Eva Jelínková
On Saturday, November 8, 2008, there will be a day of spiritual renewal at the seminar church of St. Vojtěch in Dejvice, Prague, with two members of the Notre Dame de Vie institute, Sister Miriam Michelin, who is a professor at a high school in France, and Father Etienne Michelin, who takes care of the formation of members at the institute's headquarters in Venasque, gives lectures in various places in France and abroad, leads exercises for priests and seminarians, etc. With this article, we would like to introduce the readers of the Karmel magazine to the founder of their institute, Father Marie-Eugene Grialou, OCD. At the same time, we want to prepare the ground for the upcoming Czech edition of his seminal work “I Want to See God”.
France produced a number of outstanding personalities for the church in the twentieth century, whose lives and teachings greatly influenced the contemporary form of the church and whose prophetic call for renewal opened the way for the Second Vatican Council. At the same time, in France during the last century, a number of new communities and movements arose that sensitively responded to the changing spiritual needs of the contemporary world.
One of them is the new Carmelite community, the Notre Dame de Vie institute. It was founded in the early 1930s in Provence and today operates on several continents.
In the following pages, we will introduce the founder of the institute, the Discalced Carmelite Marie-Eugene Grialou, one of the great teachers of inner prayer. In recounting his life, we will highlight themes that are particularly prominent in his spirituality.
Life
Henri Grialou was born on December 2, 1894, as the third of five children in a poor family in Aveyron. In 1904, Henri's father died, and therefore his mother had to work hard to provide for the large family. Even at just under eleven years old, during his first Holy Communion, Henri clearly senses his calling to the priesthood and shortly thereafter goes to study in Italy (the family would not see each other for three years), as the Fathers of the Holy Spirit offered him free studies at their school in the Italian town of Susa.
In 1908, Henri entered a small seminary in Graves and it was here, probably that same year, that he discovers St. Therese of Lisieux. He gets into his hands, as he describes it, “such a very small book,” The Story of a Soul, and in a letter from 1913 he states that no other book has ever made such an impression on him. He keeps it with him constantly, even later on the front.
In 1911, he then enters a large seminary in Rodez and begins his studies in theology.
At the beginning of the war, in 1914, like many of his peers, Henri is drafted, is wounded, but soon returns to the front and participates in all the great battles (Verdun, Flanders). The fact that he came through them without injury, he gratefully attributes to the protection of his little friend, St. Therese. In one letter he writes: “Sister Therese deflects the bullets...”
After the war, he returns to the seminary, and in 1920 is ordained a deacon, reads the life of St. John of the Cross, and recognizes his calling to become a Carmelite. However, his path to Carmel encounters a number of obstacles. His spiritual father and his bishop strongly oppose his entry; his mother also disagrees with his decision. Henri asks God for a sign, and he receives it.
In 1922, he is ordained a priest. “I am a priest! That is enough for me to be happy!” he declares and will repeat this until the end of his life. He celebrates his first Mass in Aveyron, but after a week, without informing his mother, with whom it will take two years to reconcile, he leaves for Carmel.
He enters the novitiate of the Discalced Carmelites in Avon, where the brothers had taken refuge in 1920 after returning from forced exile (at the beginning of the 20th century, relations between the church and the state in France were very tense). A year of silence and study of the Carmelite saints opens up for him. It is also a year of intense prayer. In 1923, the year of the beatification of Therese of Lisieux, Henri makes his first vows, during which he receives the name Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus.
Father Marie-Eugene and St. Therese of Lisieux
A deep friendship with St. Therese, whose surname "of the Child Jesus" he adopted, a friendship that began so intensely in his youth, will last until Easter Monday 1967, when Father Marie-Eugene "enters into life." To his "childhood friend," as he called Therese and who was so dear to him, he devoted many talks, lectures, articles, and spiritual exercises throughout his life. Already in 1923, when a significant part of theologians still maintained considerable reservations towards Therese, he did not hesitate to write: “The mission of this blessed girl is, in my opinion, to pour love into souls in the form that God wants for our time.” And long before St. Therese was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church, in 1958, he said during a lecture in Bordeaux: “Therese is one of the greatest teachers of all time and can surely be placed alongside such masters as St. Benedict, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Francis de Sales...” On another occasion, he wrote: “I understood Mercy. St. Therese sensed its tenderness, I sensed its strength.”1
Already after the first vows, Father Marie-Eugene begins to actively serve apostolically, giving exercises not only with St. Therese of Lisieux but also with St. John of the Cross, preaching, working in parishes with various groups.
Since 1925, he has been the editor of the journal Carmel and himself intensively publishes in it for several decades.
