Listing numbers and data : you can say that I want to see God has already been printed with more than 70,000 copies since its first publication (from 1948 to 1951), that its latest edition has met with amazing success although it has more than thousand pages, that it has been translated into German, English, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Brazilian, Lithuanian and Czech.

But the essential is elsewhere : I want to see God is one of those rare books which are able to illuminate and transform a life.

We did not intend to satisfy their « intellectual curiosity », but « to shed light on a spiritual experience »
It was written for specific people, for the participants in a prayer group in Marseilles who soon became friends of Fr. Marie-Eugene and, like him, seekers of God. The book was born as a response to their questions and difficulties, from the sharing of experiences, from the desire to help them and to lead them further. We did not intend to satisfy their « intellectual curiosity », but « to shed light on a spiritual experience which became aware of itself and wished to enter more deeply into God’s mystery ».

This is certainly the reason why the reader of today can so easily feel understood, whether he is at the beginning of a spiritual road, or he has already reached an advanced stage. The book gathers and synthesizes the teachings of the great masters of Carmel, of John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, and especially Teresa of Avila, whose Book of Mansions provides the structure of I want to see God. In veiled terms Fr. Marie-Eugene also shares in it his own spiritual experience. Finally, the book surprises the reader. The latter thought he would find in it the art of prayer, but a wider horizon opens up in front of him : a complete itinerary in order to grow spiritually, to become a man of God, taken by Him to bear witness and to meet the challenges of our time. I want to see God clearly belongs to the major works of Christian spiritual literature.

 

« I did not write I Want to See God to make you spend time in silent prayer with Our Lord, but to help you achieve a synthesis of action and contemplation. »

Signature du Père Marie-Eugène