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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 4 · On the Blessed Sacrament
Chapter 12Imit.4.12

Quod magna diligentia se debeat communicaturus Christo præparare.

Christ's Invitation to a Pure Heart

Christ calls the soul to prepare a pure and spacious inner dwelling, cleansing the heart of sin and worldly distraction so that He may come and remain with the beloved.

I am the lover of purity, and the giver of all holiness. I look for a pure heart, and that's where I find my rest. Prepare a large, furnished upper room for me, and I will share the Passover with you and my disciples.1 If you want, I will come to you and stay with you. Clear out the old leaven, and cleanse the home of your heart.2 Shut out the whole world and all the chaos of your vices. Sit like a lone sparrow on the rooftop, and weigh your transgressions in the bitterness of your soul.3 For everyone who loves prepares the finest, most beautiful place they can for the one they love, because this is how the affection of the one welcoming the beloved is made known.

Grace Alone Makes Us Worthy

No human effort can merit the privilege of receiving Christ; it is by His mercy alone that the soul is invited to His table, and the only fitting response is humble thanksgiving.

Know, however, that you cannot satisfy this preparation by the merit of your own doing, even if you were to prepare yourself in such a way for an entire year that you had nothing else on your mind. But by my mercy and grace alone you will be permitted to come to my table, as when a beggar is called to the dinner of a rich man, and that person has nothing else to repay his benefactor's kindness except by humbling himself and giving thanks.✦ Therefore do what lies in you, and do it carefully — not from habit, not from obligation, but with fear and reverence and devotion, receive the Body of your beloved Lord, your God, who deigns to come to you. I am the one who called; I commanded this to be done; I will supply what you lack.✦ Come and receive me.✦

Persevering in Prayer and Gratitude

Whether the soul feels devotion or dryness, it must persist in prayer and thanksgiving, recognizing that Christ comes not to be sanctified by us but to sanctify and renew us.

When I grant the grace of devotion, give thanks to your God — not because you are worthy, but because I have taken pity on you. If you don't have devotion but instead feel dried out, keep praying, groan, knock — and don't give up until you receive at least a crumb or a drop of saving grace.✦✦ You need me; I don't need you. You don't come to sanctify me — I come to sanctify you and to make you better. You come to be sanctified through me and united to me, so that you may receive fresh grace from God and be kindled anew to amendment of life. Don't neglect this grace. Always prepare your heart with the greatest diligence, and welcome your Beloved into yourself.

Guarding Devotion After Communion

The soul must guard the grace received in Communion with careful watchfulness, remaining in solitude and interior stillness so as to live henceforth in Christ rather than in itself.

You need to prepare yourself for devotion before Communion — but that's not all. You also need to guard that devotion carefully after receiving the Sacrament.4 The watchfulness required afterward is no less than the devout preparation beforehand. For good watchfulness afterward is itself the best preparation for receiving greater grace. A person is left deeply unprepared when, immediately after Communion, they scatter themselves too freely toward outward comforts.5 Guard against much talk. Stay in solitude and enjoy your God.6 You have him — and the whole world cannot take him from you.7 I am the one to whom you ought to give yourself entirely — so that from now on you may live not in yourself, but in me, free from all anxiety.8

Read the original Latin

Ego sum puritatis amator, et dator omnis sanctitatis. Ego cor purum quæro, et ibi est locus requietionis meæ. Para mihi cœnaculum grande stratum, et faciam apud te pascha cum discipulis meis. Si vis, veniam apud te, et apud te manebo; expurga vetus fermentum, et munda cordis tui habitaculum. Exclude totum sæculum et omnem vitiorum tumultum; sede tamquam passer solitarius in tecto, et cogita excessus tuos in amaritudine animæ tuæ. Omnis namque amans suo dilecto amatori optimum et pulcherrimum præparat locum, quia in hoc cognoscitur affectus suscipientis dilectum.

