Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

---

1851

pg 159            How it could happen that for years men whose intentions were 
             certainly pure, not only did not understand each other, but were 
             evidently inflicting on each other much pain, is one of those 
             mysteries whose explanation will doubtless be found in the 
             development of the plans of the diving economy.
                  However, to be just in these memoirs, it must be stated--what 
             appears evident in the eyes of all the members that have had a 
             knowledge of this unfortunate misunderstanding, that nothing was 
             more pernicious to the work.  St. Teresa somewhere calls these 
             miseries "the war of the saints."  The author of these remarks, 
             who has followed them up closely, would be inclined to call them 
             "the triumph of Beelzebub on his marauding excursions."  Much 
             precious time is thus wasted in a correspondence unworthy of 
             religious, and the remaining time is spent without energy, without 
             courage, and without devotedness.  A sad existence, which renders 
             the yoke of the religious life almost insupportable, and which 
             would make one regret that he was not a solitary, rather than to 
             be compelled to feel so painfully the bonds of society even in a 
             community.