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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 3 · On Inward Consolation
Chapter 23Imit.3.23

De 4.or. magnam importantibus pacem.

The Way of Peace and True Freedom

Christ opens the chapter by promising to teach the disciple the way of peace and true freedom.

Son, now I will teach you the way of peace and true freedom.

Choosing Another's Will Over Our Own

The disciple is urged to embrace obedience, humility, and detachment, seeking always the lowest place and God's will, which leads into the bounds of peace.

Do, Lord, what you say, for it brings me joy to hear it. Be eager, my son, to do another's will rather than your own. Always choose to have less rather than more. Always seek the lowest place and be subject to everyone.✦ Always desire and pray that God's will may be fully accomplished in you.✦1 See, such a person enters the bounds of peace and rest.

A Brief Word Full of Perfection

The disciple marvels at the richness of Christ's brief teaching, confesses how disturbance arises from abandoning it, and prays for grace to fulfill it.

Lord, this word of yours is brief but holds a great deal of perfection; it is small to say, yet full of meaning and rich in fruit. For if I could faithfully keep it, no disturbance would so easily arise within me.2 For whenever I find myself disturbed and burdened, I discover that I have withdrawn from this teaching.34 But you, who can do all things and who always love the soul's progress, increase your grace more fully, so that I may be able to fulfill your word and accomplish my salvation.567

Cry for Help Against Vain Thoughts

The soul cries out to God in distress over rising fears and vain thoughts, asking how it can pass through unharmed.

"Lord my God, don't be far from me; my God, look to my help" — because vain thoughts and great fears have risen up within me, afflicting my soul. How shall I pass through unharmed? How shall I break through them?

God's Promise to Go Before Us

God promises through Isaiah to go before the soul, humble the proud, open prison doors, and reveal hidden secrets.

"I," he says, "will go before you and humble the proud of the earth; I will open the prison door and reveal to you the hidden things of secrets."✦

Refuge and Trust in Every Trial

The disciple prays for the fulfillment of God's word and declares that hope and comfort lie in taking refuge in God with patient trust.

Lord, do as You have spoken, and let every wicked thought flee from Your presence. This is my hope and my only comfort: to take refuge in You in every trial, to place my trust in You, to call upon You from the depths of my heart, and to wait patiently for Your consolation.8

Prayer for Inner Light and Peace

The soul prays to be glorified with Christ's light, to have darkness driven from the heart, temptations crushed, evil desires overcome, and a great calm established by God's commanding word.

Glorify me, good Jesus, with the brightness of your eternal light. Drive every darkness out of the dwelling place of my heart. Restrain my many wanderings and crush the force of my temptations. Fight bravely for me and overcome the evil beasts — I mean the enticing desires — so that there may be peace in your power, and an abundance of praise to you may resound in your holy court, that is, in a pure conscience.910 Command the winds and the storms; say to the sea, 'Be still'; say to the north wind, 'Do not blow' — and there will be a great calm.11

Send Out Your Light and Your Truth

The soul prays for God's light and truth to shine upon its barrenness, for heavenly grace to water the earth and bear good fruit, and for the mind to be lifted from sin toward heavenly desire.

"Send out your light and your truth," that they may shine over the earth, for I am an empty and barren land until you enlighten me.✦✦ Pour out your grace from above; drench my heart with heavenly grace. Send down the waters of devotion to water the face of the earth, to bring forth good and excellent fruit.✦✦ Lift up my mind, weighed down by the burden of sins, and draw my entire desire toward heavenly things — so that once I have tasted the sweetness of heavenly joy, thinking about earthly things will grow distasteful to me.

Bound to God Alone by Love

The soul asks to be rescued from false comfort in created things and bound to God alone by an inseparable bond of love.

Snatch me away and rescue me from every hardened comfort found in created things, because no created thing can fully quiet or satisfy my desire.12 Bind me to you with an inseparable bond of love, because you alone are enough for the one who loves you, and without you everything else is worthless.1314

Read the original Latin

Fili, nunc docebo te viam pacis et veræ libertatis.

Fac, Domine, quod dicis, quia hoc mihi est gratum audire.

Stude, Fili, alterius potius facere voluntatem quam tuam. Elige semper minus quam plus habere. Quære semper inferiorem locum et omnibus subesse. Opta semper et ora, ut voluntas Dei integre in te fiat. Ecce talis homo ingreditur fines pacis et quietis.

Domine, sermo tuus iste brevis multum continet perfectionis; parvus est dictu, sed plenus sensu et uber in fructu. Nam si posset a me fideliter custodiri, non deberet tam facilis in me turbatio oriri. Nam quoties me impacatum sentio et gravatum, ab hac doctrina me recessisse invenio. Sed tu qui omnia potes, et animæ profectum semper diligis, adauge majorem gratiam, ut possim tuum complere sermonem, et meam perficere salutem.

