The Diary of a Country Priest: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: great pastoral novel on the theology of the cross
Review: One of the all time great novels on the suffering and angst of pastoral ministry. Will give any frustrated minister an uplift upon discovering that the problems of ministry are all so common, and that the dragons in our churches have been around for a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Pain, Struggle and Ultimate Triumph
Review: Pain, Struggle and Ultimate Triumph

Whether one has stake in the Christian faith or not, this book is a must read. This powerful tome on struggle and suffering as a way to redemption was given to me as a gift by an author who probably thought it would be the perfect book for me at a certain time in my life--and she was right.

Bernanos' main character, a country priest burning from the inside out with both discouragement and a seemingly unshakeable faith in personal redemption through Jesus Christ, encounters every form of doubt, despair, revolt and mediocrity as he endures his role as scandalous freak in a narrow, provincial town. He encounters a young girl who despises her mother, the church, her weak and indulgent father, and who may have killed her baby brother as a child. Flaming with rebellion and a desire to escape the town which is oppressing her, we see the young pastor's incredible power of faith and humility as he engages in truly frightening dialogues with her, trying to bring her back to faith and convince her to stay with her mother. "God will break you," he insists. The other priests the young pastor encounters are lackluster or despairing, not possessing a fraction of his energy and enthusiasm. In a powerful scene one of the town peasants, in the midst of a heated dialogue with the ailing pastor, comments: "When you're dead, everythin's dead." Despite his obvious superiority to the parish in which he is working, he maintains a humble and even self deprecating attitude, wanting to appear far more common than he is. The town gossips viciously about him and his relationship with the young girl and her mother who later commits suicide. Even the young pastor is not immune from doubts and frequent fits of despair, losing his ability to pray numerous times. In the end, however, we discover that throughout the entire novel the young man has been suffering from stomach cancer, and after a few horrific scenes in which he pukes blood and faints, comes to accept his fate with what seems a certain relief.

The incredible thing about Bernnanos' character is that he is utterly human and so are the other characters in the novel: there is no sugar coating as in some many novels dealing with faith. He encounters Darwinists, atheists, and feels the effects of their doubt upon him. He is a thinker despite being a believer and rejects nothing out of hand. The primary quality of the novel is a painful authenticity. The ending is particularly touching, the pastor's last words to his friends' concern over his ailing state:

"Does it matter? Grace is everywhere"

Rating:
Summary: Pain, Struggle and Ultimate Triumph
Review: Pain, Struggle and Ultimate Triumph

Whether one has stake in the Christian faith or not, this book is a must read. This powerful tome on struggle and suffering as a way to redemption was given to me as a gift by an author who probably thought it would be the perfect book for me at a certain time in my life--and she was right.

Bernanos' main character, a country priest burning from the inside out with both discouragement and a seemingly unshakeable faith in personal redemption through Jesus Christ, encounters every form of doubt, despair, revolt and mediocrity as he endures his role as scandalous freak in a narrow, provincial town. He encounters a young girl who despises her mother, the church, her weak and indulgent father, and who may have killed her baby brother as a child. Flaming with rebellion and a desire to escape the town which is oppressing her, we see the young pastor's incredible power of faith and humility as he engages in truly frightening dialogues with her, trying to bring her back to faith and convince her to stay with her mother. "God will break you," he insists. The other priests the young pastor encounters are lackluster or despairing, not possessing a fraction of his energy and enthusiasm. In a powerful scene one of the town peasants, in the midst of a heated dialogue with the ailing pastor, comments: "When you're dead, everythin's dead." Despite his obvious superiority to the parish in which he is working, he maintains a humble and even self deprecating attitude, wanting to appear far more common than he is. The town gossips viciously about him and his relationship with the young girl and her mother who later commits suicide. Even the young pastor is not immune from doubts and frequent fits of despair, losing his ability to pray numerous times. In the end, however, we discover that throughout the entire novel the young man has been suffering from stomach cancer, and after a few horrific scenes in which he pukes blood and faints, comes to accept his fate with what seems a certain relief.

The incredible thing about Bernnanos' character is that he is utterly human and so are the other characters in the novel: there is no sugar coating as in some many novels dealing with faith. He encounters Darwinists, atheists, and feels the effects of their doubt upon him. He is a thinker despite being a believer and rejects nothing out of hand. The primary quality of the novel is a painful authenticity. The ending is particularly touching, the pastor's last words to his friends' concern over his ailing state:

"Does it matter? Grace is everywhere"

Rating:
Summary: Grace is Everywhere
Review: Rarely, very rarely does a book effect me to such an extent that passages reappear again and again, long after the pages have been turned. Bernanos has written a provocative novel in the form of a diary, where the nameless priest writes his most intimate thoughts.

Each entry reveals the trials of a truly humble man who is troubled by his inability to pray; "...that the wish to pray is a prayer in itself, that God can ask no more than that of us." He struggles with his physical pain and awkwardness, "But I hadn't lost consciousness, I was simply a prey to my suffering, or rather to the menace of it, for the certainty of its return was a greater agony that the pain itself..."; temporal insecurity, "There must be something for my absurd self. The way in which I neglect my appearance, my natural clumsiness against which I no longer struggle, even the morbid pleasure which I feel at the thought of certain injustices...does not all this cloak an illusion whose origin in God's eyes is impure? ...instinctivly I put myself in the wrong; I can see other people's point of view."; spiritual doubt "Am I where Our Lord would have me be? Twenty times a day I ask this question. For the Master whom we serve not only judges our life but shares it, takes it upon himself."; and the emotional anguish brought upon by the parishoners who he serves.

