Diary of a Country Priest

George Bernanos' "Diary of a Country Priest" had a profound impact on me. I have always looked for religious meaning far from centers or celebrations of power. This is a novel in which the author writes as if autobiographically a story of a young priest who has cancer He is sent to an unimaginably nondescript parish, and tells the story of happenings where not much seems to happen. At the end someone else takes over to report on his death and his breathing that "all is grace."

Sample: a senior priest tells him--in a passage that helped provide a theme for my own book, The Mystery of the Child: "You hear the hypocrites, the sensualists, the Scrooges, the rotten rich-with their thick lips and gleaming eyes--cooing over [Jesus' invitation'] "let the little children come to me,' without any indication that they're taking note of the words that follow-some of the most terrible ever heard by human ears, "If you are not like one of these little ones, you will not enter the Kingdom of God."

I like this diary entry of Bernanos' published journal: "The world is going to be judged by children. The spirit of childhood is going to judge the world. . . . Become children again, rediscover the spirit of childhood. . . It's your last chance, and ours. Are you capable of rejuvenating the world, yes or no? The Gospel is alays young; it is you who are old. . . I have always thought that the modern world has been sinning against the spirit of youth and that this crime would kill it"

By Martin Marty  |  June 24, 2008; 11:45 AM ET
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