I envy my brother, who lingers so long before the altar. Tribes have their chiefs, operas have their famous tenors... I do not envy either. I envy my brother, who knelt before the altar long before me and will remain there even after I have left, this perseverant one – I might almost call him a captive of prayer – I envy him. Christ, who dwells in the altar, is enough for him. I envy him. And even if there were ten or twenty of my fellow brothers here at the same time, I would envy them all. With that envy, which does not wish to harm, but to do the same.
(Father Jerome /1907–1985/, monk of the Trappist monastery in Sept-Fons,
excerpt from the text Live, Live)
