My Imitation of Christ (Thomas à Kempis) - Loving the Cross

Jesus has now many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few who are willing to bear His cross.
He has many who are desirous of comfort, but few of tribulation.
All desire to rejoice with Him, few are willing to suffer with Him.
Many praise Him and bless Him as long as they receive consolation from Him.
But if Jesus hide Himself, and leave them for a little while, they either fall into complaints or excessive dejection.

But they who love Jesus for Jesus' sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him no less in tribulation and anguish of heart than in the greatest consolation.

Oh, how much is the pure love of Jesus able to do when it is not mixed with any self-interest or self-love.

Seldom do we find any one so spiritual as to be stripped of all things.

Yet no one is indeed richer than such a man, none more powerful, none more free, who knows how to leave himself and all things, and place himself in the very lowest place.

To many this seems a hard saying: "Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow Me." (Mt 16:24, Mk 8:34, Lk 9:23)
But it will be much harder to hear that last word: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." (Mt 25:41)

All the servants of the cross, who in their lifetime have conformed themselves to the Crucified, shall come to Christ their judge with great confidence.
Why then are thou afraid to take up thy cross, which leads to the kingdom?

In the cross is salvation; in the cross is life; in the cross is protection from thy enemies.
In the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the cross is strength of mind; in the cross is joy of spirit.
In the cross is height of virtue; in the cross is the perfection of sanctity.
There is no health of soul nor hope of eternal life but in the cross.

If thou die with Him thou shalt also live with Him, and if thou are His companion in suffering thou shalt also partake in His glory (2 Cor. 1:7).

Behold the cross is all, and in dying to thyself all consists, and there is no other way to life and to true internal peace but the holy way of the cross and of daily mortification.

For either thou shalt feel pain in the body, or sustain in thy soul tribulation of spirit.
Sometimes thou shalt be left by God, other times thou shalt be afflicted by thy neighbor, and what is more, thou shalt often be a trouble to thyself.

God would have thee learn to suffer tribulation without comfort, and wholly to submit thyself to Him, and to become more humble by thy tribulation.
Thou canst not escape the cross, whithersoever thou runnest; for whithersoever thou goest thou carriest thyself with thee and shalt always find thyself.

And everywhere thou must of necessity have patience, if thou desirest inward peace and wouldst merit an eternal crown.

If thou carry the cross willingly, it will carry thee and bring thee to thy desired end; namely, to that place where there will be an end of suffering, though here there will be no end.
If thou carry it unwillingly, thou makest it a burden to thee and loadest thyself the more, and nevertheless thou must bear it.
If thou fling away one cross and loadest thyself the more, thou shalt find another and perhaps a heavier [cross].

What saint was there ever in the world without his cross and affliction?
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and dost thou seek rest and joy?

Thou errest, thou errest, if thou seekest any other thing than to suffer tribulations; for this whole mortal life is full of miseries and best on all sides with crosses.

[A man advanced in spirit] is not without some comfort, because he is sensible to the great profit which he reaps by bearing the cross.
The more the flesh is brought down by affliction, the more the spirit is strengthened by inward grace.

To bear the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body, and bring it under subjection; to fly honors, to be willing to suffer reproaches; to despise one's self and wish to be despised; to bear all adversities and losses, and to desire no prosperity in this world, are not according to man's natural inclination.

But if thou confide in the Lord, strength will be given thee from heaven and the world and the flesh shall be made subject to thee.

Neither shalt thou fear thine enemy, the devil, if thou be armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ.

Prepare thyself to suffer many adversities and different evils in this miserable life; for so it will be with thee wherever thou art, and so indeed wilt thou find it wheresoever thou mayst hide thyself.

Drink of the chalice of the Lord lovingly if thou desire to be His friend and to have part with Him (Mt 20:22).

The sufferings of this life bear no proportion to the glory to come (Rom. 8:18), although thou alone couldst suffer them all.

As long as suffering appear grievous to thee and thou seek to fly from it, will it be ill with thee, and the tribulation from which thou fliest will everywhere follow thee.
[But] if thou set thyself to what thou oughtst, that is, to suffer and die to thyself, it will quickly be beter with thee and thou shalt find peace.

"I," said Jesus, "will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name." (Acts. 9:16)

All recommend patience, but alas! how few there are that desire to suffer.
Know for certain that thou must lead a dying life, and the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live to God.
No man is fit to comprehend heavenly things who has not resigned himself to suffer adversities for Christ.

Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more wholesome for thee in this world, than to suffer willingly for Christ.

