my pope<\/a>\u201d). I think instead, yes, the death of Pope John Paul I led to my reading The Imitation of Christ. <\/i>When I saw the TV report of JPI\u2019s death the following day, I literally dashed out and bought a copy of The Imitation<\/i>\u2014me, the lapsed Episcopalian\u2014and while watching for the puff of white smoke on TV, I read long and deep in the Doubleday edition (1976), <\/i>based on the Richard Whitford translation made circa 1530.<\/p>\nWhat was it about the death of JPI that moved me to buy this book? What was it about this book that moved me to think about Catholic Christianity in a new way? Why do I still have that copy of The Imitation, <\/i>bought on September 29 or 30, 1978, while the world was waiting\u2014again\u2014for the white smoke and the words Habemus Papam?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
It\u2019s all a mystery to me. Rather than try to solve it and make this post longer than it needs to be, I\u2019ll share a few excerpts from my heavily underlined<\/b><\/u> edition of The Imitation of Christ<\/i>.<\/p>\n
1. All that is in the world is vanity except to love God and to serve Him only. <\/i>(I think that both Frank and Qoheleth would agree with that one.)<\/p>\n
2. If you would learn anything and know it profitably to the health of your soul, learn to be unknown and be glad to be considered despicable and as nothing.<\/i><\/p>\n
3. A good devout man so orders his outward business that it does not draw him to love of it; rather, he compels his business to be obedient to the will of the spirit and to the right judgment of reason.<\/i>
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4. It is great wisdom . . . not to be hasty in our deeds, not to trust much in our own wits, not readily to believe every tale, not to show straightway to others all that we hear or believe. . . .<\/i><\/p>\n
And so on, for 111 numbered sections, filled with wisdom that would take lifetimes to absorb. Who was Thomas \u00e0 Kempis? I\u2019m hoping Frank will tell us in his next post in the series, \u201cTo Be Frank.\u201d <\/i>
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![](\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_dmDaLWNETzg\/SybUYcW952I\/AAAAAAAAArQ\/pLeUH5j3Peg\/s320\/JPI\")
<\/a>I thought about this early today when I read Frank\u2019s post<\/a> bridging Pascal\u2019s Pens\u00e9es <\/i>and The Imitation of Christ. <\/i>(Can\u2019t wait for part 5 of his story.) <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/6738513599344023043-8665218428162114500?l=yimcatholic.blogspot.com\")
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