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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 2 · Counsels on the Inner Life
Chapter 1Imit.2.1

Incipit liber de interna conversationes.

The Kingdom Within

The kingdom of God is found within the soul through wholehearted turning to the Lord, detachment from outward things, and preparation of an inner dwelling for Christ.

"The kingdom of God is within you," says the Lord.✦ Turn to the Lord with your whole heart, leave this wretched world behind, and your soul will find rest. Learn to despise outward things and give yourself to inward things, and you will see the kingdom of God come within you. "For the kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" — which is not given to the impious.✦ Christ will come to you and show you his consolation, if you have prepared a worthy dwelling for him within.1 All his glory and beauty are from within, and there he takes delight. He visits the inner person frequently — sweet conversation, welcome consolation, great peace, a fellowship astonishing beyond measure.2

Preparing a Place for the Bridegroom

The faithful soul is called to prepare its heart for Christ the Bridegroom, to give him sole place, and to trust in his eternal faithfulness rather than in changeable human beings.

Come now, faithful soul — prepare your heart for this bridegroom, so that he may deign to come to you and dwell within you.3 For he speaks this way: "If anyone loves me, they will keep my word, and we will come to them and make our dwelling with them."✦4 So give Christ his place, and deny entry to everything else. When you have Christ, you are rich — and that is enough for you. He himself will be your provider and faithful steward in all things, so that there's no need to place your hope in people. People change quickly and fail fast — but Christ remains forever, and stands by you firmly to the very end.

The Frailty of Human Trust

Because mortal people are fickle and unreliable, the soul must place all confidence in the Lord alone, recognizing itself as a pilgrim with no lasting city here.

There's no great confidence to be placed in a frail and mortal person, even if that person proves useful and beloved, nor should deep sadness be taken from it, if that person sometimes opposes and contradicts you. Those who are with you today can turn against you tomorrow. And they are often turned around, shifting like a breeze. Place your whole confidence in the Lord, and let him be your fear and your love. He will answer for you and will make things go well, as best he can. You have no lasting city here, and wherever you may be, you are a stranger and a pilgrim, nor will you ever have rest, unless you are closely united to Christ.✦

Pilgrims in a Passing World

Since earthly things pass away, the soul must fix its mind on heaven, cling to nothing, and find refuge in contemplation of the Most High or in the wounds of Christ.

What are you looking around for here, since this is not the place where you'll find rest? Your home should be in the things of heaven, and since everything here is something you're passing through, that's how you should regard it all. Everything passes away, and you along with it. Watch yourself, so that you don't cling to anything, and don't get caught up in it and come to ruin. Let your thought rest with the Most High, and let your prayer be directed toward Christ without interruption. If you're not able to contemplate lofty things and the realities of heaven, rest in the passion of Christ and dwell gladly in his sacred wounds. For if you flee devoutly to the wounds and beautiful marks of Jesus, you will feel great consolation in time of trial, and you won't care much about people's contempt — you'll easily endure the words of those who tear you down.

Sharing Christ's Contempt

Since Christ himself suffered contempt and abandonment, the disciple must not complain at adversity but endure with Christ in order to reign with him.

Jesus Christ the Lord was also despised in the world by men, and in his greatest need he was abandoned to reproach by his acquaintances and friends. The Lord Jesus chose to suffer and to be despised, and you dare to complain about anyone? Christ had adversaries and slanderers, and you want everyone to be your friends and benefactors? Where will your patience be crowned if nothing adverse ever comes your way? If you refuse to suffer anything contrary, how will you be a friend of Christ? Endure with Christ and for Christ, if you wish to reign with Christ.✦

The Freedom of Burning Love

True interior love of Jesus frees a person from self-concern and disordered attachments, enabling the soul to rise above itself and rest in God.

