Francis Kohn
Burning with love from adoration: desiring the salvation of souls
In my previous teaching, I talked about the importance of prayer for Pierre Goursat, and in particular, eucharistic adoration. In this teaching, entitled “Burning with love from adoration: desiring the salvation of souls”, I will develop the subject further, using 5 principal points.
– 1) Burning with love, from adoring Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament
Adoration stoked in Pierre the fire of divine love, ignited in his heart. Body and soul, he burned with the desire to see charity renewing the Church and setting the world ablaze. He believed a renewal within the Church would involve a rediscovery of eucharist adoration. He said:
“One purpose of adoration, naturally, is to honour the Body and Heart of Christ, but in addition to this, adoration is the place where we can ask to be set on fire with love, that we be enflamed with love, so as to in turn ignite our brothers and sisters. The Church of today has gone cold. The only way of transforming and revitalising the Church is through love; love which comes from the Heart of Jesus. This is something to be asked for during adoration and through confident trusting prayer”[1].
Many community brothers and sisters who knew Pierre Goursat personally, describe how much he was on fire with divine charity. I quote here a few testimonies about this: “He was on fire with charity, in a supernatural way”, “this burning love of God was omnipresent in the life of Pierre”, “he had a burning love for God”, “his love for God manifested itself though his ability to let himself burn for the Lord […]. He fought against indifference”. And he transmitted this fire to others, as one sister explains: “Love for God, he was consumed by it […]. Pierre had this side to him of burning love, which first became concrete in adoration […]. When he spoke it was fire, it would catch fire to things”.
Pierre never stopped urging his community brothers and sisters to burn with love, to ask the Lord “to set us on fire with Love, that we be enflamed with love, so as to in turn ignite our brothers and sisters” [2]. He would often say: “Il faut que ça brûle!” (“It must burn!”). He insisted further: “It really is a fire, this fire of love which burns. It’s a fire which is given, it’s so good that we manage to pray without difficulty”. And he followed his comments with an invitation to spread a blaze of love across the world: “All it takes is a place where a person is loving Jesus, for others to come running […]. Man is made to burn. So then, strike your matches everywhere and you will see the fire you can make. But really have this love. Adore. Adore. Adore”[3]. And again he challenges us: “You really have to pray like this, saying: “Lord, ignite my soul, burn in it, consume it with your Love, so we might set fire to the Earth” [4].
In the Bible, fire is a symbol of God’s presence: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29, Dt. 4:24). God reveals his name, meaning his identity, to Moses in the ‘burning bush’; a bush which burned yet was not consumed (Ex. 3:2-3). Referring to this passage in the Bible, Pierre Goursat says:
“The important thing to say is we are consumed, rather than burned, and we are ardent bushes. Ardent bushes which burn but are not consumed. There are only advantages, we burn and are not consumed. And what a heat it produces, I can promise you that! Because in the end it’s Jesus who’s asking: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Lk. 12:49). Truly then, we light a bushfire and it can turn into a forest fire. The forest is on fire! And truly, the Lord’s love, the Holy Spirit, transports us completely”[5].
-2) Adoration kindles zeal in us for the salvation of souls
Another way of saying this is: zeal for the ‘salvation of souls’ is a direct fruit of adoration. The regular practise of adoration progressively transforms our heart and helps us see the needs of our brothers and sisters of this world, in a new way.
It may seem outdated to talk about ‘the salvation of souls’ today, as the expression appears pretty unfashionable! However, as we are reminded in Catholic Canon Law: “The salvation of souls must always be the law supreme of the Church”. In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (8th December 1975), Paul VI reminds us it is necessary to announce the Gospel message explicitly “so that men and women might believe and be saved”. He goes on to clearly explain why: “The salvation of mankind is at stake” (n° 5). The Catechism of the Catholic Church assures us: “The Church prays in hope that “every man and woman be saved” (1 Tim.2:4)”[6]. God desires to save all mankind and he calls on us to co-operate in his work of salvation. In every period of Church history, saints were consumed by this preoccupation of “saving souls”.
During his whole life, Pierre Goursat was equally animated by the desire for ‘the salvation of souls”. He brought a hopeful outlook to each person he met, in particular those who were broken and hurting, helping them to see a bright future and take distance from their suffering. A brother can testify to this: “He had a profound hope that the Lord saves souls […]. He thought every person could be saved and he manifested this belief by practising hope with people in great difficulty. He used to say: “I believe we must not lose hope in them”.
