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Introduction Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657) was a French priest and founder of the Sulpicians (Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice).  Though encouraged at a young age, by St. Francis to Sales, to become a priest, he lived for fashionable society; when he studied at the Sorbonne, he hoped for academic glory, striving to learn Hebrew in order to defend his thesis in that language, just for the thrill of it.  When his eyesight began to fail, he undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loreto, where he was cured and converted.  Taught by St. Vincent de Paul and Charles de Condren, superior general of Pierre de Bérulle's Oratory of Jesus, he undertook both spiritual reform and works of charity.  Eventually headquartered at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, he founded a seminary and an order of priests, the Sulpicians, who continued Olier's dual aim, especially in following St. Vincent de Paul's lead in caring for the poor.  (A pupil of the se...

My most recent book is now available for pre-order : Not of the World: 20 Lessons on Following Christ Without Compromise , by St. Claude La Colombière (1641-1682).  See the publisher's blurb below: "Discover the wisdom of St. Claude La Colombière (1641–1682), the Jesuit saint who served as confessor to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and ardently promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In Not of the World: 20 Lessons on Following Christ without Compromise , readers encounter a treasury of spiritual reflections drawn from his sermons, offering clarity, conviction, and pastoral depth for Christians seeking holiness amid a fallen culture. With charity and precision, St. Claude explains the sacrifice demanded by authentic love of Christ. He addresses the realities of Christian life in the world without surrendering to it, calling believers to humility, courage, and fidelity. Topics include love of neighbor, human respect, humility, the education of children, and the ...

 Introduction I translated a few other writings by Jean Gerson (1363-1429), including a section of a sermon on St. Nicholas and a series of texts relating to the Feast of the Espousals of Mary and Joseph .  The below text is an odd allegorical one, considering various virtues as handmaidens ministering to the Child Jesus in the mind.  The original title reads "How, in the Devoted Mind, the Child Jesus Is Conceived, Bathed, Born, Nourished, etc."; I slightly renamed it for catchiness.  The text, as found in Gerson's collected writings, ends with a bit at first discussing the "wise man" asking what he must do to be saved (Mt 19:16-24), before seguing into a discussion of Lk 17:9-10.  The text, however, cuts off mid-sentence, and this passage seems to have little connection, if any, with the allegorical text.  Therefore, I have not included this final paragraph.  The original text also only had a single paragraph break; I have included many more for eas...

 Introduction Jean de La Ceppède (c. 1550-1623) was a French nobleman, judge, and poet, best-known for his sonnet series  Theorems on the Sacred Mystery of Our Redemption , sometimes known as the  Spiritual Theorems  for short.  Below, I have given a translation of one of the best-known of these sonnets. My translation is a poetic one, which matches La Ceppède's rhyme scheme (ABAB BABA CCD EDE); for a more literal translation, see Christopher O. Blum's article on La Ceppède, "A Poet of the Passion of Christ."  To keep a rhythm and to keep the rhyme, I sometimes had to reword some of La Ceppède's lines, or omit phrases.  The last tercet is the oddest in translation, particularly the first line: "Beauty for whom this Beauty dies alove."  A literal translation of the French is "Beautiful woman for whom this beautiful man dies while loving you well."  This is far too wordy for my rhythm, hence my compression.  For the final phrase, and to ma...

 Introduction Though St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) is often considered the founder of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she was not the first to praise the Heart (though she fought to gain the Heart a feast).  Hints of this devotion can be found in earlier writers, such as St. Gertrude (1256-1302), but the best formulator of the devotion was St. John Eudes (1601-1680).  (St. John also wrote the texts of the Offices of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, which were celebrated in a few areas; it was St. Margaret Mary's demand that the Feast of the Sacred Heart be a universal feast, set on the first Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi, as was eventually done.)  Hints of devotion to the Sacred Heart were already arising in France, such as in the writings of Jean de Bernières-Louvigny , but it was St. John who theologically fleshed out the devotion and its rationale.  Among earlier writers he points to is Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629), wit...

   Introduction The Sacred Heart was not a new concept when it was revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), though the official consecration and liturgical feast requested through those revelations was new.  A number of St. Margaret Mary's near-contemporaries wrote about the devotion, such as St. John Eudes (1601-1680) and Jean de Bernières-Louvigny (1602-1659).  Bernières was a lay Third Order Franciscan who founded a hermitage in Caen; he also served as a treasurer for the same region, and he provided financial support to the still-young Church in Canada, particularly through his relationship with St. Marie of the Incarnation (1599-1672).  Among his writers, the greatest is the  Interior Christian , published posthumously in 1661.  It was a great favorite of St. Claude La Colombière and others; however, its influence among Catholics fell drastically when Bernières was posthumously condemned as a Quietist in 1689, and his writings placed on...

Introduction One of the requests found in the revelations to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) was that of a consecration to the Sacred Heart.  Though devotion to the Sacred Heart existed before St. Margaret Mary—perhaps most prominently in her older contemporary, St. John Eudes (1601-1680)—this request for consecration was new.  Even her confessor and spiritual director, St. Claude La Colombière (1641-1682), who was inclined to this devotion, and who came to accept her revelations, seemed to be wary of this consecration at first; yet he did, in time, come to fulfill Our Lord's request.  He probably did not do so in June 1675, when he was with St. Margaret Mary in Paray-le-Monial—at that time, he may have only made the act of reparations, or "honorable amends" ( amende honorable ), also requested by the Lord—but he most likely made his consecration sometime before a spiritual retreat in London in 1677, though it is at the end of his notes from this retreat that his f...

