Jean Guitton Quotes

Before the Council, Mass was Mass. Obviously, in Latin, we didn't understand anything, but we had the impression (impression???) that it was Mass. Now, however, we have the feeling that it is the translation of a Protestant service. From my point of view, the liturgical reform as desired by the Council (Vatican II) was good; certainly it did not want the Mass, the Eucharist, to be sacrificed, nor above all reduced to what Protestants do during their ceremony, which we call supper. For example, when it was decided that the priest should not say Mass facing the altar, with his back to the faithful, but facing them, a decisive reform was carried out that truly disturbed many Christians. With good reason (With good reason???) — so that the faithful could understand — it was decided to celebrate the liturgy in the common language, but without any desire to abolish the sacred. Today, in practice, the Eucharist no longer has the sacred, serious and divine character it had in the past. (p. 103)

L’intenzione di Paolo VI a riguardo della liturgia, a riguardo della volgarizzazione della messa, era di riformare la liturgia cattolica così che coincidesse pressappoco con la liturgia protestante … con la Cena protestante». E più avanti: « … ripeto che Paolo VI ha fatto tutto ciò che era in suo potere per avvicinare la messa cattolica – al di là del Concilio di Trento ­- alla Cena protestante. Aiutato particolarmente da mons. Bugnini, che non ha goduto sempre della sua fiducia su questo punto. [...] Naturalmente io non ho assistito alla Cena calvinista, ma ho assistito alla messa di Paolo VI. E la messa di Paolo VI si presenta per prima cosa come un banchetto, non è vero? e insiste molto sull’aspetto della partecipazione ad un banchetto, e molto meno sulla nozione di sacrificio, di sacrificio rituale, in faccia a Dio, mentre il sacerdote mostra solo le spalle. Allora non credo di ingannarmi dicendo che l’intenzione di Paolo VI e della nuova liturgia che porta il suo nome, è di chiedere ai fedeli una più grande partecipazione alla messa, è di dare un posto più grande alla Sacra Scrittura e un posto meno grande a tutto ciò che in essa vi è, alcuni dicono “di magico”, altri “di consacrazione consustanziale”, [correggendosi] transustanziale, e che è la fede cattolica. In altre parole, c’è in Paolo VI l’intenzione ecumenica di cancellare – o almeno di correggere, di attenuare – ciò che c’è di troppo “cattolico”, in senso tradizionale, nella Messa, e di avvicinare la Messa cattolica – lo ripeto – alla messa calvinista.

Joan puts God's will above her virginity. She says that she “has offered her virginity as a vow for as long as God pleases”. This concern for the hierarchy of values, this idea of “God first”, is always evident in her. Joan is a virgin because God inspired her to be so; she is not a virgin of her own free will or choice. (pp. 34-35)

For a Christian, what we call life is a preparation for what we call the “afterlife”, the other life.

I have always made it a rule to speak in a timeless manner, true today, tomorrow and always.

I find that at twent it is easy to be a hero, a saint, an extraordinary man. I believe, however, that at ninety it is very difficult to live up to the moment.

It is not enough for the past to be past. It must also be truly overcome – it must have lost all causal connection with the present – so that only the spiritual connection remains, which is the connection between image and reality, between figure and fulfilment.

Beauty is a splendour that must detach itself from those who possess it without them noticing and without returning to them.

Paul VI's intention regarding the liturgy, regarding the vulgarisation of the Mass, was to reform the Catholic liturgy so that it would coincide more or less with the Protestant liturgy... with the Protestant Supper. And further on: "... I repeat that Paul VI did everything in his power to bring the Catholic Mass – beyond the Council of Trent – closer to the Protestant Supper. He was particularly helped by Monsignor Bugnini, who did not always enjoy his confidence on this point. [...] Of course, I did not attend the Calvinist Supper, but I did attend Paul VI's Mass. And Paul VI's Mass presents itself first and foremost as a banquet, does it not? It insists very much on the aspect of participation in a banquet, and much less on the notion of sacrifice, of ritual sacrifice, in the face of God, while the priest shows only his back. So I do not think I am mistaken in saying that the intention of Paul VI and of the new liturgy that bears his name is to ask the faithful for greater participation in the Mass, to give a greater place to Sacred Scripture and a lesser place to everything else in it, some say “magical”, others “consubstantial consecration”, [correcting himself] transubstantiation, which is the Catholic faith. In other words, Paul VI had the ecumenical intention of removing – or at least correcting, attenuating – what was too “Catholic”, in the traditional sense, in the Mass, and of bringing the Catholic Mass – I repeat – closer to the Calvinist Mass.

Paul VI told me that the prayer he recited every morning was: “My God, call me back to You, call me back to You, I can't take it anymore”. I believe that all popes recite this prayer, even John Paul II.

Generals do not fight with the fear of the troops, they prefer to keep them busy.

Atheism is not only complicated and rare, it is also a recent phenomenon, a peculiarity supported by few and only recently in certain Western intellectual circles.

Teresa of Lisieux will give new splendour to the word. What she says, she does. And her words are oracles. I said “words”; I distinguish them from “phrases”. Teresa's phrases, in truth, are imperfect. Imperfect because of the weakness of men, who have given her a very mediocre language.

I believe in God because of encounters. All explanations are useless; I believe in encounters.

Every segment of time shines, even if it is finite. It takes death, conversion, or interruption for us to understand any fragment of our lives.