#perejacquesdejesus — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 3 April: Père Jacques

At no moment did Christ conceal any element of his Passion from his mother. There has to be an unfathomable mystery in this freely willed suffering for God to treat his mother in that way. Christ treated all the saints, without exception, in the same way. To the measure that he loved a soul, to that degree he saddled it with trials.

What else would you expect? Christ is not someplace other than on the cross, with his head torn open by the crown of thorns and his body pierced by the whips and nails of his executioners.

Yes, Christ is on the cross. Christ without the cross would be too bland; the cross without Christ would be too severe. If you truly wish to do nothing apart from Christ, then you must meet him and embrace him, where he is.

You are familiar, are you not, with the vision of Saint Francis, depicted in a remarkable painting. Saint Francis is portrayed embracing Christ on the cross. But Our Lord draws his own right arm from the cross in order to embrace his friend Francis.

When Christ embraces someone, that person’s head is touched by the Crown of Thorns on the Lord’s head, and the mark of the cross is left on him. When Christ grasps someone’s hand, the mark of blood is left on him, because the Lord’s mangled hand is covered with blood. To espouse Christ is to espouse the cross. To be his companions, we must faithfully follow him, as he carries the cross and as he hangs on the cross.

Servant of God Jacques de Jésus (Lucien Bunel)

Conference 10, “The Cross: To baptize suffering and happiness”
Retreat for the Carmel of Pontoise, Friday evening, 10 September 1943

Jacques, P 2005, Listen to the silence: a retreat with Père Jacques, Murphy, F (trans. & ed.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Pietà or The Dead Christ Supported by the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist is a painting in tempera on panel, which dates to c. 1465–1470 by the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini, now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. Image credit: Pinacoteca di Brera (Public domain).

Quote of the day, 18 January: Père Jacques de Jésus

Mr. Zamansky, who was a prisoner with Père Jacques at the Royallieu camp, gave the following account of the moment when Père Jacques knew that he was leaving in one of the convoys heading east:

“We saw them off. Père Jacques was among them, his face imbued with the same peace we knew him for, but he was serious in his look and his walk. Surrendering oneself to God can only be done without any ulterior motive, and above all, without any hope of choice. And I think that’s what Père Jacques was saying the last minute I saw him: ‘Fiat voluntas tua.’ ”

In an interview given at the Carmelite convent in Avon, Mr. Michel de Bouard recounts how he was with Père Jacques in the quarantine block at the Mauthausen camp, when he told Père Jacques that he’d made a vow if he got out of that hellhole alive. Père Jacques thought about it for a moment, then said:

“No, you mustn’t tempt God; he’s the one who decides. Say ‘Fiat voluntas tua’ [Thy will be done (cf. Mt 26:42)].”

Fr. Didier-Marie Golay, ocd

Lent 2024 Carmelite Online Retreat, Week 5

Servant of God Père Jacques de Jésus—Discalced Carmelite priest and headmaster of the Carmelite boys school in Avon, France—endeavored to live the truth of his message, living a life of silence, obedience, and charity.

During the Nazi occupation of France, he enrolled three Jewish boys under false names and employed a fourth boy as a worker at the school and monastery of the friars. With the aid of a local villager, he was able to shelter the father of one of the students. Furthermore, he hired a noted Jewish botanist as a faculty member at the boarding school.

On 15 January 1944 between 10:00 and 10:30 in the morning, the German officers came for Père Jacques and the three students he had been sheltering at the boarding school; in a separate Gestapo raid in Fontainebleau, the botanist, his mother, and his sister were arrested at their home.

Although Père Jacques was sent to different concentration camps, the students, their botany teacher, and his family were incarcerated in the Melun detention center in Paris on 15 January. On 18 January they were transferred to the Drancy transit camp in the northeastern suburb of Paris.

On 3 February 1944 the students, their teacher, and his family were deported to Auschwitz in a transport of roughly 1200 persons. Upon their arrival in Auschwitz on 6 February, 985 persons were sent directly to the gas chambers. The Carmelite students from Avon, their botany teacher, his mother, and his sister all perished that day.

Only the fourth boy survived because he was working in the monastery on 15 January when the Gestapo arrived.

Prayer for the Beatification of Père Jacques de Jésus

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Père Jacques and some of the boys he cared for through the years. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (by permission).

