The Diary of a Country Priest

by Georges Bernanos

There are no chances against God.

But you know that our God came to be among us. Shake your fist at Him, spit in His face, scourge Him, and finally crucify Him: what does it matter? My daughter, it’s already been done to Him.”

Already it is too much that God should have given me the grace to be present when a soul became reconciled to hope again—those solemn nuptials!

How could I have known that such a day would have no tomorrow, that she and I had faced each other on the very verge of the visible world, over the gulf of All Light?

Lord, I am stripped bare of all things, as you alone can strip us bare, whose fearful care nothing escapes, nor your terrible love!