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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 4 · On the Blessed Sacrament
Chapter 3Imit.4.3

Quod utile est sæpe communicare.

The Soul's Hunger for Christ

The soul approaches Christ with longing, confessing that all desire and honor are found in Him alone.

Here I come to you, Lord, so that it may go well with me through your gift, and so that I may rejoice at the feast you have prepared in your sweetness for the poor, O God.✦ In you is everything I can and ought to desire. You are my salvation and redemption, my hope and strength, my honor and glory. "Gladden" therefore "the soul of your servant today, because to you," Lord Jesus Christ, "I have lifted up my soul."✦ I long now to receive you devoutly and reverently; I want to welcome you into my home, so that like Zacchaeus I may deserve to be blessed by you and to be counted among the children of Abraham.✦ My soul and my body desire you; my heart longs to be united with you.

Christ, the Necessary Remedy

Without Christ the soul can neither live nor persevere, so it must receive Him often as heavenly food and remedy.

Give yourself to me, and that's enough: without you, no consolation is worth anything; without you I can't exist, and without your visitation I'm not able to live.1 And so I need to come to you often, and to receive you as the remedy for my salvation — lest I perhaps fail along the way, if I should be deprived of heavenly nourishment.2 For in this way you, most merciful Jesus, preaching to the peoples and healing their various ailments, once said: "I don't want to send them home fasting, lest they faint on the way."✦3 Act in this way with me, then — you who left yourself in the Sacrament for the consolation of the faithful.4 For you are the soul's sweet refreshment, and whoever eats you worthily will be a partaker and heir of eternal glory.56

Renewal Through Frequent Communion

Because the soul struggles, sins, and quickly grows numb, it must renew itself through frequent prayer, confession, and reception of Christ's Body.

It's necessary for me, since I struggle and sin so often, and grow numb and fail so quickly, that through frequent prayers and confessions, and through receiving your sacred Body, I may renew, cleanse, and rekindle myself, lest by abstaining any longer I slip away from my holy resolve. "For the senses of man are prone to evil from his youth, and unless divine medicine comes to his aid, he slips further toward worse things."✦ Holy Communion therefore draws us back from evil and strengthens us in good. If I'm so often negligent and lukewarm right now when I receive Communion or celebrate, what would happen if I didn't take this remedy and didn't seek so great a help? And even though I'm not fit every day, nor well prepared to celebrate, I will nonetheless make the effort at fitting times to perceive the divine mysteries and to present or offer myself as a partaker of so great a grace. For this is the one chief consolation of a faithful soul, as long as it makes its pilgrimage toward you in a mortal body, that it may be more often mindful of its God and receive its beloved with a devout mind.

The Soul's Joyful Welcome of Her Lord

The soul marvels at Christ's condescension and rejoices to receive so great a Lord, before whom all creation falls silent.

O, how wonderful is your loving-kindness toward us in its condescension: that you, Lord God, creator and life-giver of all spirits, deign to come to this poor little soul, and with all your divinity and humanity satisfy its hunger.78 O, what a happy mind, and what a blessed soul, which deserves to receive you, Lord its God, with devotion, and in receiving you to be filled with spiritual joy.910 O, how great a Lord she receives, how beloved a guest she brings in, how delightful a companion she welcomes, how faithful a friend she embraces, how glorious and noble a bridegroom she holds close — to be loved before all beloved things and beyond all that is desirable.1112 Let heaven and earth and all their adornments fall silent before your face, sweetest beloved of mine, since whatever praise and beauty they possess comes from the bounty of your gracious condescension, and they will never reach the splendor of your name, whose wisdom is beyond all reckoning.131415

Read the original Latin

Ecce ego venio ad te, Domine, ut bene mihi sit exmunere tuo et lætificer in convivio tuo, quod parasti in dulcedine tua pauperi, Deus. Ecce in te est totum quod desiderare possum et debeo. Tu salus mea et redemtio, spes et fortitudo, decus et gloria. Lætifica ergo hodie animam famuli tui, quoniam ad te, Domine Jesu Christe, animam meam levavi. Desidero te nunc devote et reverenter suscipere, cupio te in domum meam introducere, quatenus cum Zachæo merear a te benedici ac inter filios Abrahæ computari. Anima mea et corpus meum te concupiscit, cor meum tecum uniri desiderat.

Trade te mihi, et sufficit: nam præter te nulla consolatio valet, sine te esse nequeo et sine visitatione tua vivere non valeo. Ideoque oportet me frequenter ad te accedere, et in remedium salutis meæ recipere, ne forte deficiam in via, si fuero cælesti fraudatus alimonia. Sic enim tu, misericordissime Jesu, prædicans populis, et varios sanans languores, aliquando dixisti: Nolo eos dimittere jejunos in domum suam, ne dificiant in via. Age igitur hoc modo mecum, qui te pro fidelium consolatione in Sacramento reliquisti. Tu es enim refectio sauvis animæ, et qui te digne manducaverit, particeps et hæres erit æternæ gloriæ.

