We, the Ordinary People of the Streets (Ressourcement: Retrieval & Renewal in Catholic Thought) (RESSOURCEMENT: RETRIEVAL AND RENEWAL IN CATHOLIC THOUGHT)

Preface by Hans Urs von Balthasar

One woman’s shining example of Christian social action.

We, the Ordinary People of the Streets contains a series of powerful reflections by Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964), an award-winning poet, writer, and Catholic layperson whose conviction and insight led her to a life of social work in the atheistic, Communist-dominated city of Ivry-sur-Seine, France.

In these posthumously published texts, Delbrêl draws from her own experiences living in Ivry, witnessing to the possibility of a life at once rooted radically in the church and fully engaged in the world. Spanning the whole of Delbrêl’s life— from a piece she wrote as a seventeen-year-old atheist to an essay on the Christian life written just before her death—these passionate literary texts explore the Christian’s role in a secular society, the difficulty of faith in an atheistic environment, the need for prayer, the centrality of the church, and the fundamental importance of loving both God and our neighbors.