- Home
- Speakers
- Thomas a Kempis
- The Burning Love And Strong Desire To Receive Christ
Thomas a Kempis
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471). Born Thomas Hemerken in Kempen, Germany, around 1380, he was a Catholic monk, priest, and mystic whose life centered on spiritual devotion. At 13, he joined the Brethren of the Common Life in Deventer, Netherlands, drawn to their emphasis on personal piety and education. By 1406, he entered the Augustinian monastery of Mount St. Agnes near Zwolle, where he spent over six decades copying manuscripts, including four complete Bibles, and writing works of profound spirituality. Ordained a priest in 1413, he took on minor roles like sub-prior but focused on contemplation and guiding novices. His most famous work, The Imitation of Christ, written in Latin, urges readers to detach from worldly desires and follow Jesus’ humility, proclaiming, “Without the Way, there is no going; without the Truth, there is no knowing; without the Life, there is no living.” This text and his other writings, like meditations and saintly biographies, reflect a quiet faith that avoids worldly acclaim. Living simply, he rarely left the monastery and died there on July 25, 1471. His legacy endures through his universal call to holiness, inspiring Christians across centuries.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
Thomas a Kempis passionately expresses his deep desire to receive the Lord with utmost devotion and love, mirroring the holiness and fervor of saints and devout individuals. He humbly offers his heart and all that he has to God, seeking to emulate the reverence and love shown by the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. Kempis longs to be inflamed with holy desires and to give himself to God wholeheartedly, presenting all virtues and praises to glorify the Lord forever.
The Burning Love and Strong Desire to Receive Christ
THE DISCIPLE WITH greatest devotion and ardent love, with all affection and fervor of heart I wish to receive You, O Lord, as many saints and devout persons, most pleasing to You in their holiness of life and most fervent in devotion, desired You in Holy Communion. O my God, everlasting love, my final good, my happiness unending, I long to receive You with as strong a desire and as worthy a reverence as any of the saints ever had or could have felt, and though I am not worthy to have all these sentiments of devotion, still I offer You the full affection of my heart as if I alone had all those most pleasing and ardent desires. Yet, whatever a God-fearing mind can conceive and desire, I offer in its entirety to You with the greatest reverence and inward affection. I wish to keep nothing for self but to offer to You, willingly and most freely, myself and all that is mine. O Lord God, my Creator and my Redeemer, I long to receive You this day with such reverence, praise, and honor, with such gratitude, worthiness and love, with such faith, hope, and purity as that with which Your most holy Mother, the glorious Virgin Mary, longed for and received You when she humbly and devoutly answered the angel who announced to her the mystery of the Incarnation: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word."[52] Likewise as Your blessed precursor, the most excellent of saints, John the Baptist, gladdened by Your presence, exulted in the Holy Ghost while yet enclosed in the womb of his mother, and afterward seeing Jesus walking among men, humbled himself and with devout love declared: "The friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's voice,"[53] even so I long to be inflamed with great and holy desires and to give myself to You with all my heart. Therefore I offer and present to You the gladness of all devout hearts, their ardent affection, their mental raptures, their supernatural illuminations and heavenly visions together with all the virtues and praises which have been or shall be celebrated by all creatures in heaven and on earth, for myself and all commended to my prayers, that You may be worthily praised and glorified forever. Accept, O Lord my God, my promises and desires of giving You infinite praise and boundless benediction, which in the vastness of Your ineffable greatness are justly due You. This I render and desire to render every day and every moment of time, and in my loving prayers I invite and entreat all celestial spirits and all the faithful to join me in giving You praise and thanks. Let all people, races, and tongues praise You and with the greatest joy and most ardent devotion magnify Your sweet and holy name. And let all who reverently and devoutly celebrate this most great Sacrament and receive it in the fullness of faith, find kindness and mercy in You and humbly pray for me, a sinner. And when they have received the longed-for devotion and blissful union, and, well consoled and wonderfully refreshed, have retired from Your holy, Your celestial table, may they deign to remember my poor soul.
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471). Born Thomas Hemerken in Kempen, Germany, around 1380, he was a Catholic monk, priest, and mystic whose life centered on spiritual devotion. At 13, he joined the Brethren of the Common Life in Deventer, Netherlands, drawn to their emphasis on personal piety and education. By 1406, he entered the Augustinian monastery of Mount St. Agnes near Zwolle, where he spent over six decades copying manuscripts, including four complete Bibles, and writing works of profound spirituality. Ordained a priest in 1413, he took on minor roles like sub-prior but focused on contemplation and guiding novices. His most famous work, The Imitation of Christ, written in Latin, urges readers to detach from worldly desires and follow Jesus’ humility, proclaiming, “Without the Way, there is no going; without the Truth, there is no knowing; without the Life, there is no living.” This text and his other writings, like meditations and saintly biographies, reflect a quiet faith that avoids worldly acclaim. Living simply, he rarely left the monastery and died there on July 25, 1471. His legacy endures through his universal call to holiness, inspiring Christians across centuries.