Advent with A Kempis XX

“All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.” Blaise Pascal St. Romuald’s Brief Rule For Camaldolese Monks Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish, The path you must follow […]

Advent with A Kempis XIX

Chapter 19: The Exercises of a Good Religious “The life of a good religious must abound with every virtue so that he can inwardly be what he outwardly professes to be” “Religious” here refers to the vocationally religious, mostly monks and nuns, but it leads me to ask… What do I profess to be as […]

Advent with A Kempis XVIII

Chapter 18: The Examples of the Holy Fathers “Study the worthy examples of the holy Fathers, those illustrious models of true perfection and devotion, and you will conclude that you are doing very little or almost nothing.” Townes Van Zandt and Them Crooked Vultures play through my friends’ speakers in a colorful apartment on Nob […]

Advent with A Kempis XVII

Chapter 17: The Monastic Life “It is no small matter to live in a monastery…” Blessed is the pilgrim With monk’s habit and tonsured head Blessed is the fool who seeks To suffer and not to spend To be tried and to be gold Blessed are the exiled For no one can remain here And […]

Advent with A Kempis XVI

Chapter 16: Bearing one another’s faults “Whatever we are unable to reform in ourselves or in others, we must clearly put up with until God chooses to change it. View this as being, perhaps, the better state, for by undergoing this test it teaches us patience without which all our actions carry little merit.” This […]

Advent with A Kempis XV

Chapter 15: Works Done with Charity “If we had a spark of true charity within us we would surely perceive the emptiness of all earthly things.” In Revelations of Divine Love, the fourteenth-century English mystic Julian of Norwich had a vision of a small round object, no larger than a hazelnut, in the palm of […]

Advent with A Kempis XIV

Chapter 14: Avoiding Hasty Judgments (Gaudete Sunday) “God desires our complete subjection to Him and wants our passionate love of Him to transcend our reasoning.” In this chapter, the medieval author sounds surprisingly post-modern. Although it is anachronistic to use the terms “modernity” and “post-modernity” in describing Kempis, the reader can see the author’s foresight […]

Advent with A Kempis XIII

Chapter 13: How to Resist Temptation (Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and First Day of Hanukkah) “Someone once said: Take a stand at the very beginning; it is much too late to apply medicines after the illness has grown worse because of long delays.” I just finished a game of Tetris on my iPhone. […]

Advent with A Kempis XII

Chapter 12: The Uses of Adversity “While enduring these afflictions he takes himself to prayer with sighs and groans.” A month ago, an Episcopal priest encouraged me to pray in tongues every day. I had heard of charismatic Episcopalians, but never met one until then. She proceeded to lay her hands on me and pray […]

Advent with A Kempis XI

Chapter 11: Achieving Peace and Acquiring Zeal for One’s Spiritual Progress “It is He who provides us with these conflicts and He wants us to be the victors” Yesterday, I took my visiting friend out to San Francisco to see the Six Sisters, Golden Gate Park, Cliff House, Sutro Baths, Legion of Honor, Lombard Street, […]