A Time to Die
Page 15
At Sept-Fons, vocations were abundant. Dozens of young Trappists were sitting in the stalls of the sanctuary. Joy and cheerfulness were visible on all the faces. After Brother Théophane, they were spring buds in the garden of God.
The graves of the pious monks whose lives and deaths I have had the honor of recounting will not be covered in weeds. The novices will come to pray for their masters in the faith.
The cemeteries of the abbeys will always be in bloom.
Sept-Fons, April 17, 2017—Paris, January 1, 2018
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Notes
Extraordinary Stories
1
Jean-Paul Sartre, La Reine Albemarle ou le dernier touriste (Paris: Gaillimard, 1991). Back to text.
2 Marie de Hennezel, La Mort intime (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1995). Back to text.
3 The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, trans. Benedicta Ward (Trappist, Ky.: Cistercian Publications, 1975), 214-15. Back to text.
4 François Cheng, Five Meditations on Death: In Other Words. . . On Life, trans. Jody Gladding (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2016), 94. Back to text.
Chapter I
1 Charles Baudelaire, “Obsession”, in The Flowers of Evil, trans. James McGowan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 151. Back to text.
Chapter II
1 Charles Baudelaire, “Spleen (IV)”, in The Flowers of Evil, trans. James McGowan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 149. Back to text.
2 Gunther Anders, L’Obsolescence de I’homme (Paris: Fario, 2011). Back to text.
Chapter III
1 Victor Hugo, “Demain, des l’aube, a l’heure ou blanchit la compagne. . .”, in Selected Poems of Victor Hugo, trans. E. H. and A. M. Blackmore (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2001), 199. Back to text.
Chapter IV
1 Paul Verlaine, “My Recurring Dream”, in Paul Verlaine: Selected Poems, trans. Martin Sorrell (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 13. Back to text.
2 Pere Samuel, Qui cherchait Théophane (Les Plans-sur-Bex: Paroles et silence, 1999). Back to text.
Chapter V
1 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, vol. 1, trans. A Priest of Mount Melleray (Dublin: Browne & Nolan, 1920), 285-86,https://archive.org/stream/stbernardssermon01bern. Back to text.
Chapter VI
1 “To the Monks”, in Poems—Emile Verhaeren, trans. Will Stone (Todmorden, U.K.: Arc Publications, 2013), 40, Google Play edition. Back to text.
Chapter VII
1 Jean Racine, “Ode II”, in Le Paysage ou les promenades de Port-Royal-des-Champs, Oeuvres completes, vol. 1 (Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Bibliotheque de la Pleiade”), 1931. Back to text.
2 Saint Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions, trans. Maria Boulding, O.S.B. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012), 82. Back to text.
Chapter VIII
1 Charles Peguy, The Portal of the Mystery of Hope, trans. David Louis Schindler, Jr. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1996), 3-12. Back to text.