Monday Devotion: Excerpt from The Imitation of Christ


Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross, and Offering Ourselves

The Voice of the Beloved

Of my own freewill I offered Myself to God the Father for your sins1 – My arms were outstretched on the Cross and My body naked, so that nothing remained in Me that was not completely turned into a sacrifice to make propitiation for your sins.2

In the same way, you should offer ourself willingly to Me every day in holy communion as a pure and “living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service,”3 together with all your strength and affections, and with all the inward devotion that you can.

What more do I require of you than that you abandon yourself entirely to Me?

whatever You would give Me besides yourself is of no value to Me, for I seek you4 and not your gifts.

_____________________

Scripture Reference:

1 Isaiah 53:5, Hebrews 9:28

2 Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2, 4:10

3 Romans 12:1

4 Proverbs 23:26

________________________

Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge Logos, 1999), 263-264. Print.

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