If you had once truly entered into the inner life of Jesus and tasted even a little of his burning love, you wouldn't care at all about your own gain or loss—you'd rather rejoice at any disgrace brought upon you, because the love of Jesus makes a person despise himself.56 A true lover of Jesus, one who is inwardly grounded and free from disordered attachments, can turn to God freely, lift himself above himself in spirit, and rest there fruitfully.78

The Interior Person's Steadiness

The truly wise and interior person, taught by God, remains undisturbed by outward circumstances, adapts to what comes, and is hindered only by self-attachment.

The one to whom all things taste as they truly are — not as they are said to be or as people judge them — that person is truly wise, and taught by God more than by men.9 The person who knows how to walk from within and to weigh outward things lightly doesn't need special places, nor does he wait for special times, in order to have devout exercises.1011 The interior person quickly gathers himself back in and never pours himself out entirely toward external things. External work doesn't hinder him, nor does necessary occupation for a time. But as things come, so he accommodates himself to them. The person who is well disposed and ordered within doesn't worry about the astonishing and perverse behavior of men. A person is hindered and distracted to exactly the degree that he draws things to himself.

Purity of Heart and Heavenly Vision

If the soul were perfectly purified and dead to self, all things would serve its progress; the chief obstacle is impure attachment to created things, and the remedy is refusal of outward comfort.

If you saw yourself clearly and were thoroughly cleansed, everything would turn to your good and bring you real progress. So many things often displease you and trouble you, because you are not yet perfectly dead to yourself, nor set apart from everything earthly. Nothing stains and entangles the human heart like impure love fixed on created things. If you refuse outward comfort, you'll be able to gaze on the heavens and rejoice within, often.

Read the original Latin

Regnum Dei intra vos est, dicit Dominus. Converte te ex toto corde tuo ad Dominum, et relinque hunc miserum mundum, et inveniet anima tua requiem. Disce exteriora contemnere et ad interiora te dare, et videbis regnum Dei intra te venire. Est enim regnum Dei pax et gaudium in Spiritu Sancto quod non datur impiis. Veniet ad te Christus ostendens tibi consolationem suam, si dignam illi ab intus paraveris mansionem. Omnis gloria ejus et decor ab intra est, et ibi complacet sibi. Frequens illi visitatio cum homine interno, dulcis sermocinatio, grata consolatio, multa pax, familiaritas stupenda nimis.

Eya anima fidelis, præpara huic sponso cor tuum, quatenus ad te venire et in te habitare dignetur. Sic enim dicit: Si quis diligit me, sermonem meum servabit, et ad eum veniemus, et mansionem apud eum faciemus. Da ergo Christo locum et cæteris omnibus nega introitum. Cum Christum habueris, dives es, et sufficit tibi. Ipse erit provisor tuus, et fidelis procurator in omnibus, ut non fit opus in hominibus sperare. Homines enim cito mutantur, et deficiunt velociter, Christus autem manet in æternum, et adstat usque in finem firmiter.

Non est magna fiducia ponenda in homine fragili et mortali, etiamsi utilis fit et dilectus, neque tristitia multa capienda ex hoc, si interdum adversetur et contradicat. Qui hodie tecum sunt, cras contrariari possunt. Et e converso sæpe ut aura vertuntur. Pone fiduciam tuam totam in Domino; et sit ipse timor tuus, et amor tuus. Ipse pro te respondebit, et faciet bene sicut melius fuerit. Non habes hic manentem civitatem, et ubicumque fueris, extraneus es et peregrinus, nec requiem aliquando habebis, nisi Christo intime fueris unitus.

Quid hic circumspicis, cum iste non sit locus tuæ requietionis? In cælestibus debet esse habitatio tua et sicut in transitu cuncta sunt aspicienda. Transeunt omnia, et tu cum eis pariter. Vide, ut non hæreas, ne capiaris, et pereas. Apud Altissimum sit cogitatio tua, et deprecatio tua ad Christum sine intermissione dirigatur. Si nescis alta speculari et cælestia, requiesce in passione Christi, et in sacris vulneribus ejus libenter habita. Si enim ad vulnera et speciosa stigmata Jesu devote confugis, magnam in tribulatione senties consolationem, nec multum curabis hominum despectiones faciliterque verba detrahentium perferes.

