With Greates Devotion and Ardent Love

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.





Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471) from The Imitation of Christ

Thomas was born near Cologne and spent his life in the Netherlands. His classic book The Imitation of Christ comes from a monastic background, yet has been popular with all sorts of Christians because it teaches that it is possible for anyone to model their life on that of Jesus.