Louis Bourdaloue

Louis Bourdaloue (Bourges, 20 or August 28th 1632, Paris May 13rd 1704), Jesuit, was brilliant a known Prédicateur for the quality of its Sermon S which he recited almost theatrically. The noise runs that he preached with the closed eyes. Its talent and its reputation were worth to him to preach at the court, glorifiant it of the qualifier of “ king of the preachers, preacher of the kings ”. One considered Bourdaloue “ more Janséniste of the Jesuits . ” He was an important man at one difficult moment in the history of the French Jesuits.

Its name is attached to a hat with ribbon, with a tart with pears with the frangipane and - more directly related to its offices - at a “ chamber pot ” than the incontinent excessively pious women under their dress nothing placed to miss sermon often very long. Moreover, it is possible that its name is at the origin of the English word “ loo ”. The Bourdaloue tart would hold its street name Bourdaloue in Paris, where was established a famous pastrycook…

Biography

Bourdaloue was born the 20 or August 28th 1632 in a family from merchants with Bourges. His/her father, lawyer, were a famous speaker. He enters the order of the Jésuites at 16 years. Becoming professor of Theology, Rhetoric, and Philosophy, it is ordered priest in province in 1665. In 1669 it is destined for Paris where its qualities of speaker will bring an increasing fame to him. Its sermons had greatest success: it was ten times charged to preach the Avent or the Lent in front of Louis XIV and all its court, more than all the other preachers of his time. It was a wise figure in a frivolous atmosphere. At the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, it was sent in the Languedoc to light the Protestants (1686): it obtained new successes in this delicate mission. One says it particularly eloquent at the time of managing the Extrême-onction. He is appreciated Marquise of Sévigné which attends its Sermon S and mentions it in its letters, and is a close relation and friend of Bossuet. The two men, though handling the language in a very different way, were never rival, as the legend supports it. Bourdaloue devotes its last years to the service of the poor, the patients, and the prisoners. He dies the May 13rd 1704 in Paris.

Work

Its sermons were the subject of several editions:

François of Paule Bretonneau (16 volumes, Paris, 1707 - 1734)
17 volumes, in-8, 1822 - 1826
3 volumes large in-8, 1834
Lille (6 volumes, 1882)

An incomplete list of the sermons:

Sermon on the richnesses
Sermon on Passion
spiritual Retirements
Thought
Sermon on the impurity
Sermon on penitence
Sermon on the conversion of Madeleine
Sunday

One published in 1810 and 1823 of the new Sermons of Bordaloue which are apocryphal books. He preached a sermon on the infallible nature of the Church. One estimates especially his Sermon on Passion and his Sermon on the richnesses . Its Sermon on Passion is a very famous speech in the history of theology.

Some of its concerns seem to remain very current at the beginning of the 21e century: “One wants to be rich; here is the end that one proposes and to which one is absolutely determined. Means, one will deliberate on it in the continuation; but the capital is to have, says one, of what to push itself in the world, what to make some figure in the world, what to maintain its row in the world, of what to live with its ease in the world; and it is what one considers like the term of his desires. One would like to reach well that point by honest ways, and to have still, if it were possible, public approval; but, in the absence of these honest ways, one is secretly been willing to take of it others and nothing to exclude to come to end from his claims” .

If Massillon is more brilliant, Bourdaloue offers a more real instruction. It had a strong, clear, and fast voice. He preached as well at the court as with the people, knowing to adapt to his audience and his situation. Its object was the safety of the hearts. The virtue and the eloquence are linked in Bourdaloue. Bourdaloue is looked like the founder of the eloquence Chrétienne in France; what distinguishes it especially, it is less the glare of the style than the force of the Raisonnement and the solidity of the evidence. Its sermons had a doctrinal richness, but they were not difficult to include/understand. The words and the formation of the Sermon S were perfect (it was often said that its French style was most perfect of the History). It called rather upon the Raison and the logic of the people. He forever called upon the emotions and he wanted to never dazzle. François de Lamoignon wrote of Bourdaloue: " He cut off in his sermons these long essays from Théologie which annoy the listeners and who are only used to fill the vacuum of the sermons. He establishes truths of the Religion firmly, and never nobody knew like drawing to him from the truths the consequences useful for the auditeurs." A. Fulgère a study on Bourdaloue in 1875 gave.

Theology

The ideas of Louis Bourdaloue are important in the history of spirituality. It underlines the virtuous actions but also the interior reflection: the concept of interior life was an important topic of the sermons and its life. He considered that the direction of the Holy Spirit brings the kingdom of God in our heart S. In 1668, Bourdaloue tackles the idea of “Quiétisme” in his sermon on the Prière. The quietism is a form of religious mysticism considered as a movement prone to controversy within the Catholicisme French. The doctrines quietist teach that peace and the perfection can be gained only when the businesses of the world are left and that one devotes his life only to God and the divine light only; the quietism can be regarded as partially heir to mysticism of co. Therese d' Avila (16th century). Bourdaloue, never gave up the “world”, the Court to him; he was generally worried by the condition of the man, and took part in several charitable organizations. Austere in its control and its character, it was however, as a priest, as lenient as its duties allowed it.

Quotations

God established the poor in the world to collect its rights in its place.
It is nothing more invaluable than time, since it is the price of eternity.
the freedom of the man starts with the release of his social debt.
Prudence; of all the virtues necessary for the government, here indisputably most important.
the scandalmongering is the mortal enemy of charity.
Let us like the truth which begins again to us, and defy us that which flatters us.
Of all the feelings of which the heart of the man is able, it has there only the love of god by where the man can return in some manner the similar one to God.

External bonds

Louis Bourdaloue: The king of the preachers and the preacher of the kings!
Louis Bourdaloue
Louis BOURDALOUE, the preacher of Bourges
has History off the Society off Jesus. William V. Bangert, S.J. The Institute off Jesuit Sources. 1972. (in English)
The Jesuits: Their Negro spiritual Doctrines and Practice. Joseph de Guibert, S.J. The Institute off Jesuit Sources. 1964. (in English)

Partial source

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