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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 4 · On the Blessed Sacrament
Chapter 7Imit.4.7

De discussione propriæ conscientiæ et emendationis proposito.

The Priest's Humble Approach to the Sacrament

The priest is urged to approach the Eucharist with deep humility, reverent awe, and full faith, having carefully examined and confessed his conscience and holding a settled displeasure with all his sins.

Above all, the priest must approach God to celebrate, handle, and receive this Sacrament with the deepest humility of heart and reverent awe, with full faith and a devout intention directed to the honor of God. Carefully examine your conscience, and as far as you can, lay it bare and bring it into the light through genuine contrition and humble confession, so that nothing serious weighs on you, and you know of nothing gnawing at you and blocking your free approach. Hold a settled displeasure with all your sins in general, and for your daily failings grieve and groan all the more in the spiritual realm; and if time allows, entrust to God in the secrecy of your heart all the miseries of your sufferings.

A Lament over Carnal Weakness

A single extended catalogue of spiritual failings laments the soul's persistent carnality, worldliness, and negligence in the interior life.

Groan and grieve that you are still so carnal and worldly, so unbroken to your passions, so full of lustful impulses, so careless in your outward senses, so often tangled up in all kinds of imaginings, so strongly pulled toward external things, so negligent of what's within, so quick to laugh and let yourself go, so resistant to weeping and compunction, so ready to chase the pleasures and comforts of the flesh, so sluggish when it comes to discipline and fervor, so eager to grab at and listen to novelties and gaze on beautiful things, so slack in embracing what is humble and lowly, so greedy to acquire many things, so stingy in giving, so tight-fisted in holding on, so thoughtless in speech, unable to hold yourself back from talking, so disordered in your habits, so troublesome in your actions, so given over to food, so deaf to the word of God, so quick to seek rest, so slow to take up labor, so wide awake for idle tales, so drowsy when it comes to the sacred night watches, so hasty to finish, so scattered in your attention, so careless in the hours that must be prayed, so lukewarm in celebrating, so barren in receiving Communion, so quickly distracted, so rarely well gathered within yourself, so suddenly stirred to anger, so easily moved to disapprove of another, so ready to pass judgment, so harsh in finding fault, so elated by prosperity, so weak in adversity, so often proposing many good things and bringing so little of them to completion.123

The Resolution to Amend and the Offering of Self

Having confessed and lamented his failings, the priest resolves to amend his life and offers himself wholly as a perpetual burnt offering upon the altar of his heart.

Once you've confessed these and your other failings with grief and deep displeasure at your own weakness, and have lamented them, make a firm resolution to always amend your life and to grow in what is better.45 Then, with full surrender and complete willingness, offer yourself — your very self — in honor of my name, on the altar of your heart, as a perpetual whole burnt offering: your body, that is, and your soul, faithfully entrusting them to me, so that in this way you may deserve to worthily approach offering a sacrifice to God and to receive the Sacrament of my Body for your healing.6789

The Supreme Offering and the Promise of Mercy

Offering oneself wholly to God together with the Body of Christ is declared the most worthy sacrifice for sin, and God promises forgiveness and life to the truly repentant sinner.

For there is no offering more worthy, and no greater satisfaction for washing away sins, than to offer yourself purely and wholly to God — together with the offering of the Body of Christ — in the Mass and in Communion.10 If a person has done what lies within them, and has truly repented, then as often as they approach me for pardon and grace — I live, says the Lord — I do not desire the death of the sinner, but rather that they be converted and live; because I will remember their sins no more, but all things will be forgiven them.✦✦1112

Read the original Latin

Super omnia cum summa humilitate cordis et supplici reverentia, cum plena fide et pia intentione honoris Dei, ad hoc Sacramentum celebrandum, tractandum et sumendum oportet Dei accedere Sacerdotem. Diligenter examina conscientiam tuam, et pro posse tuo vera contritione, et humili confessione eam nuda et clarifica, ita ut nil grave habeas, aut scias, quod te remordeat et liberum accessum impediat. Habeas displicentiam omnium peccatorum tuorum in generali, et pro quotidianis excessibus magis in spirituali doleas et gemas; et, si tempus patiturum, Deo in secreto cordis cunctas confidere passionum tuarum miserias.

