Le silence n'est pas une evasion ...
On vocation:
"There are some people God calls and sets apart in convents and monasteries. There are others God calls and leaves in society, the ones God does not `withdraw from the world.'
"These are the people who have an ordinary job, an ordinary marriage or an ordinary celibacy. The people who have ordinary sicknesses and ordinary sorrows. The people who live in ordinary houses and wear ordinary clothes. These are the people of ordinary life. The people we meet on any ordinary street. - Madeleine Delbrel
On poverty:
"We believed that we lack nothing necessary here in the streets; if we did need something more, God would have already given it to us. - Madeleine Delbrel
On the solitary life:
"We, the ordinary people of the streets, have the distinct impression that solitude is not the absence of the world, but the presence of God.
"Our solitude is the encounter with God everywhere. For us, being alone in a crowd is participating in the solitude of God.
"God is so great that there is no place for anything else., everything is within God.
"For us, the whole world is the meeting place with the One whom we cannot avoid. We encounter God's living plan right there on the busy street corners. We encounter God's splendor in the laws of nature and science. We encounter God's imprint on the earth. We encounter Christ in all these `little ones' who are his own, the ones who suffer in their bodies, the ones who are bored, the ones who are troubled, the ones who are in need of something. We encounter Christ rejected in countless acts of selfishness. - Madeleine Delbrel
On friendship:
"How could we possibly have the heart to mock these people or to hate them, this multitude of sinners of whom we are a part? - Madeleine Delbrel
And then ...
"When you finally discover that you are just one of the little people, don't conclude that this makes you special." - Madeleine Delbrel
Madeleine Delbrêl
I am most interested in the lay saints.
I think today's meditation in "Magnificat" was from her writings. I had never heard of her before.
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I read the reflection in Magnificat today, too. Never heard of her either. I was transfixed! I, too, am most interested in the lay saints. St Gianna is a favorite.
ReplyDeleteI read today's meditation too - Magnificat has used her writings before. I often think of her and JoseMaria Escriva when I write about the sanctity of ordinary life.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for posting that. I see she was French? And I used to admire the French so much, maybe for their language, their attitudes, (maybe cause I know of one ancestor on my mother's side) where I believe I actually felt a little "special" (or conceited) as this Madeline Delbrel says so practically, and one day I opened book a brother-in-law had given to my husband, exactly to a paragraph where the Blessed Virgin Mary was speaking (cannot remember the source, I'm sorry!),saying: "The only reason France was so great once is because she obeyed the Commandments of God". wow, I was really "put in my place". This lady would be a good friend to read about, so practical and loving at the same time, she seems. thanks again. Rosamaria.
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