He makes his solemn profession on March 11, 1926.
Founding of the Notre Dame de Vie Institute
In 1928, Father Marie-Eugene is appointed novice master at Petit Castelet. Here he comes into contact with a philosophical society in Marseille (thus an environment of intellectuals and the university) and is asked to provide them with a more systematic introduction to prayer.
In 1929, three young teachers from Cours Notre Dame in Marseille turn to him, eager to dedicate themselves to God and seeking how to fulfill this calling. Their desire corresponds to the deep intuition of Marie-Eugene, who wished to proclaim the joy of God's closeness everywhere in the world, "in the suburbs, in the boulevards," but who was also aware that the Carmelites, due to their small number, had no chance of proclaiming this divine closeness everywhere it was needed, and therefore longed to find helpers, "who would live the teachings of the church and could pass them on." A small group of such people begins to form around Marie-Eugene. In 1932, Father Marie-Eugene discovers the old pilgrimage site of Notre Dame de Vie, located in Venasque in Provence, which captivated him, and it is here that he receives property as a gift. With the help of those three teachers, especially Marie Pila, a secular institute of Notre Dame de Vie soon begins to take shape here, which will be officially recognized by the Church in 1948. In its beginnings, the institute has only a female branch that brings together women determined to live in the world in various professions (predominantly working in education and healthcare in France) Carmelite spirituality. After a two-year formation, the members of the institute promise poverty, chastity, and obedience, committing to a life built on inner prayer (they dedicate two hours daily to it) and on daily participation in the Holy Mass. These women want to live fully with God in the midst of the world, for this world, bringing a contemplative dimension to all areas of life, even the most mundane. They have the opportunity each year to deepen their lives by spending time in silence and solitude, lasting more than a month.
In the second half of the 1950s, alongside the female branch of the institute, a male lay branch and a male priestly branch are also formed.
More and more foundations are being established on all continents.
Venasque will become a place where people will come to immerse themselves in close contact with God, to feel His presence, and subsequently bring Him into various environments where they will stay. Father Marie-Eugene wanted the institute to be a school of love. Love that alone has value because it finds its source in the Holy Spirit.
Father Marie-Eugene lives between 1932 and 1936 in Agen, but regularly returns to Provence to give prayer courses that will become the basis for his work I Want to See God (Je veux voir Dieu).
In 1937, he is appointed a member of the general council of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (definitor) and thus goes to Rome, where, with the exception of the war years, he will stay until 1955. During the war, he visits various Carmels in France, gives many lectures on Carmelite spirituality, especially on St. John of the Cross and his "little sister," St. Therese of Lisieux, and also preaches. Whenever Father Marie-Eugene lectured, he captivated all listeners with his lively, compelling address; he spoke from memory and without notes, it was typical for him to be carried away by a spontaneous flow of thoughts. (His written expression is much more concise.)
During his post-war stay in Rome, he supports the establishment of various Carmelite missionary centers, especially in the Middle East. In the winter of 1954–1955, he travels to the Middle and Far East to encourage Carmelite missions that often lived in the midst of war and persecution, constantly repeating to them that prayer is the only meaningful defense against the expansion of communism.
At the same time, during this time, he brings together the final form of his work I Want to See God, which is a summary of Carmelite spirituality based on the writings of John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and Therese of Lisieux.
Father Marie-Eugene is also convinced of the need to present to the contemporary world the original, unedited teachings of Therese of Lisieux, and therefore he seeks to publish Therese’s autobiographical writings. In 1953, with the full consent of the Carmel in Lisieux, where Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face (Therese’s sister Celina) still lives, Father Grialou entrusts this task to his confrère in the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Father Francis of the Blessed Virgin. The publication of the autobiographical writings in full and without later interventions had a huge significance for the history of Christian spirituality.
After the opening of the International College of Discalced Carmelites in Rome (the present Teresianum), in which he participated in the construction, Father Marie-Eugene returns to France and takes care mainly of the institute he founded, which is quickly growing. His confrères elect him provincial of the province of Avignon three times.
He cares deeply about aggiornamento (the effort to bring the church closer to people in today's world), and thus actively strives to participate in its practical implementation.
A Man of Prayer
Throughout his life, amid all the various activities and challenges that were placed before him (somewhere he says that the Lord often sent him where he did not want to go), Father Marie-Eugene carries within him a constant desire for silence, solitude, and prayer.