Pierre was really struck by Cardinal Suhard, with whom he regularly met from 1943, when he was archbishop of Paris. They shared a zeal for the evangelisation of France, which had become largely de-Christianised. Cardinal Suhard carried the subject of evangelising the people of Paris close to his heart, as can be seen through the numerous talks he gave on it. To take one example, in his homily preached in the Parisian Cathedral of Notre-Dame, on December 5th 1948 he says:
“Saving the souls of Paris, my brothers and sisters, is in itself the most important work. I will have to answer to this crowd on judgement day. Do you now understand the anxiety I feel? It’s an obsession, an idea fixed in my head that does not leave me. When I walk through the suburbs of gloomy factories, or the bright streets of the city centre; when I see the crowds, one person to the next, elegant or miserable, my heart is gripped with pain”[7].
In November 1984, six months before he passed away, Cardinal Suhard expressed his preoccupation with the salvation of the souls living in Paris and its suburbs, to Pope Pius XII. The archbishop of Paris said to the pope: “Five million souls! Holy Father. Five million souls”. Pius XII replied: “And me? What can I say! Six hundred million!” the archbishop’s expression became serious and he answered: “You mean to say, two billion Holy Father?”
Pierre Goursat found the ardent missionary zeal that animated Cardinal Suhard contagious, he too continuously burned with an interior fire, pushing him to pray night and day for the salvation of the world, and to consecrate himself to the evangelisation of the great city of Paris. Pierre evoked a pivotal meeting with his Bishop when they were together at the Sacre-Coeur, a basilica which presides over the whole city of Paris. Pierre said:
“(It’s) the momentum of love which gives us this joy to intervene for the salvation of souls. We are here to save souls and we’ll be asked by the Lord to give account for it. I remember the old Cardinal Suhard who arrived in Paris during the war to take up his position at the time Paris was occupied. And climbing up to Sacre-Cœur, he looked out at the whole of Paris lying under his feet, which back then had three million [inhabitants]: “And to say, I am responsible for three million souls, the Lord will ask me to give account for three million souls!” He had a missionary spirit, so strong in him he founded the Mission of France, he was burning with missionary love”[8].
Pierre Goursat experienced great suffering at the idea that souls could be lost, and during his long night vigils before the Blessed Sacrament, he begged God for them, using the prayer of St. Dominic: “But Lord, what will become of sinners?”. Pierre would say: “We must truly have a pierced heart, and continually say to the Lord: “But save the world!”[9]. He also wrote: “Instead of our heart of stone, God wants to communicate his ardent desire to save souls”[10]. Pierre urged members of the Community in this way: “We must ask the Lord, every day of our life, to give us a burning fire for the conversion of sinners […]. Ask the Lord to make you burn with love for our brothers and sisters who are in sin”[11].
No human distress would leave Pierre indifferent. At night he prayed for all those who were lost, most especially for the world of prostitution. I will give you an example. When I was parish priest at the La Trinité in Paris in 1988, I took on a restaurant situated in Place Pigalle; which I named the “Bistrot du curé” in English, the “Priest’s pub”. The clientele was wide-ranging, and prostitutes from the area would often be there too. Beatrice, who was in charge of the evening shift, spoke one evening with Sara, a prostitute of Muslim faith who used to eat her supper there, and she confided in her the hell she was living on the streets. After offering to meet-up one Sunday afternoon to continue sharing about it, they bumped into Pierre in front of the Church of La Trinité. Beatrice introduced them. Pierre took Sara aside and listened to her for a long time. We don’t know exactly what Pierre said to her; but an emotional Sara came back to Beatrice, saying: “He’s my father, he loves me”. And when Beatrice announced Pierre’s death to Sara in 1991, she burst into tears and said: “I’ve lost my father”.
Here is another testimony, from a French priest living in Japan. He describes the memory of something which happened on holiday at his brother’s house in Paris, and which profoundly touched him. He tells us: “Coming back late one evening, around midnight, I paused next to La Peniche and noticed a single light shining from a bedroom window in the parapet, and right then, I clearly saw the silhouette of Pierre Goursat, kneeling in prayer! It made a great impression on me. Paris was still groaning with the “beasts of the night” or otherwise fast asleep, and there, on the banks of the Seine, was the Just man, God’s saint, praying for the city, unforgettable!”.