#Jews #obedience #PèreJacquesDeJésus #ServantOfGod #willOfGod

Quote of the day, 6 August: Père Jacques de Jésus

A rarely cited phrase from Saint John’s Gospel sheds light on the heart of Christ. That phrase, “He would not trust himself to them…” [cf. Jn 2:24–25], explains the serene seriousness of his face. Saint John tells us that Christ does not place his trust in his followers, because he knows the secrets in their hearts.

Each time he tries to confide in them, the response is a silly lack of understanding. Do you recall the reaction of his closest companions at the time of the Agony in the Garden? They fell asleep!

Are we any different? Do you think that Christ can place his trust in us? Would he say something different if he lived in our midst? Or would it still be: “Non credebat eis” (“he would not trust himself to them”).

The serene silence of Jesus thus flows from the secret deep within him. Moreover, he likewise enjoys times of deep joy, but they are constantly accompanied by the dreadful image of Calvary and the disappointment derived from human sinfulness.

These feelings are always present together. Even at the peak of his Passion, the beatific vision perdures in the depths of his soul. Christ experiences ecstatic moments on Mount Tabor, but even during those moments in the company of Moses and Elijah, he conversed about his Passion for the redemption of sinners.

That serene silence is the hallmark of Christ.

Servant of God Père Jacques de Jésus

Conference 8: Silence
Thursday 9 September 1943
Retreat for the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Pontoise

Jacques, P 2005, Listen to the silence: A retreat with Père Jacques, translated from the French and edited by Murphy F, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Detail from Icon: The Transfiguration, tempera on panel, first quarter 16th century, Novgorod. From the Feasts Tier collection. Image credit: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (Public domain).

#PèreJacquesDeJésus #secretKnowledge #silence #spirituality #Transfiguration

Quote of the day, 15 January: Père Jacques

In contemplating the life of Christ Jesus, Père Jacques sees him fulfilling the Father’s will. Often, he would quote the Gethsemane story: “Fiat voluntas tuas” (“Thy will be done,” Lk 22:42).

On 29 September 1936, he wrote to a friend:

“Don’t forget to pray with the weight of your worries. Suffering is such a powerful prayer! Let your trial detach you from the earth, and, freed, rest in God without trouble or worry. Say over and over to God: Fiat voluntas tua!”

He knew the cost of saying Fiat. In 1929, when he wished to enter Carmel, his bishop wrote to Rome and he was prevented from doing so. He confided in the prioress of the Carmel of Le Havre:

“For two days I struggled against a thousand feelings of sadness, despondency, discouragement and, above all, revolt. No matter how much my will repeated a sincere Fiat to the Good Lord, all sensitivity and pride shook and put wicked thoughts into my mind.”

With the breath of the Holy Spirit, Père Jacques would have the fortitude to repeat this Fiat in the deportation camps and to help his fellow prisoners say it. Several testimonies bear witness to this.

Mr. Zamansky, who was a prisoner with Père Jacques at the Royallieu camp, gave the following account of the moment when Père Jacques knew that he was leaving in one of the convoys heading east:

“We saw them off. Père Jacques was among them, his face imbued with the same peace we knew him for, but he was serious in his look and his walk. Surrendering oneself to God can only be done without any ulterior motive, and above all, without any hope of choice. And I think that’s what Père Jacques was saying the last minute I saw him: ‘Fiat voluntas tua.’ ”

In an interview given at the Carmelite convent in Avon, Mr. Michel de Bouard recounts how he was with Père Jacques in the quarantine block at the Mauthausen camp, when he told Père Jacques that he’d made a vow if he got out of that hellhole alive. Père Jacques thought about it for a moment, then said:

“No, you mustn’t tempt God; he’s the one who decides. Say ‘Fiat voluntas tua’ [Thy will be done (cf. Mt 26:42)].”

Mr. de Bouard continued:

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve realized that the true thought of faith, the deepest, the highest thought, is to say ‘Thy will be done’. Saying Fiat voluntas tua as we often did in the morning, on the roll-call square, in the smoke of the crematorium, was hard to say without reluctance. By giving me this instruction, Père Jacques, once again, showed me where the ridgeline was, where I had to try to place myself.”

Père Jacques didn’t just preach this abandonment to Divine Providence, he lived it to the end in his own flesh.

During the retreat that he preached at the Carmel of Pontoise, in a conference entitled: “Hope and abandonment,” he quoted from the Book of Job and concluded as follows:

“’Though he kill me, yet I will hope in him!’ [Job 13:15]. Here is a soul who knows what it is to hope—who knows what it is to trust in God—to say to God: ‘Our Father, Thy will be done!’”

