"Activate yourself to duty by remembering your position, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be"
About this Quote
The imperative "Activate yourself to duty" speaks to the inner discipline at the heart of Thomas a Kempis's spirituality. Rather than waiting for inspiration or approval, the soul is to rouse itself by remembering three anchors: position, identity, and obligation. Position recalls ones station before God and within a community - creature before Creator, member within a body, entrusted with particular roles. Identity calls to mind who you are in truth, not in fantasy or vanity: a disciple, a sinner forgiven, a person with gifts and limits. Obligation remembers promises freely made and responsibilities embraced, whether vows in religious life, baptismal commitments, or the everyday duties of family, work, and citizenship.
Thomas a Kempis, writing in the spirit of the Devotio Moderna, emphasized interiority, humility, and steady fidelity over dramatic ecstasies. The counsel fits a world of daily prayer and labor where holiness is forged by constancy. Memory becomes a moral engine: by recollection of vocation and commitments, the will finds a reason to move even when feelings falter. Duty here is not cold legalism but alignment with the self one has promised to become. Action flows from identity, and identity is clarified by remembering whose one is and what one is for.
The line also resonates beyond monastic walls. Leaders, professionals, parents, and citizens alike are strengthened by recalling the roles they hold and the standards they have accepted. Such recollection cuts through distraction and mood. It acknowledges that character is built through keeping faith with ones word. There is a Stoic echo in the call to role-remembrance, yet the center is Christian: the obligations are made coram Deo, before God, and are fulfilled through grace strengthened by practices of prayer, examen, and service.
To activate oneself is to refuse drift. To remember position, self, and obligation is to choose fidelity over impulse, vocation over vanity, and the long obedience that shapes a life into something trustworthy.
Thomas a Kempis, writing in the spirit of the Devotio Moderna, emphasized interiority, humility, and steady fidelity over dramatic ecstasies. The counsel fits a world of daily prayer and labor where holiness is forged by constancy. Memory becomes a moral engine: by recollection of vocation and commitments, the will finds a reason to move even when feelings falter. Duty here is not cold legalism but alignment with the self one has promised to become. Action flows from identity, and identity is clarified by remembering whose one is and what one is for.
The line also resonates beyond monastic walls. Leaders, professionals, parents, and citizens alike are strengthened by recalling the roles they hold and the standards they have accepted. Such recollection cuts through distraction and mood. It acknowledges that character is built through keeping faith with ones word. There is a Stoic echo in the call to role-remembrance, yet the center is Christian: the obligations are made coram Deo, before God, and are fulfilled through grace strengthened by practices of prayer, examen, and service.
To activate oneself is to refuse drift. To remember position, self, and obligation is to choose fidelity over impulse, vocation over vanity, and the long obedience that shapes a life into something trustworthy.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Discipline |
|---|
More Quotes by Thomas
Add to List