Pierre explains: “Ask the Lord to make us burn with love for the conversion of our brothers and sisters. We must ask the Lord every single day of our life, starting now, to give us a burning fire for the conversion of sinners. And it’s clear, the greatest suffering of Jesus’ agony, is not all the [physical] suffering he experienced, which is nonetheless terrible, but is mostly found in asking himself the question: “Will my sacrifice help a certain number of people who refuse to accept love?” If they truly refuse love, we can’t do anything, because they refuse themselves. So it’s clear why people are in a state of supernatural joy when they know how much their martyrdom can save souls; it’s given to them by God, out of charity […]. St Dominic spent his nights saying: “But Lord, what will become of sinners?” He begged continuously. And this, by the way, helps us to pray a lot, because instead of falling asleep or experiencing a dessert for too long, when you see people suffering you are no longer spiritually dry. You’ll say: “Lord, Lord, have pity, I ask you to help me suffer for them”. And Pierre adds: “My small sacrifices, accept them in your love, transform them by your strength, to convert sinners”[12].
-3) Making “small sacrifices” out of love to save souls
Pierre Goursat invites us to offer up the trials, humiliations, difficulties, and annoyances we encounter for the salvation of souls, because these small sacrifices nurture a union with God and kindle in us the fire of love. They have as motivation, the salvation of souls, and they make us grow and burn with love for these souls. Pierre says:
“We must really ask for this joy of loving, and this fire! And to be living torches. So, what can we actually do? It’s beautiful to say: “Lord, I want to burn, I want to burn with you”, but that’s emotion speaking. Practically speaking what we can do is turn towards Thérèse of the Child Jesus and see what she tells us. She says: “It is because of the small sacrifices that I have made for the Lord that I will be so well received”[13].
In my talks on humility and the poor of heart, I aimed to highlight how Pierre Goursat adopts the ‘little voice’ of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, making it his own. It is the same case for his zeal for the salvation of souls, which animated his life and words, and which inspired him to make “small sacrifices”.
I would like to bring to the forefront this convergence of ideas, by setting the words of Pierre in parallel to those of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus. She herself burned with the fire of God’s love and in her autobiographical manuscript she writes: “I ask Jesus to draw me into the flames of his love, to unite me so closely to himself that it is he who lives and acts in me… because a soul on fire with love cannot stay inactive” (Ms C, 36r°).
To better understand St. Thérèse’s Way, I will mention here some decisive events in her life which take place before she enters Carmel. In 1886 she is given for Christmas, the great grace of an interior healing which would kindle in her a deep desire to save souls. She writes: “He made me a fisher of souls I felt a great desire to work for the conversion of sinners… I felt charity enter into my heart, the need to forget myself… and ever since I am happy!…” In July 1887, Thérèse is overwhelmed when reading this phrase “I thirst, I thirst for souls”, written on an image of Jesus crucified, poking out of her missel.
At this point, she decides to keep vigil at the foot of the Cross, to collect Christ’s blood poured out for sinners. She describes it in this way: “The cries of Jesus from the Cross resounded continuously in my heart “I thirst!”. The words enflamed an intense and previously unknown ardour in me… I felt devoured by a thirst for souls” (Ms A, 45v).
Citing this passage, Pierre says:
“The joy to be had in saving souls is so great we are prepared to accept sacrifices. And besides, there is such a pain in thinking about lost souls, and those on the point of losing themselves, that other types of suffering pale to nothing in comparison. This is the nature of love[14].
Pierre Goursat was deeply struck by the fact that Thérèse had prayed and multiplied her sacrifices for Henri Pranzini, a criminal condemned to death, for him to manifest a sign of repentance before his exectution (Ms A, 45v°). Thérèse was 14 years old. When she learned that her prayer had been favourably welcomed by God, she made the decision to enter into Carmel: “Since receiving this unique grace, she writes, my desire to save souls grows with every day” (Ms A, 46v°). The audacity of little Thérèse encouraged Pierre Goursat; when he was studying at l’École Pratique des Hautes Études, he prayed for the conversion of his Jewish professor of Celtic Civilisation. Ten years later, Pierre learned his prayers had been answered also.
Near the end of her life, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus endured not just great physical suffering, but also moral and spiritual trials, experiencing a ‘dark night’ of the faith. In her own words, she sat at the table of sinners. Noticing what Thérèse said about this period: “What I’m suffering is terrible”, Pierre emphasises: “But she was so happy to save souls! She really had the fire of love in her. That’s what we have to ask for, this fire of love, a fire infinitely bigger than suffering”[15].
Pierre never stopped interceding for sinners and invited us to do the same by saying to the Lord: “Help me suffer for them. Take my small sacrifices, in your love, to convert sinners. We must ask the Lord every day of our life to give us a fire for the conversion of sinners”[16].
