The Christian of the Day and the Christian of the Gospel

The saintly Fr. Emmanuel André (1826–1903) was probably France’s most successful pastor of the last two centuries after the Curé of Ars. He transformed his lukewarm rural parish into a haven of sanctity and founded a Benedictine monastery there, of which he was been named abbot. His work inspired Saint Pius X. Looking at the Catholics of his day, Fr. Emmanuel was horror-stricken. He saw their salvation jeopardised, especially by Naturalism, doctrinal ignorance, moral laxity, vanity, worldliness and want of the spirit of the Church. The chief weapon he used to convert souls was the Church’s official prayer, the traditional Roman liturgy. In this short book Fr. Emmanuel sets out with frightening clarity the gulf that separates ignorant, worldly and temporising Catholics from the Christian whose mind and life fully reflects Christ’s Gospel. Never before translated.