A kindly and serene word he held back. A sober erudition which enlightens skillfully a wide variety of subjects. Four books where Lanza, through profound exchanges, deals with issues he seldom addressed elsewhere in his work.
Lanza del Vasto liked chatter and casual conversations a little. Keeping often silence, he sometimes could have seemed haughty, but his discretion was rather a kind of modesty, even humility.
In specific circumstances, however, Lanza entered into an intense and profound dialog with his interlocutor. Then, giving his best, his word became his thought seal. With concentrated sentences, both natural and well-written, he expressed himself abundantly and easily.
In times like these, he was of course the one who was questioned an gave answers. He was the wise we listen to, not a person who ventured opinions. But blessed are those who entered so into conversations about the heart of things with him.
We don’t keep records of most of these meetings, such as those with Simone Weil, Maurice de Gandillac, Padre Pio, Marthe Robin and many others. But four of them led to a book :
- Dialogue de l’amitié (1942), with Luc Dietrich, where the two friends, with a great complicity, criticize their time which is marked with brutality and ugliness, and go in search of a culture which would rediscover the sense of beauty and fervor.
- Dialogues avec Lanza del Vasto (1980), by René Doumerc, where the author provides additional and interesting insights on his philosophical and moral thought.
- Ultimi dialoghi con Lanza del Vasto (1981), by Roberto Pagni, not translated into French, provides a good overview of the author’s teaching as he used to offer them in lectures and tours.
- Facettes du cristal (1981), by Claude-Henri Rocquet, where some unpublished poems appear and where Lanza discusses intimate matters. An all the more touching conversation that it happened a very short time before this great man died suddenly.
Should be added to these four collections many radio and magazine interviews, given in France and other countries around the world. Studying them more closely would be worthwhile.