Page:Imitation-of-christ-1901.djvu/249

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is to be Received.
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the weak body also, feeleth great increase of strength bestowed on it.

11. Nevertheless our coldness is much to be bewailed and pitied, that we are not drawn with greater affection to receive Christ, in Whom doth consist all the hope of those that are to be saved, and all their merit.

For He Himself is our sanctification and redemption; He Himself is the comfort of those who are but pilgrims, and the everlasting fruition of saints.

It is therefore to be lamented that many do so little consider this salutary mystery, which causeth joy in heaven, and preserveth the whole world.

Alas for the blindness and hardness of men's hearts, that doth not more deeply weigh so unspeakable a gift; but rather cometh by the daily use thereof to regard it little or nothing!

12. For if this most holy sacrament were celebrated in one place only, and consecrated by one only priest in the world; with how great desire dost thou think would men be affected to that place, and toward such a priest of God, that they might be witnesses of the celebration of these divine mysteries?

But now many are made priests, and in many places Christ is offered; that the grace and love of God to man may appear so much the greater, the more widely this sacred communion is spread over the world.

Thanks be unto Thee, O merciful Jesu, Thou eternal shepherd, that Thou hast vouchsafed to refresh us, who are poor and in a state of banishment, with Thy precious body and blood, and to invite us to the receiving of these mysteries with the