THE FOLLOWING OF CHRIST

BY THOMAS A KEMPIS
Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, 1941

------Book 4------

CHAPTER 8: OF THE OBLATION OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS,
AND THE RESIGNATION OF OURSELVES

The Voice of the Beloved.

As I willingly offered Myself to God the Father for thy sins, with My hands stretched out upon the Cross and My Body naked, so that nothing remained in Me which was not completely turned into a sacrifice to appease the Divine wrath; even so oughtest thou willingly to offer thyself to Me daily in the Mass, as intimately as thou canst, with thy whole energies and affections, for a pure and holy oblation.

What more do I require of thee, than that thou endeavor anew to resign thyself to Me?

Whatsoever thou givest except thyself, I regard not; for I seek not thy gift, but thyself.

2. As it would not suffice thee, if thou hadst all things except Myself, so neither can it please Me, whatever thou givest, unless thou offer Me thyself.

Offer thyself to Me, and give thy whole self for God, and thine offering shall be accepted.

Behold, I offered My whole Self to the Father for thee; I have given My whole Body and Blood for thy food, that I might be all thine, and thou mightest be always Mine.

But if thou wilt stand upon self, and not offer thyself freely to My will thy offering is not complete, nor will there be an entire union between us.

A spontaneous oblation of thyself into the hands of God ought to precede all thy works, if thou wouldst obtain liberty and grace.

For, therefore, it is that so few become illuminated and internally free, because they know not how entirely to renounce themselves. My sentence standeth sure: Unless a man renounce all that he possesseth, he cannot be My disciple.

Thou, therefore, if thou desirest to be My disciple, offer up thyself to Me with all thine affections.

PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS.

BE not of the number of those who, when they communicate, give themselves entirely to God, and immediately after, return to themselves; whose lives being a constant succession of good desires and frail relapses, are never firmly established either in the fear or love of God. It is of such souls, who are thus mean and ungenerous towards a
God Who is so prodigal of Himself towards them, that the Prophet speaks, when he says: "On account of the iniquity of his covetousness, I was angry, and I struck him; I hid My face from thee, and was angry; and he went away wandering, in the way of his own heart." (Isaias, lvii, 17)

PRAYER.

YES, O Lord, Thou art now the God of my heart, for Thou comest to take possession of it, and to give me Thyself to repose within it. Mayst Thou be such in all things and forever; mayst Thou alone be the God of my soul in time, that Thou mayst be my portion for eternity. Unite me to Thyself, by making me like to Thee: meek, humble, patient and charitable. Suffer not the union with which I am now honored to remain ineffective, like that of a dry branch with the sap of the vine, or languid, like that of a paralyzed arm with a vigorous body; but grant that it may become lively, vivifying and perpetual, like that of food with the body which it nourishes. Amen.

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