Didier-Marie Golay, o.c.d.

Through the Cross Toward the Light
2024 Advent Online Retreat, Week 5

Prayer for the Beatification
of Père Jacques de Jésus

Learn more about Père Jacques

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Père Jacques with students from the Discalced Carmelite boarding school in Avon, France, Le Petit Collège Sainte Thérèse de l’Enfant Jésus. Père Jacques served as headmaster from 1934 until his arrest. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

#concentrationCamp #faith #fiat #Mauthausen #PèreJacquesDeJésus #politicalPrisoner #prayer #ServantOfGod #suffering #trust #willOfGod

Quote of the day, 5 December: Père Jacques

We have also seen God’s remarkable preparation of the Virgin Mary for her role as Mother of the Word made flesh. God exempted her from original sin and its consequences.

She is pure creature; God is pure deity, totally independent. For the Virgin Mary, her virginity lies in being a pure creature of God, namely, a creature living in that total dependence on the will of God.

Indeed, when we examine the Virgin Mary’s life, when we gather the conclusions of the Fathers of the Church who dwelt on this Marian mystery, and when we study the works of theologians, we find that she was absolutely obedient to the will of God, even to the least indications of that will.

Servant of God Jacques de Jésus

Conference 6, Virginity in God and in Mary
Wednesday Evening, 8 September 1943

Jacques, P 2005, Listen to the silence: A retreat with Père Jacques, translated from the French and edited by Murphy F, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured Image: This detail from The Annunciation by the Italian artist Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (1563–1639) is an oil on canvas painting executed in 1623 for Charles Emmanuel I, the Duke of Savoy. It is one of the masterpieces found in the collections of the Musei Reali di Torino. Image credit: Adobe Stock (stock photo)

#ImmaculateConception #MotherOfChrist #obedience #PèreJacquesDeJésus #ServantOfGod #VirginMary #virginity #willOfGod

Christ possessed the beatific vision precisely because no human “I” separated him from God. Thus Christ directly beheld God’s very being, as seen in heaven. Christ lived and moved about, bearing heaven within himself.

Conversely, the Blessed Virgin Mary did have a human “I.” As a totally human creature, she was a human person. As such, she would say, “I wish, I love or I do,” on the basis of her human personhood, which informed all her human actions.

However, the Virgin Mary was so closely conformed to God’s will, that her human “I” dissolved and became bathed in the divine will. Thus, both Christ and Mary attained the pinnacle of prayer.

Such prayer is the goal of the entire teaching of Saint John of the Cross. It is the “Living Flame of Love,” which blazes at the summit of the road and crowns the conclusion of the canticle. It is Mount Carmel itself. That flame burns with infinite intensity in Christ and with brilliant brightness in the Virgin Mary.

Like all others who have come to Carmel, we have come with that same goal in mind. “A[d] quid venisti?” (“Why have you come here?”). In response to the question: what is our life’s work, we have said: to be persons of prayer.

If we are not persons of prayer, our lives are meaningless. Even God can do nothing with us, if we are not persons of prayer. In the words of the Gospel: “You are the salt of the earth. But, if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot” [Mt 5:13].

In both the Church on earth and the Kingdom of Heaven, we are useless, unless we are persons of prayer. We live our life only once, not twice. Therefore, each day, which slips slowly through our fingers, hour by hour, is irretrievable. A life misspent is lost forever. Our life is a failure, if it is not a life of contemplation, love, and prayer.

Servant of God Père Jacques de Jésus

Conference 7, “Our Three Vows: Total Death”
Retreat for the Carmel of Pontoise
Thursday morning, 9 September 1943

Jacques, P 2005, Listen to the silence: A retreat with Père Jacques, translated from the French and edited by Murphy F, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: A moment of contemplation on the beach at La Rochelle (Charentes-Maritime) France. Photo credit: nicolas_oddo / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/09/08/jdj-conf7/

#BlessedVirginMary #contemplation #JesusChrist #livingFlameOfLove #love #MountCarmel #PèreJacquesDeJésus #prayer #ServantOfGod #StJohnOfTheCross

The Virgin Mary, with child, in the mystery of her Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth, is the model for all the baptized who carry the presence of Christ within them. Mary opens to us the paths of interiority as well as mission, as Father Jacques says in this sermon from May 1927 for the faithful during the month of Mary:

“Mary spent many delightful months in divine friendship when she was carrying Jesus. But brothers and sisters, we too carry God within us; we too are certain of possessing the Good God living within us, as long as our souls remain in a state of grace (…)

“Oh brothers and sisters, if only this mystery could be revealed to your eyes. If one day your eyes were to grasp the presence of the Good God in the most intimate part of your hearts, how your life would be changed, what a transformation in your whole being!

