Saturday Morning in June
It is a beautiful day outside. It will be a hot one. I have a summertime
cough and cold so I feel terrible. Hope I get to feeling better soon.
Someone gave me an old copy of Imitation of Christ and I am enjoying
reading it. I remember the first copy of that book I ever bought. It was
on our honeymoon in Bilouxi, Mississippi, over 38 years ago.
What about you? Do you have a treasured book? What is it?
Now the latest from Father Burns......
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"For if I am to love truly and freely, I must be able to give something
that is truly my own to another. If my heart does not first belong to
me, how can I give it to another? It is not mine to give!"
(NO MAN IS AN ISLAND, page 28)
Why is love so often so difficult to define and understand?
Wayne Burns
posted by Dan Phillips @ 9:23 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
IMITATION OF CHRIST.......My copy goes back to my Army days(1950-1953) and is signed by my dear mother. I like to open it daily for it ALWAYS says something to me that I need to hear. A favorite quote from the Imitation: "A loud cry in the ear of God is the soul that ardently seeks Him"
DIFFICULT TO DEFINE..........Love, so hard to tie up in a little box called 'definition.' Perhaps this is so because love takes on many different forms. Like the melted wax conforms to the mould into which it is poured, so in the lives of the Saints, we see charity expressed in varied ways...they responded with great love to the situation and times that they found themselves in. 'And Thy will be done,Thy kingdom come...'
TRUE STORY............About the Imitation of Christ, if you open it just at random, it almost always has a message that fits where you are right then. One time, I was reading the Imitation in a restaurant booth and the waitress was curious about that little book. I told her about how you open it and the first passage hits you and fits you. Try it. She closed the bok and opened at random. Read the first words that you see. "We would have much peace if we did not bother ourselves so much over the sayings and doings of other people." Does God play jokes? Does God laugh? I think so.
FROM THE IMITATION OF CHRIST...............Book 1 Ch 16 "...no one is without a fault, no one but hath a burden, no one is sufficient for himself: but we have to support one another, comfort and help, instruct and admonish each other."
IMITATION.........Here is one more quote from that little book: "...but he refers it all to God, from whom, as from their fountain, all good things proceed.." Beautiful expression in Bk 1,Chap 15. God is the mighty Source of all good and all good proceeds from Him and returns to Him, the Source.
IMITATION(Book 3, Chap 5)..."A loud cry in the ear of God is that ardent affection of the soul that says 'O God, Thou art all mine and I am all Thine.' " How many souls have been greatly comforted and most encouraged by these writings of A'Kempis?
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