Thoughts and Reflections of Armand-Jean de Ranc, Abbot of la Trappe

Armand-Jean de Ranc (16261700), the reforming abbot of la Trappe, was a prolific writer in a verbose age. Until he was in his thirties, he enjoyed the life of a young man about town, but then, after experiencing a dramatic conversion, he left the world forever for the silence and austerity of la Trappe. To read all that he wrote when he governed the abbey would take a great deal of time, but in 1703, three years after Rancs death, Jacques Marsollier, archdeacon of Uzz and one of Rancs biographers, published a slender volume of selected Penses et Reflexions, Thoughts and Reflections, by Ranc, which presents the essential ideas of the abbot in a condensed form. There are 259 Penses, ranging in length from a couple of lines to about thirty. They are best dipped into, not read consecutively, for some will have more impact than others depending on the reader, the time, and the place.