“Until the end of time the Church will remain a newly-wed, and it is really in this way that Saint John speaks of her. Until the end of time, the Church combats death, and holds over death the victory that was given her in advance. She gives birth to the resurrected, and while time lasts she advances infinitely toward the fullness of her youth, and it is in her that we find the law of the eternal life that is in us.”

Madeleine DELBRÊL (1904-1964)
Essayist, Social Worker, and Catholic Mystic

“My friends were very much at ease in my world; but they also brought what I had to call “their world,” their reality, and what a reality! They spoke about everything, but also about God who seemed to be as indispensable to them as air. They were at ease with everyone, but with a simple impertinence which even went so far as to excuse itself for being so comfortable, and into all discussions, projects, and stories, they mixed the words, the ideas, and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christ couldn’t have seemed more real if they’d have pulled up a chair for Him. Yes, they worked like everyone else, and they had joys and disappointments like everyone else — all that was perfectly real for them; but they were all the more interested in what seemed simply to be a great change of state in their life, and the consequent reunion with this God whom they were already so happy to encounter. Having met up with them so often during several months, I could no longer honestly leave God, though not necessarily their God, in the absurd. Thus my question changed, metamorphosed, and thus, in order to stay true to my anti-idealism, I modified what I thought was just a detail in my way of thinking. If I was going to be honest, I had to conclude that since He was no longer rigorously impossible, God certainly ought not to be treated as non-existent. I chose what seemed to me the best way of expressing my change of perspective: I decided to pray.”

Madeleine DELBRÊL (1904-1964)
Essayist, Social Worker, and Catholic Mystic