“So let us resolve to develop within ourselves the habit of thinking about God’s presence. We are God-bearers; the Good Lord lives in us. Oh, that from time to time, in the course of our days, our souls might recollect themselves for a moment, perhaps just a few seconds, to close our eyes, to descend into ourselves, and there encounter God, the Good Lord, that we might look at Him with a smile, and madly lose ourselves in Him in an affectionate embrace.

“Oh yes, may each hour of our lives bring us greater intimacy with the divine guest who rests in our souls. This will be our joy, our consolation; Mary will help us and be our example.”

This awareness, deeply rooted in Father Jacques’ heart, that every faithful baptized person carries Christ within them, was present even in his seminary days, before he had delved into the teachings of the Carmelite saints.

He wrote:

“We carry within us always and everywhere the Good God, the Holy Trinity, who dwells within us by grace… Ah yes, to live like that within oneself, with the Good God everywhere, always, in a hotel, on a train, on the road, in the countryside, on a street!” (L. 14/01/1924).

Jean-Alexandre de Garidel, o.c.d.

Meditation for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (excerpt)
Carmelite Online Advent Retreat, 21 December 2014

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: This detail of a stained glass window featuring the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is located in the historic Church of Saint-Laurent in Paris, specifically in the chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Malades (Our Lady of the Sick). The stained glass artists were Antoine Lusson (fils) and Léon Lefèvre. This window was crafted in 1874 by Lusson and Lefèvre. Image credit: Mbzt / Wikimedia Commons (Some rights reserved)

Interestingly, twenty years earlier, employees of Lusson’s studio in Le Mans, France, had collaborated with the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Le Mans, who operated their own stained glass studio at the monastery. For those interested in learning more about stained glass from the Carmel of Le Mans, the documentary “Vibrant Light” details the history of the Carmelite stained glass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the University of Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Indiana. The university’s founder, Father Edward Sorin, was once the chaplain of the Discalced Carmelite nuns in Le Mans.

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/05/30/jacques-visitation/

#BlessedVirginMary #grace #homily #indwelling #intimacy #Jesus #mystery #PèreJacquesDeJésus #presenceOfGod #transformation #Visitation

Silence was a hallmark of Père Jacques’ life, so deeply devoted to Our Lady. One of his fellow prisoners in the concentration camp testified to his contemplative spirit:

I can still see Père Jacques kneeling on the floor of that poor barrack, without a kneeler, without any support—his whole soul concentrated and united with God. This vision of Père Jacques alone was a great comfort to me. I see his eyes fixed on the altar, his eyes where a gentle flame shone, like the flame in a shrine.

Now, let’s hear Père Jacques’ inspiring words.

God is eternal silence; God dwells in silence. He is eternal silence because he is the One who has totally realized his own being because he says all and possesses all. He is infinite happiness and infinite life. All God’s works are marked by this characteristic. Contemplate the Incarnation; it was accomplished in the silence of the Virgin Mary’s chamber at a time when she was in prolonged silence, her door closed. Our Lord’s birth came during the night, while all things were enveloped in silence. That is how the Word of God appeared on earth, and only Mary and Joseph were silently with him. They did not overwhelm him with their questions, for they were accustomed to guarding their innermost thoughts.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Carmelite Quotes podcast for more inspiring quotes and reflections. We’re available on Spotify and will be appearing soon on other platforms.

Jacques, P 2005, Listen to the silence: A retreat with Père Jacques, translated from the French and edited by Murphy F, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Mary at the Loom is an oil on canvas painting executed in 1895 by British artist William Henry Margetson (1861–1940). It comes from the collections of Victoria Art Gallery in Bath, England. Image credit: Victoria Art Gallery / ArtUK (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/05/01/mdj2024-ep001/

#God #incarnation #JesusChrist #nativity #night #PèreJacquesDeJésus #ServantOfGod #silence #StJoseph #VirginMary