The central character is humility, in the guise of the young priest. A humility that is much more than an absence of pride; it's a gift comprised of compassion and spritual poverty. That gift is grace and Bernanos has given humility the human dimensions that make it alive and observable. With literary brilliance he has raised it to heights that forsake its lowly origin.

Everywhere there is suffering and sacrifice, yet not all is gloom and doom. The final words from his dying lips, "Grace is everywhere" come as no surprising revelation.

Rating:
Summary: Worth rediscovering
Review: Some of the scenes are of an amazing intensity. Bernanos's portrait of a priest working in a depressed community that has little interest in "the Church" is as immediate in 2000 as it was in 1936.

Rating:
Summary: The Revolutionary Paradoxes of the Beatitudes Explained
Review: The book is designed to unsettle and mildly shock the reader by chronicling the everyday events of a man who lives the beatitudes. The events in the book are common place, but the virtue is heroic. Bernanos's character bears the load of unjust criticism lightly and suffers physical pain in quiet. The character is saintly but realistic and everyone should be able to identify with his tribulation (but maybe not his motives).

Some of the secondary characters are not realistic, but they are used to introduce ideas into the story. The Cure de Torcy's and the Doctor's monologues are a little too good for real conversation, but they represent some of the best passages in the book. Overall, I highly recommend this book, and look forward to reading more of Georges Bernanos's work.

Rating:
Summary: The Revolutionary Paradoxes of the Beatitudes Explained
Review: The book is designed to unsettle and mildly shock the reader by chronicling the everyday events of a man who lives the beatitudes. The events in the book are common place, but the virtue is heroic. Bernanos's character bears the load of unjust criticism lightly and suffers physical pain in quiet. The character is saintly but realistic and everyone should be able to identify with his tribulation (but maybe not his motives).

Some of the secondary characters are not realistic, but they are used to introduce ideas into the story. The Cure de Torcy's and the Doctor's monologues are a little too good for real conversation, but they represent some of the best passages in the book. Overall, I highly recommend this book, and look forward to reading more of Georges Bernanos's work.

Rating:
Summary: Everyday Christianity, Extraordinary Power
Review: The Diary of a Country Priest is a beautiful homily on faith, pain, and grace skillfully written as a novel. Bernanos' preaching style is passion, a dual entendre that is strong, fervent belief but also intense suffering, and his preaching style is evocative and powerful in the effects that it has on the reader.

Through Bernanos' novel, the reading gains an understanding of how difficult it is to truly live Christianity every day existence, especially in the most difficult times of one's life. The novel is written as the journal of a young pastor in rural France, and this format enables the author to present a series of very deep, spiritually-based dialogues that form the intellectual basis of the story.

The Diary of a Country Priest raises a number of issues in the course of the exchanges between characters and the reflections of the priest; human loss, physical pain and suffering, the poor, honor and humility, and grace are just some of the themes discussed by Bernanos.

The author beautifully presents his thoughts on these and other spiritual questions through the passion of the priest, literally and figuratively.

Take your time reading this book, as nearly every page has at least one sentence that is grounds for serious reflection.

Rating:
Summary: Everyday Christianity, Extraordinary Power
Review: The Diary of a Country Priest is a beautiful homily on faith, pain, and grace skillfully written as a novel. Bernanos' preaching style is passion, a dual entendre that is strong, fervent belief but also intense suffering, and his preaching style is evocative and powerful in the effects that it has on the reader.

Through Bernanos' novel, the reading gains an understanding of how difficult it is to truly live Christianity every day existence, especially in the most difficult times of one's life. The novel is written as the journal of a young pastor in rural France, and this format enables the author to present a series of very deep, spiritually-based dialogues that form the intellectual basis of the story.

The Diary of a Country Priest raises a number of issues in the course of the exchanges between characters and the reflections of the priest; human loss, physical pain and suffering, the poor, honor and humility, and grace are just some of the themes discussed by Bernanos.

The author beautifully presents his thoughts on these and other spiritual questions through the passion of the priest, literally and figuratively.

Take your time reading this book, as nearly every page has at least one sentence that is grounds for serious reflection.

Rating:
Summary: A Pure Soul's Journal
Review: This journal ends with a dying priest's last words, "Grace is everywhere." Bernanos paints a picture of a young priest who has the gift of seeing into the murky souls of his lukewarm parishioners.

The young priest is punished by the locals for his peculiar gift of compassion and insight into the pain of others. The conversations between the young priest and his disinterested, and at times spiteful, parishioners are given to the reader with such compassion.

"It is just cause you're sad," says the spiteful young girl, "You're sad even when you smile. I think if I only knew why you was sad - I shouldn't be wicked no more." The young priest replies, "I'm sad because God isn't loved enough."

And so this is the eventual fate of the priest, "Dear God, I give You all, willingly. But I don't know how to give, I just let them take." And the parishioners take all of a young priest who has too much love to feel anger for it.

This is a story about how saintliness and love for God goes undetected and misunderstood by most of those around us. This young priest died when perceived as a eccentric drunk, but the reality is that the sickly priest is the only one who understands and embraces God's grace.

A well-written fiction with a message that should appeal to all who seek an inward love of God.