Pascal's Prayers

Blaise Pascal—a celebrated philosopher, mathematician, and inventor best known for his Pensées—is not often counted among the great Christian mystics. But the philosopher also composed two prayers, both of which display an unexpected spiritual depth. In this thoughtful study, author William C. Hackett presents new translations of, and commentary on, these two prayers of Pascal: the “Prayer Asking God for the Good Use of Illness,” a series of deathbed reflections on faith amid suffering, and the mysterious “Memorial,” an account of his mystical encounter with Christ on the “night of fire” in November 1654. Also included are Pope Francis’s 2023 apostolic letter on Pascal, “The Grandeur and Misery of Man,” and a series of reflections on Pascal’s complex relationship with the Jansenism of seventeenth-century France. Spanning the depths of anguish and the height of exaltation, Pascal’s Prayers offers religious and nonreligious readers alike stark insight into the human condition—and a glimpse into the throbbing heart of what it means to live and die a Christian.