He speaks of inner prayer as the unfolding of God’s life within us, the life-giving movement of the Sonship Grace in our soul. Therefore, for him, inner prayer is the fundamental necessity of every Christian. It means a meeting of the living being that we are, with the living God living in us, a meeting of the Creator with the creation, the holy God with the sinful creature. We are created for God, and prayer is a living connection with Him. God is love, and His joy is to give Himself. From our side, the only thing necessary is to quiet ourselves, to focus our being on God, so that we can establish a true and living contact with Him.
In the last years of his life, Father Grialou faced significant health problems. However, he continues to develop his apostolic activities in various forms, giving more and more exercises for youth, for seminarians, for priests. In 1966, he leads his last exercises for novices.
He undergoes examinations, and the doctors diagnose prostate cancer. By the end of the year, he is operated on, but his health does not improve. He has great pain, offers it to the Lord and likens himself to Christ in them. Even in this experience of suffering, he confirms his spiritual affinity with Therese of Lisieux.
He dies in Venasque on Easter Monday, March 27, 1967.
On April 7, 1985, the preparatory process for declaring Father Marie-Eugene blessed was commenced.
The Holy Spirit - My Friend
All the rich lecturing activities of Father Marie-Eugene and everything he wrote stemmed from his own spiritual experience, which was fundamentally identical to the experience of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. When Therese speaks of her discovery of Love and her mission to be love at the heart of the church, Father Marie-Eugene explains that this refers to the essential Love, which is the Holy Spirit Himself. And the action of the Spirit of Love is one – just like hers – he surrenders himself unreservedly.
Marie Pila, co-founder of the Notre-Dame de Vie institute, once said of him: "When we mention the Holy Spirit, we are mentioning, in all probability, the mystery of Father Marie-Eugene." Already from the time of the novitiate, he felt its influence very strongly and did not hesitate to speak of "experiencing Pentecost." His whole life is based on the experience of the Holy Spirit.
“It is the Holy Spirit who makes us prophets and saints, He who lives in us and shows us the way, which is Christ. There is no other means of sanctification than the Holy Spirit.”
Father Grialou continually speaks of the Holy Spirit as the acting presence of God among us, which we are to know in a practical way by surrendering ourselves to Him.
The Spirit of Love filled Father Marie-Eugene and irresistibly attracted him. Two months before his death, when he was already seriously ill, he confided to his friends: “When I sleep a deep sleep, I think of nothing. When I wake up, there is nothing but the Holy Spirit. He takes everything. I am with our Lord, it is as if I am identified with Him... He breathes Love, the Father also breathes Love... I breathe Love so that I can give it to you.”
Shortly before his death, he expressed for all who wish to follow his path his spiritual legacy: “I want to ask the Holy Spirit for you. This is the legacy I leave you: the grace that the Holy Spirit descends upon you, so that you may soon say that the Holy Spirit is your friend, your light, your teacher. In this prayer, I will continue on earth as long as God leaves me here, and surely I will continue in it for eternity.”
Prayer of Father Marie-Eugene:
(God), grant each soul
the beauty, the greatness,
that You prepared for it
from eternity.
We humbly ask You,
O Father, source of all light,
O Jesus our Brother, our Master and our King,
O Holy Spirit, essential Love, builder and executor of God's purposes,
fulfill this whole divine thought.
May not a spark of love,
which You have destined for us,
remain unused,
but may it descend here.
Unite us with Yourself,
foresee all our participation in Your trinitarian life.
We will find our happiness in it, and I know that also
You will find in it Your glory, secondary, indeed,
but glory in which You will still find delight.
This is the prayer we present to You,
Holy Trinity,
it is Your glory, Your joy,
that Your trinitarian life may be spread.
Ensure its effectiveness by further action of the Holy Spirit.
May each day, each moment of our lives
be marked by the growth of Your activity.
And when You take over each of us,
we will bear witness to You
wherever You send us, however You send us.
And in this apostolic witness
we will find the meaning of our being.
O Father, O Son, O Holy Spirit,
look upon what You have done
and fully realize Your work in
us
and through us, in all those we will bring
to the same intention of love,
into Your trinitarian life
to You and into You.
May it be so.
(Excerpt from the homily on Pentecost 1963)
Excerpt from meditation
on the eve of priestly ordination, February 4, 1922:
“I am a priest, a priest forever!
These words penetrate me, they are enough for me. O Jesus, You have identified me with Yourself when You entrusted me with the power of Your priesthood! Faced with these great mysteries that You have entrusted to me, I remain captivated. I bow down and believe.
I give myself to You in everything You want, in peace, in joy, but also in darkness and suffering... And because my prayer is to be an expression of my gratitude, I will let it rise to You, full of all the weight of my priesthood, fervent, encompassing all....”