Pierre Goursat was not an advocate of asceticism, and like St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, he confirms it is not about the penance or effort we make, but rather the intention and intensity of love we put into these “small sacrifices”. To quote again Pierre Goursat: “As Thérèse of the Child Jesus says, everything we do out of love becomes love. And the services in themselves are not really what is present in the heart of the Lord, but rather the way in which we do them with love”[17]. He adds: “Because these small sacrifices are sacrifices of love, and love transforms everything. It’s not the things we do that count, but the love with which we do them”[18].
Pierre gives examples. Before going to sleep we can pray in this way:
“Lord, tonight, which I spend in my nice cosy bed, I pray for all those who have had their blankets taken away, their clothes too, and are forced to lay their head down on the cold, wet concrete floor of a cell. Make it so they don’t suffer too much and give them strength”[19].
Pierre called us to be realistic, not aiming for heroic acts but to seek out the simplest sacrifices, seemingly the most insignificant. He assures us:
“As Thérèse of the Child Jesus says:
“I started with small sacrifices”. But really very small sacrifices. The smallest you can find. If you come across a big one, say: “Nope! It’s still too big”. So, keep looking and saying: “No, it’s still too big”. Then take the smallest you find. Now, the smallest of the small is not tiring!”[20]. He adds: “[Thérèse] said: “We must make sacrifices”. But when we make sacrifices, we might find ourselves saying: “Yes Lord, but you know, I can’t really do it, and it stresses me out, and I’m tired”. And she replies: “Well, I make really small sacrifices. They really are so small: I’ll pick up a needle, I’ll pick up some paper lying on the floor”. If we do it out of love, it is love. It’s the intention that counts. Furthermore, these small sacrifices put us in the presence of God. And so, all these small sacrifices draw us into a state of love and attentiveness to the Lord […]. It’s a question of habit. Once we’ve started making sacrifices, we continue making sacrifices. Especially if we make them out of love”[21].
St. Thérèse of Lisieux forced herself to walk in the cloister of her monastery, for the intention of a missionary. There was a sister in her community that she couldn’t stand. Instead of manifesting her frustration, she decided to always meet her with a great big smile, managing so well the sister thought herself to be her best friend. Pierre Goursat reminds us Community life is the primary place for making acts of “small sacrifices”. He said once:
“We get on with our service but whatever we are doing we can say: “Lord Jesus, I offer this to you for those who are desperately ill, for those who are being tortured, for all those who despair”. And through this there really is an immense love being sent around the world”[22].
Some might feel like this spirituality is a bit simplistic or archaic, and doesn’t really correspond to our era. Pierre reminds us of its importance and relevance, pointing out how it demands in us a simple and childlike spirit.
“Some may say: “Oh! Making sacrifices doesn’t achieve anything, it’s ridiculous. That’s for children [to make sacrifices]!”. But we must take children’s sacrifices seriously as often it’s what brings them to holiness. So in fact, we should learn from them in simplicity and prayer, and from these small sacrifices”[23].
-4) Offering up suffering, to be in union with Jesus on the Cross
During childhood, Pierre Goursat couldn’t stand the sight of blood and was “spooked out by the cross”. He would visit the church Saint-Philippe in Roule, and loved to pray in the chapel dedicated to the Heart of Jesus; it was luminous and bright and he found peace there[24]. Conversely, later in life he had a great love for the crucified Jesus. He said that adoring Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament allows us to be united to the suffering Christ and gives us compassion for all who suffer in the world today, be it physically, morally or spiritually. The compassion we have for Jesus gives us compassion for others.
When Pierre spoke about the passion of Jesus, you could feel the love he had for him. He said: “We must be with the suffering Lord, as we are with someone who is ill. We must hold his hand, love him. There is nothing to say”.
United to Christ suffering on the Cross, Pierre Goursat would contemplate his pierced heart. When praying on his bed with his big crucifix, he would look at it intensely and embrace it. It had the heart of Jesus carved in relief, with flames shooting out. A community sister describes what she saw: “One day, aboard La Peniche, I knocked on Pierre’s door and thought he had told me to come in. In fact he was in the middle of praying, he was embracing the Cross, some icons as well, it was really moving. You could tell he was seized by the fire of God’s love”.
On Good Friday, in 1986, Pierre Goursat participated in the Stations of the Cross aboard La Peniche. As he was ill, a deacon from the Community brought him communion. After receiving communion in his bedroom, Pierre was fixated on the Way of the Cross. He wouldn’t stop repeating: “Did you see how Jesus suffered, oh how Jesus suffered”.