If thou wert to choose, thou oughtst to wish rather to suffer adversities for Christ than to be delighted with many comforts, because thou wouldst thus be more like unto Christ and more comformable to all the saints.

If, indeed, there had been anything better and more beneficial to a man's salvation than suffering, Christ certainly would have showed it by word and example.

So that when we have read and searched all, let this be the final conclusion, that "through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God." (Acts 14:21)

My Imitation of Christ (Thomas à Kempis) - A Prayer to Cleanse the Heart and Obtain Heavenly Wisdom

Confirm me, O God, by the grace of Thy Holy Spirit.

Give me power to be strengthened in the inward man and to cat out of my heart all unprofitable care and trouble; let me knot be drawn away with various desires of anything whatsoever, whether it be of little or great value; but teach me to look upon all things as passing away and myself as passing along with them.

For nothing is lasting under the sun where all is vanity and affliction of spirit (Eccles. 2:11). Oh, how wise is he who considers things in this manner!

Give me, O Lord, heavenly wisdom that I may learn above all things to seek Thee and to find Thee (Wis. 9:10); above all things to relish Thee, and to love Thee, and to understand all other things as they are, according to the order of Thy wisdom.

Grant that I may prudently avoid him that flatters me and patiently bear with him that contradicts me.
For it is great wisdom not to be moved with every wind of words, nor to give ear to the wicked, flattering siren; for thus shall we go on securely in the way we have begun.

St. John Chrysostom on Becoming Justifiably Irate

Only the person who becomes irate without reason, sins. Whoever becomes irate for a just reason is not guilty. Because, if ire were lacking, the science of God would not progress, judgments would not be sound, and crimes would not be repressed.

Further, the person who does not become irate when he has cause to be, sins. For an unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices: it fosters negligence, and stimulates not only the wicked, but above all the good, to do wrong. 

St. Francis de Sales: "Call a Wolf a Wolf"

The declared enemies of God and His Church, heretics and schismatics, must be criticized as much as possible, as long as truth is not denied.

It is a work of charity to shout: "Here is the wolf!" when it enters the flock or anywhere else.

St. Gertrude on "Being a Party to Evil"

Reading those words, “Where is Abel, your brother?” (Gen 4: 9), St. Gertrude understood that God will ask an account of each religious for the faults that his religious brothers committed against the Rule, because those faults could have been prevented had either the brother at fault or the Abbot been warned. The excuses of some – “I am not in charge of correcting my brother” or “I am worse than him” – will not receive a better welcome by God than those words of Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4: 9). 

For, before the Lord each man is obliged to avert his brother from the bad path and exhort him to the good. In this regard, when someone is negligent in listening to the voice of his conscience, he always sins against God. He cannot give the excuse that he does not have the duty to correct his brother, because his conscience is his witness that God is calling him to do so. If he neglects this duty, he will have to give an account for it, and perhaps he more than the superior, who may have been absent or did not notice the fault. 

From this comes that threat: “Woe to him who does evil. Woe to him twice who is complacent with it” – Vae faciendi, vae, vae consentienti. It is evident that the one who remains silent about a fault is complacent with it, since a few words from him would suffice to prevent an offense to the glory of God. 

Sermons of the Curé D'Ars: On Heresy and Unbelief

My dear brethren,

            Among the reproaches charged against the Church by her enemies, there are two which contradict each other. Heresy reproaches her with making new doctrines, and that for this reason she is no longer the Church of Christ. Unbelief, on the other hand, steadfastly holds to the doctrines of her origin; that she must, therefore, be obstinate and an enemy to progress. Both are unjust reproaches. For it is not the Catholic Church which has departed from the teaching of Christ. She has added nothing new, but heresy has rejected many of the teachings and means of grace of Christ, which she continues to preach. The Church is not an enemy to progress, but she is an enemy to a return into the darkness of paganism, of vice, and of the gross ignorance of religious things, which she would countenance if she turned her back upon the light of the Gospel, if she rejected the teachings of divine revelation, as unbelief wants her to do. That the Church knows of a progress is taught by her divine founder Himself in today's Gospel in these words: "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, He will teach you all truth."

            Not a word of divine revelation has been rejected or changed by the Church; we will neither reject, nor be deprived of, a syllable of it. But for progress away from heresy and unbelief, which are a step backward from light into darkness, we are grateful. We willingly commit ourselves to the guidance of the Church, wherein the Holy Ghost fulfills the promises of Christ: "But when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth, He shall glorify me; because He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it to you." Let us allow ourselves to be conducted by the hand of the Church through this Holy Spirit ever deeper into the truths of faith; there we shall find contentment and joy, until faith is at last changed into the vision of God face to face. Amen.