Greco-Christian stream·The Imitation of Christ·Book IV — Of the Sacrament of the Altar·Chapter XVI. That We Ought To Lay Open Our Necessities To Christ And To Require His Grace
XVI. Laying open our necessities to Christ; requiring his grace
On the prayer at communion: the unfolding before Christ of all the soul's necessities — confessed sins, unmet temptations, beloved persons, particular griefs — and the asking of grace for each. The Sacrament as the privileged occasion of detailed intercession.
Source context
- Theme
- transparent self-disclosure of need before Christ as condition for receiving sacramental grace
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
- GA 68b, 1905-12-09Steiner characterizes the Imitation of Christ as speaking the language of the soul and places it on a level comparable to the New Testament, affirming its capacity to mediate direct interior encounter with Christ — the same dynamic this chapter enacts through the disclosure of need.
- GA 53, 1905-03-16Steiner groups the Imitation of Christ with the Gospel of John and the Bhagavad Gita as texts in which patient immersion yields spiritual fruits, indicating that the supplicatory orientation described in this chapter belongs to a legitimate path of soul development.
Cross-tradition
- Augustinian confession theologyAugustine's theology of confession in the Confessions treats the soul's articulation of its own poverty before God as the precondition for divine influx — a structural parallel to this chapter's insistence that need must be named before grace is granted.
- Sufi faqr (spiritual poverty)The Sufi concept of faqr holds that the complete acknowledgment of one's nothingness before the divine is itself the opening through which divine mercy enters, structurally congruent with the chapter's movement from disclosed necessity to received grace.
Chapter XVI. That We Ought To Lay Open Our Necessities To Christ And To Require His Grace
THAT WE OUGHT TO LAY OPEN OUR NECESSITIES TO CHRIST AND TO REQUIRE HIS GRACE
The Voice of the Disciple
O most sweet and loving Lord, whom now I devoutly desire to receive, Thou knowest my infirmity and the necessity which I suffer, in what evils and vices I lie; how often I am weighed down, tempted, disturbed, and defiled. I come unto Thee for remedy, I beseech of Thee consolation and support. I speak unto Thee who knowest all things, to whom all my secrets are open, and who alone art able perfectly to comfort and help me. Thou knowest what good thing I most stand in need of, and how poor I am in virtues.
2Behold, I stand poor and naked before Thee, requiring grace, and imploring mercy. Refresh the hungry suppliant, kindle my coldness with the fire of Thy love, illuminate my blindness with the brightness of Thy presence. Turn thou all earthly things into bitterness for me, all grievous and contrary things into patience, all things worthless and created into contempt and oblivion. Lift up my heart unto Thee in Heaven, and suffer me not to wander over the earth. Be Thou alone sweet unto me from this day forward for ever, because Thou alone art my meat and drink, my love and joy, my sweetness and my whole good.
3Oh that Thou wouldest altogether by Thy presence, kindle, consume, and transform me into Thyself; that I may be made one spirit with Thee, by the grace of inward union, and the melting of earnest love! Suffer me not to go away from Thee hungry and dry; but deal mercifully with me, as oftentimes Thou hast dealt wondrously with Thy saints. What marvel if I should be wholly kindled from Thee, and in myself should utterly fail, since Thou art fire always burning and never failing, love purifying the heart and enlightening the understanding.