Speaking about St. Catherine of Sienna who “was eaten up and burned by the love of God”, Pierre comments on what Jesus said to her in the Conversations (chapter LXXVIII):
“I had only one thought, to get to the Cross, I was suffering so much from a thirst for souls the Cross was solace for me”. Pierre develops this, saying: “Jesus on the Cross was both in bliss and in pain: he suffered in carrying both the tangible cross and the cross of desiring the salvation of souls”[25]. What Pierre mentions here also connects with St. Paul’s words: “I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” (Col. 1:24).
The meaning of these words must not be misunderstood. We are not saved only through the suffering that Jesus endured on the Cross, but by the love he manifests for us in order to save us. It’s not about exulting suffering in and of itself, but understanding the sense which Jesus gives to it. Suffering is always unacceptable, because it is bad. Jesus did not come to ‘eliminate’ suffering, but to ‘illuminate’ it with his presence and help us carry it.
Pierre noted that suffering is less heavy if we live it united to Jesus: “If we are really close to Jesus, we don’t notice we are suffering because we are with him on the Cross”[26]. These comments might come as a surprise when we know how joyful Pierre Goursat was as a person. He continues: “When we speak about compassion, we’re always a bit afraid of asceticism […]. We carry the Cross, but joyfully. Joy is painful, but it’s a joy […]. There’s this Cross, there’s this joy but at the same time an evangelisation going on somewhere else […]. So it’s all very motivating for everyone”[27].
In July 1986, Pierre announced to members of the Community, the birth of a new foundation. It was a project close to his heart, whose objective was to help transform the ill or disabled person’s experience of suffering, through offering it to God. He explained it would be called the Glorious Cross so as not to dwell on the pain of the Cross, but resolutely turn towards the Resurrected Jesus, who is in glory at his Father’s side[28].
We come now to the fifth and final part of my talk.
-5) St. Thérèse offers herself to the Merciful Love
St. Paul writes: “And live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:2). And the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The only perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on the cross as a total offering to the Father’s love and for our salvation. By uniting ourselves with his sacrifice we can make our lives a sacrifice to God” (n° 2100).
Offering small sacrifices of love to God, and offering suffering in union with Jesus on the cross, brings us to another, deeper step, which exists in participating in the work of his redemption by offering our very person to God. Perhaps we are scared of doing this, or feel incapable of doing it. This is why Pierre often mentions in his talks, an important event in the life of St. Thérèse. It happened two years before her death and signifies the completion of the ‘Little Way’, the summit of her spiritual program. On June 9th 1895, during Sunday Mass in La Trinité, the young Carmelite from Lisieux received an inspiration to offer herself to the Merciful Love. Two days later, on June 11th, she made the act of offering herself to God, Merciful Love. Seen within the spiritual context of the end of the XIX century, which was marked by Jansenist rigour, this was something totally new. In certain monasteries, in reparation for the world’s sins, the practise already existed of offering oneself as a victim to the Justice of God.
Thérèse explains in her autobiographical manuscripts why she didn’t want to offer herself as a victim to Divine Justice, but to Merciful Love instead:
“This offering seemed to me great and generous, but I was far from feeling moved to make it. Oh! My God, I cried from the bottom of my heart, will it only be your Justice receiving souls sacrificed as a victim?… Doesn’t your Merciful Love need it also? If your Justice, stretching across the Earth only, loves to unload itself, how much more does your Merciful Love wish to enflame souls, because your mercy reaches the heavens… (Ms B, 4r°).
Pierre Goursat comments on this passage, drawing from it the following spiritual message:
“Thérèse of the Child Jesus says: “I offer myself as a victim of Merciful Love”. Here the word ‘victim’ scares everyone a bit. She’s not talking about Divine Justice. She says: “I’m too little for all that. Instead I offer myself as victim to Merciful Love”. You see, with Merciful Love there is no danger, we mustn’t be afraid of Merciful Love! All that it can do is make us have such an intensity of love it makes us burn with it, which consequently purifies us, and, united to the suffering of the world, purifies little by little the sins of the world too”[29].
He adds in another place:
“Abandon yourself to Merciful Love! Offering yourself as a victim to Divine Justice is terrifying, when we can really abandon ourselves to this Merciful Love, in complete trust[30].
