We express our most sincere thanks to the Éditions Médiaspaul, who autorized us to make available this translation of Maurice Zundel’s Book « Quel homme, quel Dieu » This translation was initially published by the Éditions Médiaspaul in 1996. To obtain a PDF copie of this book please contact us at info@mauricezundel.ca
This book is made of the Vatican’s Spiritual Exercises preached in February 1972 by Maurice Zundel
Pope Paul VI invited Maurice Zundel to preach at the Vatican’s Spiritual Exercises in February 1972. He then asked him to make a book of it and Maurice Zundel spent the last years of his life going through the difficult exercise of puting in writing what he had almost improvised during the retreat. On August 10, 1975 he died of a last brain ambolia.
Initially, each week, we will give you access to a new exercise of this retreat. You will have access to its text by clicking to the corresponding title in the table of contents here after.
Table of CONTENTS
EPIGRAPH . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
PREFACE B Y REY. FR. CARRÉ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1. And Little Henry Ceased to Pray…. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
2. Temples of Stones Can Fall in Ruins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3. « My Life Shall Wholly Live, as Wholly Full of Thee » . . . . . . . . . . 59
4. Levels of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
5. The Eyes of the Heart: to Be Born Again in Order to Know . . . .91
6. The Smuggler’s Three Novenas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
7. God’s Heartrending Innocence and Eternal Beginnings .. . . . 123
8. The True Weigher of Souls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
9. Silence for God . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
10. Jesus or « Divine Poverty » Personified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
11. Bei ng Oneself in Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
12. Conquering Oneself: Overcoming Death in One’s Life . . . . .201
13. Mary: Truth in a Dream . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
14. « Why Wish to Be Something When We Can Be Someone? . 223
15. The Demands of a Morality of Liberation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243
16. The Meaning of a Miracle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 259
17. Meditation on the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
18. Jesus Is the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
19. « Human Rights » and the Transformation of Hearts . . . . . . . 301
20. An Inviolable Capacity for the Infinite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .321
A « Retreat at the Vatican »? The reader should not expect a series of carefully drafted sermons put together according to a rigorous overall plan. Rather, he will find a long meditation, full of new, often unexpected developments. Maurice Zundel, a theologian, is also a highly cultured man, a poet and a philosopher aware of the problems of his tirnes. A spiritual man as well. He has no qualms about giving free rein to all the facets of his inspiration. In turn, the Gospel, modern science, literature, social events flesh out his thoughts on modern man, his freedom and his divine vocation. An astonishing and stirnulating book, overflowing with richness. After finishing it, the reader will undoubtedly have a better understanding of the essential mystery of his own life: Who am I? And who is God? lncluded in this work is a preface by Father Carré, a member ofthe French Academy.
Maurice Zundel was bom in Neuchâtel in 1897 and died in Lausanne in 1975. A Doctor of philosophy, a mystic, a poet and a liturgist, he is the author of several books, some of which have be published in English by Médiaspaul : With God in Our Daily Life, Wonder and Poverty and The Gospel Within.