Blessed Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus and the life of prayer

On February 4, the Discalced Carmelites and the dioceses of Avignon and Rodez, France, observe the feast of a relatively new Blessed of the Church, Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD.

The future Blessed was born on December 2, 1894, in a small town in Southern France and baptized Henri Grialou, the third of what would be a family of five children. His family was not well off but pious, with his father working in the mines of the region.

Young Henri felt called to be a priest at a young age, a vocation complicated by the death of his father before Henri was quite ten. The generosity of a missionary congregation in France allowed him to start the schooling necessary for him to become a priest. While in his teens, he encountered the lives of various Carmelite saints as well as information about Thérèse of Lisieux, who had died only a dozen-odd years before.

He suspended his seminary studies for several years to serve in the French army during World War I as an officer. Even though she was not even beatified, much less canonized, Henri and many of his fellow Catholic soldiers felt a special protection by Thérèse of Lisieux during the war. (There is an entire section of the webpage of the Lisieux Carmel dedicated to Thérèse and World War I.)

He emerged from the war convinced of the sanctity of Thérèse and with a renewed commitment to his vocation to the priesthood.

While in seminary again, he increased his knowledge of Thérèse of Lisieux and encountered for the first time the works of St. John of the Cross. This personal program of study awoke in him a desire to become a Carmelite, even though up to this point in his life, he had never met a living Carmelite. He was ordained on February 4, 1922 (the date that became his feast day). With the reluctant permission of his bishop and the even more reluctant permission of his mother, he entered the Carmelite postulancy later the same month. He received the name Marie-Eugene, with the devotional title “of the Child Jesus” in honor of Thérèse of Lisieux.

Fr Marie-Eugene found a busy life as a Carmelite. The same qualities that made him a leader on the battlefield were put to use in his order. He was elected prior of his local community in France several times, as well as serving in leadership positions in Rome. In 1948, Pope Pius XII appointed him Apostolic Visitor for the Carmelite communities in France, with the intention of revitalizing the Carmelite spirit in that country. His various duties took him around the world on occasion, with visits to Canada, Mexico, Saigon, and the Philippines.

During all this work for the Carmelites, he was also preaching constantly and giving inspirational talks on prayer and Carmelite themes, as well as serving as a spiritual director. Three women approached him in 1932 who felt called to the Carmelite way of life but, for various reasons, had not been allowed to enter the convent. With these three women, Fr Marie-Eugene discerned that they were called to live as committed to the Carmelite spirit of prayer and charity, but in the heart of the secular world.

This was the beginnings of what would become the Secular Institute of Notre-Dame de Vie, of which Fr Marie-Eugene is considered the founder.

This notion that the Carmelite charism is a gift for the entire Church and indeed for the whole world is central to Fr Marie-Eugene’s major written work, Je Veux Voir Dieu. Weighing in at almost 1200 pages, the English translation separates the work into two volumes: I Want to See God and I Am a Daughter of the Church. Fr Marie-Eugene draws on the teaching of the three Carmelite doctors of the Church, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Therese of Lisieux, to present a vision of the spiritual life where prayer and apostolic charity are mutually reinforcing.

This life of prayer blossoming into charity is a life for all, clergy, religious, and laity alike. In a special way, he unpacks the role of the Holy Spirit in this life of contemplation in action, making explicit what was sometimes only implicit in the Carmelite tradition up to that point. His teaching in this work anticipates in many ways what the Second Vatican Council would teach regarding the universal call to holiness.

After months of suffering, Fr Marie-Eugene died on March 27, 1967, Easter Monday. He left behind a legacy of service to the Church and the world, a monumental series of written works re-presenting traditional Carmelite spirituality for the present age, and the secular institute he founded, as well as a reputation for personal holiness. His cause for canonization was opened during the pontificate of John Paul II, and he was beatified in Avignon in November 2016, with the head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints serving as Pope Francis’s delegate.

Sometimes Christians are tempted to divide their times of prayer from their daily activities. We compartmentalize our time with God and our time spent in the world. What happens in church on Sunday has very little practical effect on how we live Monday-Saturday. Holy men and women such as Blessed Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus call us to live undivided lives. Our prayer must spill over into works of charity, or it isn’t really prayer to the Triune God. Our works must be grounded in true God-seeking prayer, or they are just another kind of social activism.

The opening prayer for the feast of Blessed Marie-Eugene focuses on this grace of unity of life:

God, rich in mercy,
you gave Blessed Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus
the grace and light to guide your people
along the paths of contemplative prayer
and missionary witness toward the fullness of Christ.
Grant us through his intercession
to grow in submission to the Holy Spirit
and to work, in faith, for the coming of your Kingdom.

Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Amen.

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