Domine Deus meus, ne elongeris a me; Deus meus, in auxilium meum respice: quoniam in me surrexerunt cogitationes vanæ et timores magni affligentes animam meam. Quomodo pertransibo illæsus? Quomodo perfringam eas?

Ego, inquit, ante te ibo, et gloriosos terræ humiliabo; aperiam januam carceris, et arcana secretorum revelabo tibi.

Fac, Domine, ut loqueris, et fugiant a facie tua omnes iniquæ cogitationes. Hæc est spes et unica consolatio mea, ad te in omni tribulatione confugere, tibi confidere, ex intimo invocare, et patienter consolationem tuam exspectare.

Clarifica me, bone Jesu, claritate æterni luminis. Educ de habitaculo cordis mei tenebras universas. Cohibe evagationes multas et elide vim facientes tentationes. Pugna pro me fortiter, et expugna malas bestias, concupiscentias dico illecebrosas, ut fiat pax in virtute tua et abundantia laudis tuæ resonet in aula sancta, hoc est in conscientia pura. Impera ventis et tempestatibus; dic, mari quiesce; dic Aquiloni, ne flaveris: et erit tranquillitas magna.

Emitte lucem tuam et veritatem, ut luceant super terram, quia terra sum inanis et vacua, donec illumines me. Effunde gratiam tuam desuper, perfunde cor meum gratia cælesti, ministra devotionis aquas ad irrigandum faciem terræ, ad producendum fructum bonum et optimum. Eleva mentem pressam mole peccatorum et ad cælestia totum desiderium meum suspende: ut gustata suavitate supernæ felicitatis pigeat de terrenis cogitare.

Rape me et eripe me ab omni creaturarum indurabili consolatione, quia nulla res creata appetitum meum plenarie valet quietare et consolari. Junge me tibi inseparabili dilectionis vinculo, quoniam tu solus sufficis amanti et absque te frivola sunt universa.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Luke.14.10 — But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will have glory before all who are reclining at table with you.
  2. ↩Matt.6.10 — Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
  3. ↩Isa.45.2-Isa.45.3 — I will go before you and level the exalted places; doors of bronze I will shatter, and bars of iron I will cut through. Isa.45.3 — And I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the LORD, who calls you by your name, the God of Israel.
  4. ↩Ps.42.3 — My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before the face of God?
  5. ↩Gen.1.2 — And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
  6. ↩Isa.55.10 — For just as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there unless they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater—
  7. ↩Hos.10.12 — Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap according to steadfast love; break up your fallow ground for yourselves, for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and rains righteousness upon you.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The ut clause is rendered as purpose ('that...may be done'), which best fits the devotional exhortation; a result reading ('so that') is also possible.
  2. 2 ↩Turbatio rendered as 'disturbance' in the sense of inner turmoil or agitation.
  3. 3 ↩Impacatum (from impacare) rendered as 'disturbed' — a state of inner unrest or lack of peace.
  4. 4 ↩Gravatum rendered as 'burdened' — weighed down, oppressed.
  5. 5 ↩Anima rendered as 'soul' per lexeme policy — interior person before God.
  6. 6 ↩Gratia rendered as 'grace' — divine gift and aid.
  7. 7 ↩Salus rendered as 'salvation' — spiritual salvation, not mere well-being.
  8. 8 ↩ex intimo rendered as 'from the depths of my heart' to capture the interior depth of intimus substantively; the Latin ablative of source suggests 'from my inmost part.'
  9. 9 ↩The clause 'ut fiat pax in virtute tua et abundantia' echoes Psalm 71:7 (Vulgate) / Psalm 72:7 ('In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound'). The Moses reference map will resolve final status.
  10. 10 ↩Conscientia rendered as 'conscience' per lexeme policy, preserving its moral and accountability force.
  11. 11 ↩The passage echoes Christ's calming of the storm in Mark 4:39 ('Peace, be still') and Matthew 8:26. The imperative structure and the north wind (Aquilo) also recall Psalm 148:8. Status pending Moses resolution.
  12. 12 ↩indurabili consolatione: literally 'hardened/unyielding consolation' — the phrase suggests a comfort from creatures that has become rigid, unresponsive, or spiritually numbing rather than genuinely soothing. Rendered as 'hardened comfort' to capture that devotional nuance.
  13. 13 ↩amanti: dative participle of amo, 'to the one loving/to the lover.' Rendered as 'the one who loves you' to preserve the relational and active sense.
  14. 14 ↩dilectionis rendered as 'love' per lexeme policy for dilectio.