I have seen Madeleine Delbrêl’s name come up in the meditations in the Magnificat magazine before, but I was not aware who she was. The Vatican declared her as Venerable, which means she might one day be a saint. She is sometimes called the French Dorothy Day, and indeed there are quite a few parallels. Delbrêl grew up in an agnostic home, and famously wrote an atheist manifesto at the age of seventeen and lived a Bohemian lifestyle. When her also atheist boyfriend broke up with her to join the Dominican Order—that must have been some discussion—she started to re-evaluate her beliefs and ultimately had a religious experience and conversion. I’m not going to get any more biographical but if you wish to learn more you can read from Catholic World Report, “Madeleine Delbrêl’s “writing reenchants everyday life….through Christ’s love” and from America, ”Who is MadeleineDelbrêl—the “French Dorothy Day” Pope Francis made venerable this weekend?”
Now
for her magnificent quote on prayer.
Praying is establishing normal relations between God and
ourselves. It is converting, returning
our spirit, our heart, our will towards God who is constantly our Father and
Creator. Prayer is already love. It asks for love; it receives love. But because we are sinners it will always be
at times heavy-going, painful, and disconcerting. From one angle it is already love. From another it is a kind of necessary but voluntary
virtue.
~Venerable Madeleine
Delbrêl
I
have taken the quote from Magnificat’s October
2024 issue. “Prayer is already love,” that
knocks my socks off! “It asks for love;
it receives love.” When I’m deeply
praying, I am feeling that. I know that’s
true.
One
definitely needs to seek her books out.
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