Ingemisce et dole, quod adhuc tam carnalis sis et mundanus, ita immortificatus a passionibus, tam plenus concupiscentiarum motibus, tam incustoditus in sensibus exterioribus, tam sæpe multis variis phantasiis implicatus, tam multum inclinatus ad exteriora, tam negligens ad interiora, tam levis ad risum et dissolutionem, tam durus ad fletum et compunctionem, tam promtus ad laxiora et carnis commoda, tam segnis ad rigorem et fervorem, tam curiosus ad nova capienda et audienda, et pulchra intuenda, tam remissus ad humilia et abjecta amplectenda, tam cupidus ad multa habenda, tam parcus ad dandum, tam tenax ad retinendum, tam inconsideratus in loquendo, tam incontinens ad tacendum, tam incompositus in moribus, tam importunus in actibus, tam effusus super cibum, tam surdus ad Dei verbum, tam velox ad quietem, tam tardus ad laborem, tam vigilans ad fabulas, tam somnolentus ad vigilias sacras, tam festinus ad finem, tam vagus ad attendendum, tam negligens in horis persolvendis, tam tepidus in celebrando, tam aridus in communicando, tam cito distractus, tam raro tibi bene collectus, tam subito commotus ad iram, tam facilis ad alterius displicentiam, tam pronus ad judicandum, tam rigidus ad arguendum, tam lætus ad prospera, tam debilis in adversis, tam sæpe multa bona proponens, et modicum ad effectum perducens.

His et aliis defectibus tuis cum dolore et magna displicentia propriæ infirmitatis confessis ac deploratis firmum statue propositum semper emendandi vitam tuam, et in melius proficiendi. Deinde cum plena resignatione, et integra voluntate offer te ipsum in honore nominis mei in ara cordis tui holocaustum perpetuum, corpus tuum scilicet, et animam mihi fideliter commitendo, quatenus sic digne merearis ad offerendum Deo sacrificium accedere, et Sacramentum Corporis mei salubriter suscipere.

Non est enim oblatio dignior, et satisfacio major pro peccatis diluendis quam se ipsum pure et integre cum oblatione Corporis Christi in missa et in communione Deo offerre. Si homo fecerit quod in se est, et vere pœnituerit, quotiescumque pro venia et gratia ad me accesserit: Vivo ego, dicit Dominus, qui nolo mortem peccatoris, sed magis ut convertatur et vivat, quoniam peccatorum suorum non recordabor amplius, sed cuncta sibi indulta erunt.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ezek.33.11 — Say to them, 'As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'
  2. ↩Jer.31.34;Heb.8.12 — No longer will they teach one another, each saying to his neighbor and each to his brother, 'Know the LORD,' for all of them shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. Heb.8.12 — for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins I will remember no more.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩compunctio rendered 'compunction' per lexeme policy: sorrow pierced by grace, not mere guilt or shame.
  2. 2 ↩communicando rendered 'receiving Communion' per lexeme policy for Eucharistic specificity in Book 4.
  3. 3 ↩horis persolvendis rendered 'the hours that must be prayed' — referring to the canonical Hours of the Divine Office; the gerundive conveys obligation.
  4. 4 ↩The string of connectives (et...et...ac...et) is preserved to maintain the cumulative, confessional rhythm of the Latin.
  5. 5 ↩displicentia rendered as 'displeasure' rather than 'disapproval' to capture the interior, affective dimension — displeasure directed at one's own weakness.
  6. 6 ↩This is direct speech of Christ in a Eucharistic context. Register is kept solemn and sacramental without resorting to archaic diction. 'Sacrament' and 'Body' retain their theological specificity.
  7. 7 ↩holocaustum rendered as 'whole burnt offering' to preserve the Old Testament sacrificial image that underlies the Eucharistic theology of self-offering.
  8. 8 ↩salubriter rendered as 'for your healing' rather than 'salubriously' or 'beneficially' to capture the salvific, health-giving sense in a Eucharistic context.
  9. 9 ↩quatenus is a purpose conjunction rendered as 'so that' to clarify the teleological structure: self-offering enables worthy approach to the Sacrament.
  10. 10 ↩satisfactio rendered 'satisfaction' in its penitential sense: making amends for sin, not mere appeasement.
  11. 11 ↩Embedded quotations from Ezekiel 33:11 (Vulgate): 'Vivo ego, dicit Dominus, nolo mortem peccatoris, sed ut convertatur et vivat' and echoes of Jeremiah 31:34 / Hebrews 8:12 ('peccatorum non recordabor amplius'). Final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
  12. 12 ↩pœnituerit rendered 'has repented' (true repentance, not mere regret); gratia rendered 'grace' per lexeme policy.