Jesus Christus Dominus fuit etiam in mundo ab hominibus despectus, et in maxima necessitate, a notis et amicis inter opprobria derelictus. Dominus Jesus pati voluit et despici, et tu audes de aliquo conqueri? Christus habuit adversarios et oblocutores, et tu vis omnes habere amicos, et benefactores? Ubi coronabitur patientia tua, si nihil adversitatis occurrit. Si nihil contrarium vis pati, quomodo eris amicus Christi? Sustine cum Christo et pro Christo, si vis regare cum Christo.

Si semel perfecte introisses in interiora Jesu, et modicum de ardenti amore ejus sapuisses, tunc de proprio commodo, vel incommodo nihil curares, sed magis de opprobrio illato gauderes, quia amor Jesu facit hominem se ipsum contemnere. Amator Jesu et verus internus, et liber ab affectionibus inordinatis, potest se ad Deum libere convertere, et elevare se supra se ipsum in spiritu ac fruitive quiescere.

Cui sapiunt omnia prout sunt non ut dicuntur, aut æstimantur, hic vere sapiens est, et doctus a Deo magis, quam ab hominibus. Qui ab intra scit ambulare et modicum res ab extra ponderare, non requirit loca, nec tempora expectat ad habenda devota exercitia. Homo internus cito se recolligit, et nunquam se totum ad exteriora effundit. Non illi obest labor exterior, aut occupatio ad tempus necessaria. Sed sicut res eveniunt, sic se illis accommodat. Qui intus bene dispositus est et ordinatus, non curat mirabiles et perversos hominum gestus. Tantum homo impeditur, et distrahitur, quantum sibi res attrahit.

Si recte tibi esses, et bene purgatus esses, omnia tibi in bonum cederent, et profectum. Ideo multa tibi sæpe displicent et sæpe conturbant, quia adhuc non es perfecte tibi mortuus, nec segregatus ab omnibus terrenis. Nihil sic maculat et implicat cor hominis, sicut impurus amor in creaturis. Si renuis consolari exterius, poteris speculari cælestia, et frequenter interius jubilare.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Luke.17.21 — nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.
  2. ↩Rom.14.17 — For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
  3. ↩John.14.23 — Jesus answered him, 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'
  4. ↩Heb.13.14 — For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the one that is coming.
  5. ↩2Tim.2.12 — If we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩paraveris is ambiguous between future perfect and perfect subjunctive; rendered as present perfect ("have prepared") to capture the conditional sense.
  2. 2 ↩The Latin is a series of nominative noun phrases without a main verb (asyndetic/nominal style). Rendered with an implied copula and em-dash to preserve the devotional catalogue effect while remaining readable.
  3. 3 ↩soul (anima) preserves the interior-person sense; heart (cor) renders the seat of attention and desire.
  4. 4 ↩Quotation from John 14:23 (Vulgate). The Moses resolver should confirm the exact anchor.
  5. 5 ↩amor rendered as 'love' per lexeme policy (amor → love).
  6. 6 ↩contemnere ('despise') here carries the sense of self-abnegation before God, not self-hatred; the love of Jesus reorients the person's regard away from self.
  7. 7 ↩affectio rendered as 'attachments' (negative context) per lexeme policy: 'attachment/disordered affection in negative contexts'.
  8. 8 ↩fruitive (adverb, rare) rendered as 'fruitfully' — the sense is a rest that is spiritually productive, not idle; the morphology is uncertain but the context supports this reading.
  9. 9 ↩The comparative force of ut after non is rendered 'not as they are said to be or as people judge them,' capturing the contrast between appearance and reality.
  10. 10 ↩modicum res is rendered 'weigh outward things lightly' — the sense is that external matters are given little weight.
  11. 11 ↩gerundive of purpose: 'in order to have devout exercises.'