outward things. The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis. Book 3, Chapter 44


BOOK 3: THE INWARD SPEAKING OF CHRIST TO A FAITHFUL SOUL

Chapter 44: Of not troubling ourselves about outward things.



“My Son, in many things it behooveth thee to be ignorant, and to
esteem thyself as one dead upon the earth, and as one to whom the
whole world is crucified. Many things also thou must pass by
with deaf ear, and must rather think upon those things which
belong unto thy peace. It is more profitable to turn away thine
eyes from those things that displease, and to leave each man to
his own opinion, than to give thyself to discourses of strife.
If thou stand well with God and hast His judgment in thy mind,
thou wilt verily easily bear to be as one conquered.”
O Lord, to what have we come? Behold a temporal loss is
mourned over; for a trifling gain we labour and hurry; and
spiritual loss passeth away into forgetfulness, and we rarely
recover it. That which profiteth little or nothing is looked
after, and that which is altogether necessary is negligently
passed by; because the whole man slideth away to outward things,
and unless he quickly recovereth himself in outward things he
willingly lieth down.




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