In another teaching, Pierre Goursat explains how our vocation in Emmanuel is to be “little ones”. We should let ourselves be consumed by the fire of God’s love, just like in the message St. Thérèse addresses to “little souls”. Pierre says:
“In a purification which gives her the burning love of the Lord’s heart, all sins are burnt with it. It’s a great fire of joy. Everything is burned, everything consumed, everything is transformed. This is what we must ask from the Lord, because Thérèse asked for a legion of little souls, simple, small, weak, to offer themselves for the sins of the world, but [also] to calm the suffering of the Lord’s heart. Not just because the sins of the world demand it, as believed in previous times by victims who would offer themselves up, but simply because this immense love is not understood, is not loved”[31].
A resemblance can be seen here to the cry of St. Francis of Assisi, as he runs through the streets of his little medieval town, shouting “The love is not loved, the love is not loved”.
Conclusion
Our vocation as baptised members of the Church is to cooperate in the work of salvation, which Christ came to accomplish. In responding to a call in the Emmanuel Community, the Lord wants us to offer him our life, just as St. Paul urges us to:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1).
To summarise what I hoped to express in this teaching, we could say the spiritual program Pierre Goursat followed, and the one he encouraged us to follow also, is very close to that of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus. We can reduce it to the following points: burning with love, “thirsting” for souls, making small sacrifices, being united to Jesus suffering on the Cross for the salvation of souls, and offering yourself up to Merciful Love.
Following in the footsteps of St. Thérèse, Pierre Goursat wanted to differentiate between an austere and moralising Christianity, by putting the emphasis on a Merciful Love. Merciful Love purifies us and kindles in us the ardent fire of divine charity, seeking to enflame the hearts of all mankind. As we can see, Pierre burned with love of the Lord. For people who met him personally or listened to him speaking, it is without a doubt what touched them the most about him. No-one was safe, if I can say it like this, because Pierre not only spoke about it a lot (the subject developed here) but you could tell that behind his words he really lived it, he really did burn deeply with love, he was consumed like an ardent bush, giving his life for the salvation of the world.
In the next talk, I’ll speak about Pierre’s compassion, and the source of the charity he showed to everyone, particularly the poor and those in great difficulty.
And the compassion that Pierre manifests is – understandably- the continuity and direct consequence of letting himself be burned by the Lord’s love. When we let ourselves be burned by the Lord, we sympathise with others, and when we truly have this compassion for others, we open our hearts to loving them, in act and in truth.
————–
[1] Speaking during a session at Paray-le-Monial, July 1977.
[2] Session at Paray-le-Monial, July 1977.
[3] Retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus at Paray-le-Monial, 9th August 1978.
[4] Retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus at Paray-le-Monial, 30th December 1982.
[5] Retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus, 29th July 1980.
[6] Catechism of the Catholic Church, n° 1821.
[7] J. Vinatier, Le cardinal Suhard, l’évêque du renouveau missionnaire, Le Centurion, 1983, 378-379.
[8] Teaching during a retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus at Paray-le-Monial, December 1980.
[9] Teaching given to members of the prayer assemblies in Paris, 13th March 1976.
[10] Preparatory notes for a teaching, 24th June 1980.
[11] Teaching during a community weekend in Paris, 25th January 1981.
[12] Teaching during a Community weekend in Paris, 25th January 1981.
[13] Retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus at Paray-le-Monial, Easter Sunday, 11th April 1982.
[14] Retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus at Paray-le-Monial, summer 1983.
[15] Retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus at Paray-le-Monial, late December 1980.
[16] Community weekend 25th January 1981.
[17] Teaching during a Community weekend, 20th September 1981.
[18] Retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus, Easter 1982.
[19] Teaching during a Community weekend, 4-5th April 1981.
[20] Teaching during a Community weekend, 15th June 1980.
[21] Community weekend, 17th April 1982.
[22] Community weekend, 21st June 1981.
[23] Retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus, Easter 1982.
[24] Cf. speaking at Paray-le-Monial during a reatreat with the Fraternity de Jesus, August 1979.
[25] Speaking during a session at Paray-le-Monial, 17-22nd July 1976.
[26] Teaching at Paray-le-Monial during the retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus, August 1978.
[27] Retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus at Paray-le-Monial, Easter 1978.
[28] Cf. Teaching at Bordeaux, 20th June 1988.
[29] Retreat with the Fraternity of Jesus at Paray-le-Monial, early August 1979.
[30] Community weekend, 25th January 1981.
[31] Emmanuel weekend, 22-23rd November 1975.
