Pére Jacques by Michael Carrouges

(New York: Macmillan, 1961), 269

  • Pére Jacques' Father: "secretly said his rosary by counting the beads in his pocket on the way to work" (13)
  • "the monk has always excited the imagination of believers and unbelievers in an altogether special way: the monk cannot be a man who compromises" (13)
  • Pére Jacques' mother after he almost died: "My God I promised him to Thee. Thou hast left him to me longer than I could have hoped. Thy will be done!" (17)
  • "Try to do what I myself have often done: receive Communion in the morning, after a good preparation the night before, and go to make your act of thanksgiving in the solitude of the woods. I have found a restful consolation in the quiet of the woods, in the murmur of trees, in the prayer of birds. How near one feels the presence of God in the fullness of nature. It is there, far from the cities where evil festers, that He is best pleased." (34)
  • "The saints are the windows that filter the rays of divine love onto the world, insofar as they conform to God's will." (38)
  • "Discouragement is only hurt pride. It is born in weak souls of an excess of confidence in their own powers and a lack of confidence in God." (40)
  • "What mattered in Lucien's life, as in the life of anyone else, was the everydayness of it. Let us not be fooled by the mental illusion that magnifies only the exceptional moments. The reality of life, its harsh materialism as well as its spiritual climate, first and foremost dwell in what seems daily, banal routine. Pére Jacques did not become the Pére Jacques of the concentration camps in a moment. He had been prepared for the worst of human ordeals by obscure and monotonous years, by years of inner struggle, of waiting, of inner changes and the desire to do the will of God more than his own." (43-44)
  • "We never saw him trying to kill time or to make use of it by reading a book, even for study purposes. He was there to supervise, so he supervised. He supervised and he prayed." (52)
  • "Books were his only luxury." (54), but he sold them all so his scouts could go to the Jamboree (64)
  • Like all the saints, "He was himself." (61)
  • "Alone with God for the entire day? I have never been so happy!" (74)
  • "Lucien was not one of those who 'demonstrate' the existence of God, but one of those who show forth God in the measure that their own life has become translucent in the presence of the Lord." (74)
  • On Work: "What emptiness is the existence of the greater part of the people! Some go to work with no other thought than to see the end of day come, to wait for this holiday or that leave, in order to enjoy this or that pleasure trip. And thus the days jostle each other aside, all of them absolutely devoid of any enduring fruit. Others are bent on acquiring wealth or a place in the public eye. And when they achieve the object of their covetousness, either they find themselves unassuaged and require still more, or they disappear from the stage of the world! Poor people! Yes, it does one good to live in God, to draw nourishment from Him in a continual communion with His holy will and His infinite Being!" (76)
  • Sin: "Each time that your weakness may cause you to fall, you must not be vexed with yourself or despair, but patiently get up again and resume the struggle. A transgression is nothing if it does not bring about despair." (78)
  • "Never have the saints attributed great merits to themselves." (78)
  • Practice of the Presence of God: "From time to time during the day you must put yourself in the presence of God. Then close your eyes for a moment, tell yourself He is there, close to you, enveloping you with His being, waiting for a small token of affection from you, smile at Him and say a word to Him from your heart. Repeat the same thing often during the day, and soon (after several months) a great love of God will awaken in you and you will give yourself wholly to Him." (79
  • "Read the Bible, say the rosary. Read a few of Pascal's pensées slowly every day, mediate upon them and come back to them several times. What an education of the soul is familiarity with Pascal!...Live the Bible by picking up the rosary. Begin with the beautiful and substantial epistles of St. Paul. Then read Genesis, afterward Ecclesiastes and Job. In a word: the preaching of the Apostle side by side with the creation of the world and with human anguish...Make sacrifices. It is absolutely necessary that you put mortification in your life. Impost on yourself the little sufferings, the little privations which you will be able to decide on for yourself..." (81-82)
    • Live the Bible by picking up the rosary. Take up the Bible not as an ordinary book but on your knees, kissing the book before and after reading. Scripture does not disclose itself at the first reading. It is a difficult book, just as sainthood is difficult, but it too contains within itself a mysterious assistance to one who would understand it. ^5a772f
  • Carmelite friars "are at once monks and apostles" (87)
  • "In the pure silence of the monastery situated at the end of the park of Fontainebleau on the edge of the great forest, he found a peace that completely enchanted him...he read and reread the Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross...then long conversations took place, radiant with the poetry and mysticism of Mount Carmel" (89-90)
  • "He asked only for his armor: the works of St. Theresa and of St. John of the Cross" (93)
  • "If you think that a St. Teresa of Ávila or a St. John of the Cross remains inaccessible or even incomprehensible, then listen to the voice of one who was the cook in the Carmelite convent on Rue de Vaugirar, under Louis XIV, Frère Laurent de la Résurrection: 'The time of action is no different from that of prayer. I possess God just as tranquilly in the confusion of my kitchen, where sometimes several persons ask me for different things at the same time, as if I were on my knees before the Blessed Sacrament. My faith itself sometimes becomes so enlightened that I believe it to have disappeared; it seems to me that the veil of obscurity has been lifted, that the endless light of the outer life begins to appear. And it is not necessary to have great things to do so. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God. When it is done, if I have nothing else to do, I cast myself on the floor and adore my God from whom the grace to do so has come, after which I rise more content than a King." (100-101)
  • Education: "True education, the only one that gives complete and definite results, consists in teaching children to make use of their freedom." (125)
  • His approach to discipline and education 126-128: "There is no system; it is communicated from soul to soul in the stream of life as it is lived"
  • "I sate myself with poetry" (139)
  • "But when such a man has a sacred flame at the depths of his heart, when he is determined to face tings not to withdraw into himself but to be the light that illuminates, one such man is enough to change the whole climate." (162)
  • "The greatest proof of trust that you could give to Him is to accept, from the depths of your heart, that His will be done, no matter what it be." (195)
  • "[I was] waiting for a smile of comfort to come from heaven. It was [Pére Jacques] who brought it." (219)
  • "When there is a flood of distress, there must be a flood of charity." (235)
  • "He is giving away the days of his life" quite literally with the food he gave away (240)

Source: Fr. Dailey

Bibliography