Necessarium quidem mihi est, qui tam sæpe mihi labor et pecco, tam cito torpesco et deficio, ut per frequentes orationes et confessiones, ac sacram tui Corporis perceptionem me renovem, mundem et accendam, ne forte diutius abstinendo a sancto proposito defluam. Proni enim sunt sensus hominis ad malum ab adolescentia sua, et nisi succurrat divina medicina, labitur homo plus ad pejora. Retrahit ergo sancta Communio a malo, et confortat in bono. Si enim modo tam sæpe negligens sum et tepidus, quando communico aut celebro, quid fieret si medelam non sumerem et tam grande juvamen non quærerem? Et licet omni die non aptus, et ad celebrandum bene dispositus, dabo tamen operam congruis temporibus divina percipere mysteria, ac tantæ gratiæ participem me exhibere vel præbere. Nam hæc est una principalis fidelis animæ consolatio, quamdiu peregrinatur ad te in mortali corpore, ut sit sæpius memor Dei sui, dilectum suum devota suscipiat mente.

O, mira circa nos tuæ pietatis dignatio: quod tu, Domine Deus, creator et vivificator omnium spirituum, ad pauperculam dignaris venire anima, et cum tota divinitate tua ac humanitate ejus impinguare esuriem. O, felix mens, et beata anima, quæ te, Dominum Deum suum, meretur devote suscipere, et in tua susceptione spirituali gaudio repleri. O, quam magnum suscipit Dominum, quam dilectum inducit hospitem, quam jucundum recipit socium, quam fidelem acceptat amicum, quam speciosum, et nobilem amplectitur sponsum, præ omnibus dilectis, et super omnia desiderabilia amandum. Sileant a facie tua, dulcissime dilecte meus, cælum et terra, et omnibus ornatis eorum, quoniam quidquid habent laudis et decoris, ex dignatione tuæ est largitatis, nec ad decorem tui pervenient nominis, cujus sapientiæ non est numerus.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.22.27;Ps.24.2-Ps.24.3 — The humble shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD shall praise him. Let your hearts live forever. Ps.24.2 — for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Ps.24.3 — Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD, and who shall stand in his holy place?
  2. ↩Ps.85.4;Ps.87.4 — Turn away all your wrath; turn back from the fury of your anger. Ps.87.4 — I will mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know me; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush—this one was born there.
  3. ↩Luke.19.5-Luke.19.9 — And when Jesus came to the place, looking up, he said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house." Luke.19.6 — And he hurried down and welcomed him, rejoicing. Luke.19.7 — And when they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." Luke.19.8 — But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I am giving half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I am paying it back fourfold." Luke.19.9 — And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.
  4. ↩Matt.15.32 — Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.
  5. ↩Gen.8.21 — The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, and the LORD said in his heart, 'I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the inclination of the heart of man is evil from his youth; nor will I ever again strike down every living thing as I have done.'

Notes

  1. 1 ↩visitatione (visitatio): rendered 'visitation' to preserve the sense of God's gracious coming or presence, not mere inspection.
  2. 2 ↩alimonia: rendered 'nourishment' in the spiritual sense of sustenance for the journey.
  3. 3 ↩Quoted saying attributed to Jesus; cf. Matthew 15:32 (Vulgate: Nolo dimittere eos jejunos, ne deficiant in via). Candidate allusion awaiting Moses resolution.
  4. 4 ↩Sacramento (sacramentum): capitalized to preserve Eucharistic specificity per Book 4 policy.
  5. 5 ↩refectio: rendered 'refreshment' in the sense of spiritual restoration and nourishment.
  6. 6 ↩anima: rendered 'soul' per standard policy for the interior person before God.
  7. 7 ↩dignatio rendered 'condescension' in the sense of gracious stooping, not modern pejorative sense; pietatis rendered 'loving-kindness' to capture the warmth of divine care.
  8. 8 ↩impinguare (to fatten, to nourish) used metaphorically for satisfying spiritual hunger; rendered 'satisfy its hunger' to preserve the concrete image.
  9. 9 ↩felix and beata both positive; rendered 'happy' and 'blessed' to distinguish them while preserving the exclamatory pairing.
  10. 10 ↩devote rendered 'with devotion' per Book 4 Eucharistic-preparation sense.
  11. 11 ↩The fivefold quam exclamation builds from Lord to bridegroom, tracing the soul's deepening intimacy with Christ. The shift from hospes (guest) to sponsus (bridegroom) echoes the Song of Songs tradition.
  12. 12 ↩speciosum rendered 'glorious' rather than merely 'beautiful' to capture the theological weight of Christ's splendor in this sacramental context.
  13. 13 ↩dulcissime dilecte meus: intimate vocative addressed to Christ; rendered 'sweetest beloved of mine' to preserve the warmth and directness.
  14. 14 ↩nec ad decorem tui pervenient: the created order cannot attain the beauty of God's name; rendered 'they will never reach the splendor of your name' to preserve the eschatological humility.
  15. 15 ↩cujus sapientiæ non est numerus echoes Psalm 147:5 (Vulgate: 'cuius non est numerus' in some medieval liturgical contexts) and Sirach 1:1–5 on divine wisdom beyond measure.