"Mission is the intersection of God's love and the world's rejection. The Christian is penetrated to the core by the one just as by the other, and the two converge in him. Because it is a trial that belongs to life, there is no way he can avoid suffering from it. But this trial is a participation in the apostolic trial of the Church; the Church is armed to overcome it; the Church is equipped with the strength to resist it and triumph over it."
--Madeleine Delbrel, We, the Ordinary People of the Streets, First published in 1966 in French under the title Nous autres, gens des rues by Editions du Seuil. English translation copyright 2000, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids.
Madelieine Delbrel, a poet by nature and an atheist by conviction, underwent a radical conversion at the age of 20 that led her to found, in 1933, a "gospel" community of lay women dedicated to poverty, chastity,and work among the poor. The photograph is taken of Madeleine in Septemeber 1964, three weeks before her death.
