Can a businessperson aspire to contemplation? A parent? A teenager? A young child? Don’t we usually see it as a privilege reserved for monks and cloistered nuns? Father Marie Eugene of the Child Jesus would say that each of us is capable of genuine contact with God, including the young child.

Blessed Marie-Eugene was a French Carmelite priest born in 1894. He discovered in Carmel the treasure of intimacy with God—not only through a daily two hours of silent prayer but throughout the day—thanks to St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of the Child, and Jesus's experiences and teaching. God is always ready to pour out his goodness, his lLove. Marie-Eugene's dream was to help everyone realize that this treasure is within reach. Anyone can live close to God, as God's close friend. Everyone is called to live an intimate friendship with God!

Led by his “best friend” the Holy Spirit, and by the Virgin Mary in whom he trusted completely, this wholehearted priest founded the Notre Dame de Vie (Our Lady of Life) Institute, where priests and lay men and women are called to live this intimacy with God in an unconditional consecration, being active through contemplation and contemplative through action, whatever their jobs may be. Today, there are five hundred members all over the world.

In the Notre Dame de Vie schools, children can discover this treasure of contemplation as well. Silent prayer is made available to them in theour schools in order that they might live with God the whole day long.