Madeleine Delbrêl
1904-1964 20th century Feast day: October 13
“You prepare a table before me… and my cup overflows.” Madeleine Delbrêl sought that overflow not in the desert, but in the middle of the city, among neighbors and ordinary tasks. Gratitude, for her, is recognizing that the table is already set, that everyday life itself is the place of grace.
Who was Madeleine Delbrêl?
French social worker, atheist until 20, suddenly converted by an encounter. She chose to remain a laywoman, not to enter the cloister. With a few companions, she settled in Ivry-sur-Seine, a communist suburb of Paris, and lived there until her death in 1964, working, praying, writing. Her texts are among the most powerful theologies of lay existence of the 20th century.
In their own words
You, vast people of the streets, you burn us with your spiritual thirst without knowing it.