You say, Madame, that you can’t understand how we’ve managed to survive for these six months since we moved in? I will tell you, in all honesty, since I don’t even understand it myself: each day follows the one before it, and our daily bread comes to us. There is a particular Providence that watches over the communities that God wills to go on.

Dom Guéranger (1805-1875)
Abbot of Solemnes

“At that time Dom Guéranger was near on his sixty-second year. The tranquility and supernatural beauty of his soul, his constant union with God, seemed to radiate from his gaze with impressive clarity. You might say that, following in the footsteps of Saint Benedict, he was bathed in faith and light. He was truly one of those who, like the holy patriarch, established perfect harmony between what they believe and what they live: non potuit aliter vivere quam docuit. Prayer was the fuel of his poetry, the profound source of the ardor which filled his books and sermons. Already, he was accustomed to his physical strength failing him, but his spirit remained strong, and his mind sharp, in the full maturity of his age. Thirty years of monastic life passed in trial and labor, but also in unwavering faith and generous fidelity. Before his final recompence, during the final years of his life, which were already so full, God wished to assure his servant the blessing of a new paternity: that of sharing the treasures of his supernatural doctrine with the monks of St. Peter’s Abbey, and the sisters of St. Cecilia’s, at Solemnes!”

Dom Delatte (1848-1937)
Third Abbot of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes from 1890-1921