I Believe in Love: Retreat Conferences on the Interior Life [Paperback]

Pere Jean du Coeur de Jesus D'Elbee (Author), Marilyn Teichert (Translator), Madeleine Stebbins (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1983

This book is a collection, in spoken language of most of the retreats preached in all media by this former general superior of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart, Father d'Elbee. The author believes that what is lacking as to the souls in this world is realizing how much God loves them and wishes them happiness. Echoing the doctrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, he draws upon Scripture, and above all the Gospel those truths which dilate the hearts and lead them to Him who is Love.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

About the Author

Father Jean du Coeur de Jesus (Claude d'Elbee, 1892-1982) believed that what is lacking as to the souls in this world is realizing how much God loves them and wishes them happiness.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Saint Bede's Publications (September 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932506259
• ISBN-13: 978-0932506252
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #474,082 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars teaches what true happiness really means, July 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: I Believe in Love: Retreat Conferences on the Interior Life (Paperback)

This book helped me to take my spiritual life to a whole new level. It allowed me to leave behind all feelings of guilt or inadequacy, and enter into a relationship with God that helped me to attain true joy.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars St. Therese if Lisieux's "Little Way" -a practical guide, February 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: I Believe in Love: Retreat Conferences on the Interior Life (Paperback)

I can now add a third book to my list of all time favorites for their profound influence on my life. "I Believe in Love" ranks right up there with The Bible and Fulton Sheen's "Life of Christ". What I have been taught for nearly 5 decades of my life has finally become real in my heart and soul. In this Jubilee Year with its emphasis on the Eucharist, the chapter on that topic can stand alone and is worth the price of the book in itself. And I may add that for the anxious or depressed- this book is a sure remedy.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true alternative to the empty falsehoods of secular psychology, October 21, 2006

By 

Church of the East member - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Believe in Love: Retreat Conferences on the Interior Life (Paperback)

One of the previous Amazon reviewers of this book wrote the following:

"And I may add that for the anxious or depressed- this book is a sure remedy."

That is absolutely correct, for the following reason: Anxiety and depression are actually maladies of the heart with SPIRITUAL origins, not "diseases" of the emotions, or "chemical imbalances," as secular psychology and psychiatry would falsely have one believe. These impoverished worldy outlooks cannot diagnose the origins of these maladies accurately, nor can they offer a cure. Quite the contrary, they pose serious obstacles to realizing the only true cure, which consists in the complete abandonment of oneself to the love of Christ, as revealed on the Cross.

Since the cause of these maladies is ultimately spiritual in nature, so too must be the cure, and I BELIEVE IN LOVE is a very good articulation of what this cure involves. The cure essentially consists in the unreserved abandonment of oneself, and of all one's earthly hopes, to God. It is important here to be clear as to what this means: It is NOT the case that one is called to suppress these eartly hopes unnaturally, or to live under the false pretense that these eartly hopes do not really exist. Rather, the book insists that one make them all conditional - EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM, including both the deepest longings of the heart for earthly goods, as well as the most basic physical needs of earthly life. One must be fully willing to make the realization of ALL of them entirey subject to the Loving Providence of God.

This attitude goes hand in hand with a view of suffering and death that is bereft of fear, and that regards both merely as the passageway to eternal happiness in the presence of God. This notion, while profoundly true, is something very radical and alien in today's cultural milieu, which is fundamentally oriented towards avoiding the subject of death entirely, and towards encouraging people to distract themselves from their suffering through the indulgence in and consumption of needless and empty material frivolities.

In view of these considerations, those who aspire to embrace the outlook articulated in this book must be aware that it takes a great deal of courage to do so. There are many elements of what the book counsels that would be met with antagonism and hostility by the false paradigms of secular psychology and psychiatry, and would be seen by them as "masochistic," "psycho-pathological," and the like. Since this type of erroneous thinking pervades our culture to the point of being almost as ubiquitous as the air we breathe, even in many ostensibly Christian settings, these types of false accusations against the true Christian Way that is articulated in this book must be aggressively resisted. As I say, carrying this out takes a considerable amount of courage, especially when one is in a weakened condition due to the very types of anxiety and depression that secular psychology and psychiatry falsely claim to diagnose accurately.