The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos

(New York: MacMillan, 1936/1970), 25

"'Suffer on behalf of others.'" I whispered this comforting thought to myself all night, but my angel did not return." (32)
"In fact I am still very grateful to our teachers. The real trouble doesn't lie with what they taught so much as with the education they had been given and passed on simply because they knew no other way of thinking and feeling. That education made us isolated individualists." (41)
"A busy, healthy life, normal in every way, should contain no mysteries...I think a certain type of Christianity, far removed from the spirit of the Gospels, has something to do with this prejudice, equally shared by believers and unbelievers." (41)
"Mediocrities are a trap set by the devil." (106)
"I've done my best, and what's the use? My best is nothing. A leader is not judged by his mere intentions: once he has assumed responsibility, he must answer for his results...A leader's risk is the risk of all. (125)
"Hell is not to love anymore." (150)
"Do you take God for an executioner? God wants us to be merciful with ourselves. And besides, our sorrows are not our own. He takes them on Himself, into His heart. We have no right to seek them there, mock them, outrage them." (151)
"We don't pray often enough to the angels...Do you pray to Our Lady?...We all say that—but do you pray to her as you should, as befits her? She is Our Mother—the mother of all flesh, a new Eve..." (182)
"To be afraid is not to fear." (200)
"Human agony is beyond all an act of love." (252)
"How can I hope for the death of a stoic? Plutarch's heroes both terrify and bore me. If I were to go to heaven wearing such a mask, I think even my guardian angel would laugh at me." (252)
"Does it matter? Grace is everywhere..." (255)

Topic: Spiritual Classics

Created: 2023-01-21-Sat
Updated: 2023-11-20-Mon