The profound problem of evil is a scandal that keeps many people far from God and drives many others away from him. Is it moral evil and sin at work? Yes, but there is more at work. Is it moral evil among those who should be setting an example? Again, yet, but even more so, it is physical evil and suffering. This is evil that we all witness. Take war, for example, with its deliberate destruction of cities and its unjustifiable slaughter of the elderly and the innocent, of women and children. Such is the scourge of war.
Servant of God Père Jacques de Jésus
Conference 10, “The Cross: To baptize suffering and happiness” (excerpt)
Retreat for the Carmel of Pontoise, Conference Eight
Friday evening, 10 September 1943
We recall that on this day the United States Army liberated the concentration camp where Père Jacques spent most of his captivity, condemned to hard labor. His health was so poor at the moment of his liberation, that when he arrived at the Discalced Carmelite friars’ convent in Linz, Austria, he had to be transferred to the hospital. He barely survived one month; he died on 2 June 1945. His last words were, “for these final moments, let me be left alone.”
Learn more about Père Jacques, the liberation of the concentration camp, and read more from this conference on “The Cross: To baptize suffering and happiness” in our Quote of the Day from 5 May 2021
Jacques, P 2005, Listen to the silence: a retreat with Père Jacques, translated from the French and edited by Murphy F, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Carmelite Quotes 
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