 Francis Jammes (1868-1938) was a French poet and author; I previously published a translation of one of his novels,  The Rosary in the Sun .  Now I have translation an essay of his on poetic theory:  The Poet and Inspiration  (1922).  As an appendix, I have also translated a short manifesto from his early days, "Jammism" (1897).     Direct Download

 Introduction Even a cursed poet can write a holy poem.  Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) was such a poet.  Though much of his life was spent in violence, debauchery, alcoholism, and addiction, he had a brief time when he experienced a return to the faith, while in prison for shooting his lover in the wrist (deemed by the courts "attempted murder").  Most of the poems from this time were published in his 1880 collection  Sagesse (Wisdom) .  The following poem is one such poem, from the time when Verlaine had "prostrated before the long-unknown Altar...adores the All-Good and invokes the Almighty, sworn son of the Church, the last in merits, but full of good will" (Preface to  Sagesse ).  The poem is made of tercets in which lines 1 and 3 are identical, and line 2 unique.  Other than the identical rhymes of lines 1 and 3 of each tercet, no rhyme scheme is involved.  My translation aims at accuracy of meaning rather than any attempt to replicate ...

  The Clovisiade of Jean-Marie Gabriel Darrodes de Lillebonne  Background By the 1800s, zeal for Christian epics had burned up all its fuel: though long narrative poems were still quite popular (as seen, in English, in Southey, Scott, Tennyson, Longfellow, etc.), the epic style was now outré .  Even by the 1700s, few were hits, besides Klopstock's Der Messias (1748-1773).  The quest to craft a Christian epic was quixotic in the 1800s: even more delusional was the hope that readers would pay for it. Yet such material considerations did not stop Jean-Marie-Gabriel d'Arodes de Lillebonne (1781-1838).  He wrote a few shorter poetic works—some Diverse Little Works (1805), and a book of Odes to the Emperor Napoleon (1806)—but his chief-work was the The Clovisiade, or, The Triumph of Christianity in France .  It was intended as a monumental work of 24 cantos, matching the Iliad or the Odyssey (though still short of Nonnos of Panopolis' 48-canto Dionysiaca );...

  My most recent traditionally-published book is now available for pre-order : Seeking the Heart of Christ: Christian Reflections on the Interior Life , by St. Claude La Colombière (1641-1682).  See the publisher's blurb below: "Discover the wisdom of St. Claude La Colombière (1641–1682), the Jesuit saint who was the confessor to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and championed devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In Seeking the Heart of Christ: Christian Reflections on the Interior Life , you will find a treasury of spiritual reflections that inspire deeper faith, encourage virtue, and guide the soul toward holiness. This remarkable collection of sermons explores essential topics of Christian living, including the sweetness of virtue and the humble submission to the will of God. La Colombière also offers profound meditations on the need for repentance, the benefits of frequent Communion, and the transformative power of the Mass. He addresses the practical struggles of li...

  On the Passion of Christ Selected Texts and Excerpts from Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle Buy the Kindle Edition Here    Just in time for Holy Week, I have released a selection of writings from Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629) on the Passion of Christ.  This collection includes selections from his Works of Piety ( one of the included texts can be found here ), as well as two excepts from his Discourses on the State and on the Grandeurs of Jesus . To celebrate the release, I have also temporarily lowered the eBook price for my other translations from Bérulle: Life of Jesus and Elevation to Jesus Christ Regarding Saint Mary Magdalene .  Both these longer texts are currently only $1.99 for the Kindle version, instead of the usual $2.99 price; "On the Passion of Christ" is $0.99, just like my other short eBook-only releases.  As with my other eBooks, it can be read for free by subscribers to Kindle Unlimited.

  I have written much about and translated much from Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629).  The text below is one of his Works of Piety ; it is fitting for Lazarus Saturday and the preamble to Holy Week.  It is part of a series of texts by Bérulle on the Passion, which I hope to publish as an ebook in the next few days. EDIT: This ebook, "On the Passion of Christ," has been released , and is available here . OP LXII The Death and Resurrection of Lazarus Are the Occasion of the Death of Jesus Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle If life must die, it ought to be as an effect of life.  Jesus, then, leaves the desert of Ephraim, comes to Judea, seeks out the dead Lazarus, in order that life might battle death on a closed field, as it were, and wages, in Bethany and at the gates of Jerusalem, a particular combat, which vividly represents that grand combat that would took place a few days later, on the mount of Calvary, between life and universal death; in which the death, not of...

Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629) wrote many little passages for various occasions: sermons, retreats, reflections, circular letters, etc.  After his death, these varied works were collated into a collection known as the Diverse Little Works of Piety , or Works of Piety for short (in French, Œuvres de pieté , hence the abbreviation OP).  One of my long-term goals is a publication of all of these; for now, I am translating them piecemeal as the need or inspiration arises. Below is an index of all of my OP translations and where to find them; I will add to them as more are translated, and I may also fill in all the titles in the future.    The Works of Piety of Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle  OP I: God is the Principle and the End of the Creature OP II: Eternal Life Is to Know God and Jesus Christ, His Son Whom He Has Sent OP III: God and Jesus Christ Are Distinct Objects of the Devotion of Christians OP IV: United to God and to Jesus Christ  OP V: Our Dut...