MY IMITATION OF CHRIST

Thomas à Kempis

Introduction

Translated from the Latin into modern English, the aim was to achieve a simple, readable text which would ring true to those who are already lovers of this incomparable book and would attract others to it. For this reason we have attempted to render the text into English as it is spoken today rather than the cloudy, archaic terminology that encumbers so many translations of Christian classics. The result, we feel, has achieved a directness and conciseness which will meet the approval of modern readers. In the second place, we have made use of the familiar paragraph form, doing away with the simple statement or verse form of the original and of many translations. This was done in the interest of easier reading, and in order to bring out more clearly the connection between the single statements.

No claim of literary excellence over the many English versions now extant is here advanced, nor any attempt to solve in further confusion the problem of the book's authorship. Theories most popular at the moment ascribe  two or three men, members of the Brethren of the Common Life, an association of priests organized in the Netherlands in the latter half of the fourteenth century. That Thomas Hemerken of Kempen, or Thomas á Kempis as he is now known, later translated a composite of their writings, essentially a spiritual diary, from the original Netherlandish into Latin is generally admitted by scholars. This Thomas, born about the year 1380, was educated by the Brethren of the Common Life, was moved to join their community, and was ordained priest. His career thereafter was devoted to practicing the counsels of spiritual perfection and to copying books for the schools. From both pursuits evolved the spiritual work. As editor and translator he was not without faults, but thanks to him the book  became and has remained, after the Bible, the most widely read book in the world.

It is his edition that is here rendered into English, without deletion of chapters or parts of them because doubts exist as to their authorship, or because of variants in style, or for any of the other more or less valid reasons. There is but one major change. The treatise on Holy Communion, which Kempis places as Book Three, is here titled Book Four. The move makes the order of the whole more logical and agrees with the thought of most editors. The Translators are Aloysius Croft and Harold Bolton.

CONTENTS

BOOK ONE.
THOUGHTS HELPFUL IN THE LIFE OF THE SOUL

BOOK TWO.
THE INTERIOR LIFE

BOOK THREE.
INTERNAL CONSOLATION

BOOK FOUR.
AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION

ENDNOTES

[1] John 8:12. [2] Eccles. 1:8. [3] Job 7:1. [4] Luke 12:43, 44. [5] Ps. 79:6. [6] Ps. 24:17. [7] Ps. 36:3. [8] Luke 17:21. [9] John 14:23. [10] Isa. 48:22. [11] 2 Cor. 10:18. [12] Isa. 15:6. [13] John 11:28. [14] Ps. 29:7-12. [15] Job 7:18. [16] Apoc. 2:7. [17] Luke 17:10. [18] Ps. 24:16. [19] Matt. 16:24. [20] Matt. 25:41. [21] Luke 24:46, 26. [22] Acts 9:16. [23] Luke 9:23. [24] Ps. 84:9. [25] 1 Kings 3:9. [26] Ps. 118:125. [27] Ps. 118:36. [28] Deut. 32:2. [29] Exod. 20:19. [30] John 6:69. [31] Ps. 93:12. [32] Isa. 23:4. [33] Ps. 36:4. [34] John 14:27. [35] Ps. 54:7. [36] Apoc. 3:18. [37] Matt. 16:41. [38] St. Agatha. [39] Peter 2:11. [40] Ps. 118:137. [41] Ps. 18:10. [42] Matt. 18:3, 4. [43] Matt. 11:28. [44] John 6:52. [45] 1 Cor. 11:24. [46] John 6:57. [47] John 6:64. [48] Matt. 11:28. [49] Matt. 15:32. [50] Ezek. 33:11. [51] Luke 14:33. [52] Luke 1:38. [53] John 3:29.

SOURCE:  HUMAN LIFE INTERNATIONAL: PRO-LIFE LIBRARY/COMPACT DISC.   HLI WEB SITE:  http://www.hli.org

How to Use This Book

Like the Bible and the missal, the Imitation of Christ is never finished.  We can never say:  "I have finished the Imitation --- what's next?"  Like a prayer, it goes on and on.  Over the years it grow richer, and new vistas of help and hope are opened with every reading.

But the Imitation must be taken in little doses.  It is so rich that gulps at a time could cause spiritual indigestion.  A page a day is sufficient to strengthen the soul each twenty-four hours.

Your "page a day" must be read slowly, to permit each word and each grace to penetrate the blood stream of the soul.  There are spiritual vitamins in each page for those who read each page very slowly.

The Imitation of Christ is the most universal of books; it is written for all and satisfies all.  For the mystics, it is mystical, and for the ascetics it is ascetical.  The learned call it a classic, and the simple call it "the grandest book I've ever read."  The Imitation satisfies every longing as water satisfies every thirst.

When it is read under the piercing light of the Holy Ghost, the Imitation of Christ receives a pwer that forces its message deeper into the soul.  The Holy Ghost should be invoked before every reading.  Just the words "Come, Holy Ghost," are sufficient.  He needs only an invitation and He comes with His light and guidance ---with a spiritual blast of penetration and realization that shocks the soul into a new and better way of living.  The Holy Ghost is the "Master Mind" behind this little book.  When called upon, He comes forth from the words with a power that stumps the worldly wise.

It is good to hear of  those who are giving the Imitation of Christ as graduation presents and goodwill gifts; those who are passing them out to employees, Catholic and non-Catholic alike; those who are checking the public libraries and offering them new and attractive editons; those who are placing them on church pamphlet racks and in the down-town book stores; and those who are willing to direct their form of Catholic Action to "talking up" this greatest of spiritual books.

Those who have never read the Imitation of Christ have a new experience awating them.  Those who have read it have a renewed experience in store--an experience that should become so much a part of their lives that death will be only the blending of the Imitaiton of Christ into the possesion of Christ for all eternity in Heaven.

                                                                    Rev. B. J. O'Brien

(Excerpt from Information Magazine)