East Anglia Seminarians: Imitation 10

Sunday 20 March 2011

Imitation 10 - Friends with Christ

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (top right) by Velazquez

From the Imitation:

Blessed is he who understands what it is to love Jesus and to despise himself for the sake of Jesus. We must leave for this Friend every other friend, because Jesus wants us to love him above all things.

Here Thomas a Kempis gets to the heart of the matter. All discipline in the spiritual life is ordered to friendship with Christ. To "despise" oneself in this sense doesn't mean to hate oneself, but to count one's own comforts and privileges as nothing in the face of gaining the love of Christ. Such self-forgetful love is natural, say, in the case of a young couple. It is also the love that the saints are shown to have in Revelation 12: 11 - "they loved not their lives even unto death." This love is in fact that of Christ himself who "emptied himself" to become man for our sake (Phil 2 7: 7). To leave our friends for this Friend, in a similar way, doesn't mean that we have no friends besides Christ, but that we have no friends contrary to Christ, or even equal to Christ. That is, we do not keep company that will prevent us living our true Christian vocation (think of Caravaggio's painting of the Call of Matthew), and we do not depend on our friends the same we depend on Jesus, who is the Strength to whom we turn, the God who shows us love (Psalm 59: 17). Lent therefore is a great opportunity for stopping to look at this relationship, to ask ourselves if we are willing to "waste time" with Jesus.

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Prayer for Priestly Vocations

O Lord Jesus Christ, Who moved to pity at the sight of the multitudes, scattered like sheep without a shepherd, didst say to Thy disciples: "The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send labourers into His harvest," deign to turn Thine eyes of pity on this our diocese, and to call to Thy priesthood young men, who will spend themselves and be spent for Thy honour and glory, and for the souls whom Thou has redeemed with Thy Most Precious Blood, Who livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer for Seminarians

O Lord Jesus Christ, great High Priest, I pray that You call many worthy souls to Your holy priesthood.

Enlighten the Bishop in the choice of candidates, the Spiritual Director in molding them, and the professors in instructing them.

Lead the seminarians daily in Your unerring footsteps; so that they may become priests who are models of purity, possessors of wisdom and heroes of sacrifice; steeped in humility and aflame with love for God and man; apostles of Your glory and sanctifiers of souls.

Amen.

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for our Pontiff, Pope Benedict.
R. The Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him to be blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies

Our Father. Hail Mary.

Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, have mercy upon Thy servant, Benedict, our Supreme Pontiff, and direct him, according to Thy loving-kindness, in the way of eternal salvation; that, of thy gift, he may ever desire that which is pleasing unto thee and may accomplish it with all his might. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen

Prayer for the Queen

V. O Lord, save Elizabeth, our Queen.
R. And hear us on the day we call upon you.

V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come before you.

[V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.]

Let us pray

Almighty God, we pray, that your servant Elizabeth, our Queen, who, by your providence has received the governance of this realm, may continue to grow in every virtue, that, imbued with your heavenly grace, she may be preserved from all that is harmful and evil and, being blessed with your favour may, with her consort and the royal family, come at last into your presence, through Christ who is the way, the truth and the life and who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.