Scito tamen te non posse satisfacere huic præparationi, ex merito tuæ actionis, etiamsi per integrum annum ita te præparares, ut nihil aliud in mente haberes. Sed ex sola pietate et gratia mea permitteris ad mensam meam accedere, ac si mendicus ad prandium vocetur divitis et ille nihil aliud habeat ad retribuendem beneficiis ejus, nisi se humiliando, et gratias sibi agendo. Fac ergo quod in te est, et diligenter facito, non ex consuetudine, non ex necessitate, sed cum timore et reverentia et affectu, accipe Corpus dilecti Domini Dei tui dignantis ad te venire. Ego sum qui vocavi, Ego jussi fieri, Ego supplebo quod tibi deest. Veni et suscipe me.

Cum gratiam devotionis tribuo, gratias age Deo tuo, non quia dignus es, sed quia tui misertus sum. Si non habes devotionem, sed magis te aridum sentis, insiste orationi, ingemisce, pulsa, nec desistas donec merearis micam, aut guttam gratiæ salutaris accipere. Tu mei indiges, non ego tui indigeo, nec tu me sanctificare venis, sed ego sanctificare venio et meliorare. Tu venis ut ex me sanctificeris et mihi uniaris, ut novam gratiam recipias a Deo et de novo ad emendationem accendaris. Noli negligere hanc gratiam, semper præpara cum omni diligentia cor tuum, et introduc ad te Dilectum tuum.

Oportet autem ut non solum te præpares ad devotionem ante communionem, sed etiam ut te sollicite conserves in ea post Sacramenti perceptionem. Nec minor custodia post exigitur, quam devota præparatio prius. Nam bona postmodum custodia optima iterum est præparatio ad majorem gratiam consequendam. Ex eo quippe valde indispositus quis redditur, si statim fuerit nimis effusus ad exteriora solatia. Cave a multiloquio; mane in secreto et fruere Deo tuo. Ipsum enim habes quem totus mundus tibi auferre non potest. Ego sum, cui te totum dare debes, ita ut jam ultra non in te, sed in me absque omni sollicitudine vivas.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Luke.14.12-Luke.14.14 — He also said to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not call your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and a repayment be made to you. Luke.14.13 — But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Luke.14.14 — And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
  2. ↩Phil.4.19 — And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
  3. ↩Matt.11.28 — Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
  4. ↩Matt.15.27 — She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.
  5. ↩Luke.11.9 — And I tell you: ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Alludes to the preparation of the upper room for the Last Supper (cf. Luke 22:12, Mark 14:15).
  2. 2 ↩The image of purging the old leaven echoes 1 Corinthians 5:7 (expurgate vetus fermentum), applied here to interior preparation for Communion.
  3. 3 ↩The image of the solitary sparrow on the rooftop echoes Psalm 101:8 (Vulgate 102:7): 'similis factus sum pellicano solitudinis, factus sum sicut nycticorax in domicilio.' The sparrow on the roof is a traditional image of solitary contemplation.
  4. 4 ↩The autem...sed etiam structure is rendered with a natural English contrast ('not all...also') rather than a stiff 'moreover...but also,' preserving the logical force while keeping the cadence contemporary.
  5. 5 ↩Effusus ('poured out, scattered') carries the sense of dissipation — the person's interior focus spills outward. Rendered as 'scatter themselves too freely' to capture both the passivity and the disordered motion.
  6. 6 ↩Fruere Deo tuo rendered as 'enjoy your God' — the Latin fruor implies savoring, delighting in, not merely using. The directness matches the imperative tone.
  7. 7 ↩Christ is speaking in the first person in the following sentence (s7), so the referent of Ipsum is Christ. The compressed Latin is rendered with a natural English dash for emphasis.
  8. 8 ↩Direct speech of Christ. The register is kept slightly more solemn here — uncontracted 'you may live' rather than 'you'll live' — to honor the sacramental gravity of Christ addressing the communicant. Absque omni sollicitudine rendered as 'free from all anxiety' captures the interior peace Christ promises.