God or Nothing: A Conversation on Faith

by Robert Sarah

master to talk just for the sake of talking. Ask him about the problems of human destiny and other related problems, problems that are still relevant today. How does he himself experience them? How does he manage to accept them with courage and peace of mind? Ask him what he knows with certainty, what he no longer questions, what he considers indisputable and unchanging. Have him talk about the drama of his true self, not about the artificial role that may be imposed on him by circumstances. Have him talk about his disappointments and his hopes, about his religious faith, his trust in God, his prayer. Ask him how and to what extent he has been freed of himself by giving himself. Find out the source of his clear-sighted self-denial. Let him confide in you what he learns in his silence. Let him tell you where his tears come from

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by your docility.” Over these months of interviews with Robert Cardinal Sarah, I tried to put into practice the simple yet demanding instructions of Father Jérôme. This saintly Trappist monk was writing to a novice to encourage him to try to understand his master’s counsel and requests better. Robert Cardinal Sarah is an extraordinary spiritual master. A man great in his humility, a gentle and firm guide, a priest who never tires of speaking about the God he loves. Robert Cardinal Sarah has had an exceptional life, even though he sincerely thinks that it is, on the whole, rather commonplace. Robert Cardinal Sarah is a friend of God, a merciful and forgiving man, a man of silence, a good man. When I think back to the long hours that we spent together working on this book, I always come back to those first moments, when he spoke to me about his childhood in the most remote parts of Guinea, deep in the bush, at the ends of the world, about the little village