Luke Mohan’s Reviews > To the End of the World > Status Update

"The struggle of the spirit in this world is never wholly won and never quite lost."

These were his people, and he was their voice, their hands uplifted to God.

"Remember...that we should know as much of our past as we can so that we may not make the same mistakes over again, and that the good that men have won with so much labor should not be lost."

"I have dreamed of doing in the eighteenth century what Saint Hugh did in the eleventh. Now I know that I shall not do it. But there is work to be done in Saint Hugh's spirit in the nineteenth century, if not in his house or in his habit, then in a humbler one. This is the work of my generation, and please God, I shall try to do it."

"Romance has fallen on evil days."
"...I don't suppose history has ever been very romantic to its makers, or perhaps, to be more accurate, to its agents....We are not fighting this battle because we wanted to be knights in shining armor or anything else. It is simply something that must be done, and we here in France have the first chance to do it. If we win, it will be for all Christendom...There is no alternative."

"Liberty, equality, and fraternity are still a dream. I think they must be so as long as men try to realize that dream by violence and without regard to God, whose grace alone can give it reality. But sought in the love and the knowledge of God, those three words constitute a great ideal, and with France and the Church working together they can, I believe, be realized."

"when you are as old as I am you will have learned that God gives men and women grace to live harder lives than we should have thought could be borne."

"I suppose it is for the good of our souls, who have been used to knowing to whom to apply when in need of some concession from authority, to have to take our place in the helplessness of the great mass of men who know not where to turn when they feel the pressure of power."

"I do not think the persecution can last forever...religion will be restored not by fighting but by the faith and patience of the people."

"I am a plain main, M. le Curé. I can see only what is before me. For the distant future, you may be right, but I shall be dead then...It is now that I am going to do my duty to my God and my province. He will take care of the future."

when Michel asked her what she thought could be done to revive Christian fervor and form again the ranks of the believers before he must leave them, she smilingly reminded him that martyrdom was a great honor to which no young man should rashly aspire.