The Diary of a Country Priest: A Reflection on Faith, Hope, and Redemption in Rural France

Emily Horacek: I read this book along with the close reads podcast and I'm very glad I did. It's the kind of book that I would have never gotten through without the motivation and reading it in community and listening to what the host on the podcast had to say about it. As a pastor's kid I loved the " shop talk" of the priest and the curates toward the beginning. As a mother I loved the beautiful resolution of the woman who son had died in the middle. As a Christian the heart breaking, redemptive ending. So glad I persisted.

United States on May 17, 2023

Fr Adrian G. Head: What fascinated me was the fact that people with troubles opened up their hearts to him for it appears that they would not confide with anyone else.

Australia on Dec 25, 2022

Danilo Duarte da Silva: Bernanos mostra com maestria a santificação de um padre que não poder nenhum em sua cidade do interior. Sofre com dores, sofre com difamações, sofre com os colegas padres...

Brazil on Dec 21, 2022

Joseph Allan: I keep this book very close along with "The Devil's Advocate", by Morris West and the old black & white French film "Le Sorcier du Ciel" about Jean Marie Vianney, the Curé d'Ars.

Germany on Aug 27, 2020

JohnDoe: It reflects much of my experience of disappointment with the Church, as it consistently compromised its own effectiveness in the interest of the Church's financial well being and social standing. I experienced similar insincerity and hypocrisy of almost all those in power in the church. I was demoralized by the degree to which superior clergy effectively deprived the church's sincere ones of ability to do their jobs. The superiors were most successful at their because of the superiors' repeated diabolical successes in FAILING in mentoring the superiors' young charges.

I spent may life seeing church superiors successfully thwart most efforts to provide real nurture to parishioners.

The details of the young priest's unfortunate encounter with the primitive psychological dynamics of the psychological structure of parish members, further reflected priest's lack of good supervision, and probably intentional failure, of those who failed his mentoring.

I speak from a lifetime of experience.

Likely that the priest's death from stomach cancer recommended the severity of the figurative severe gastronomical impact caused by the priest's alleged stomach...

United States on Feb 21, 2020

Emma: This is a good translation of this great novel, as well as a good-looking paperback.

United Kingdom on Oct 13, 2018

Kinman: Another one of those novels that I long wanted to own and read a second time at least. It is a translation, but so much of the poetry and angst is there and valid. Cannot wait. Product was received timely and in a good condition. Seller delivered.

Canada on May 13, 2018

H. Knapp: The long and detailed forward for this book claims this is an actual diary of an actual priest in a small church in a small village in France. That is believable. Translated from the French with abbreviations of titles and names as you would probably do yourself for long names you write often. Like other reviewers, I found it somewhat difficult to read and spent most of the book thinking I would put it back on the shelf pretty soon but did not. The reality of a real person writing for himself in real time makes it difficult in spots but the reality of it clarifies eventually. I did not like it much until the end but I am glad I read it, a unique reading experience, for me at least.

United States on May 26, 2014

Peter Dubbelman: Though this book is touted by many as full of wonderful pastoral gems and theological insights, it remained basically unquarried by me? Perhaps, I still don't have the patience to read good, theological fiction. Perhaps, it was the Roman Catholic twist. Perhaps it was Georges' writing style. No doubt, I do not have the intellectual genius of some that are able to catch the subtle twists and turns of this dying priest's journal. The French names were a bit tricky but not the source of my frustration. That said, there were portions of the book that I found illuminating and insightful and several sentences that are worth pondering or quoting; nonetheless, halfway through, fatigued and bored, I quit. I think this book awaits the proper time and season to be read.

United States on Aug 13, 2011

Tony: Rarely, very rarely does a book affect me to such an extent that passages reappear again and again, long after the pages have been turned. Bernanos has written a provocative novel in the form of a diary, where the nameless priest writes his most intimate thoughts.

Each entry reveals the trials of a truly humble man who is troubled by his inability to pray; "...that the wish to pray is a prayer in itself, that God can ask no more than that of us." He struggles with his physical pain and awkwardness, "But I hadn't lost consciousness, I was simply a prey to my suffering, or rather to the menace of it, for the certainty of its return was a greater agony than the pain itself..."; temporal insecurity, "There must be something for my absurd self. The way in which I neglect my appearance, my natural clumsiness against which I no longer struggle, even the morbid pleasure which I feel at the thought of certain injustices...does not all this cloak an illusion whose origin in God's eyes is impure? ...instinctively I put myself in the wrong; I can see other people's point of view."; spiritual doubt "Am I where Our Lord would have me be? Twenty times a day I ask this question. For the...

United States on Dec 19, 2004