Hope & Glory

The story of Blaise Pascal 1623 – 1662

This summer, my wife Kate and I attended the annual New Wine Festival in Somerset. Around 15,000 adults and children from nearly 800 churches gathered at the Bath and West Showground at Shepton Mallet.

All ages were catered for at a variety of venues. There is something so special and exhilarating being among thousands of other worshippers praising our Creator and Saviour.

During one of the breaks, I visited the bookshop, curious to know what topics were currently popular. My eye was caught by a new publication about Blaise Pascal by Graham Tomlin, the Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness and a former Bishop of Kensington.

A brilliant mind

Blaise Pascal was one of the most remarkably gifted Frenchmen to have lived in the past millennium. He had an outstandingly brilliant mind. The historian Tom Holland calls him 17th century Europe’s supreme polymath. He was a groundbreaking scientist, inventor, pioneering mathematician, geometer, physicist, philosopher, polemicist and theologian. As if that was not enough, he also wrote some of the finest French prose and one of the most famous satirical works in all of French literature.

It was later in his short life – Pascal died at 39 after suffering years of painful illness – that he turned his intellect towards religious matters, following a profound spiritual experience that deeply affected his heart.

A heart set on fire

On the 23 of November, 1654, between the hours of 10:30 and 12:30 at night, whilst lying in bed, Pascal had an intense religious experience, known as his “Night of Fire.” The two hour encounter with the Living God, involved a powerful vision of God, a sense of divine presence and a profound emotional experience, especially of joy.

It caused a complete transformation of his life, redirecting his focus from scientific pursuits to religious writing and devotion.

He immediately wrote a brief note to himself which began:

“FIRE. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars…” and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: “I will not forget thy word. Amen.”

He seems to have carefully sewn this document into his coat and always transferred it when he changed clothes; a servant discovered it only by chance after his death. This piece is now known as the Memorial.

Revelations of God

A more detailed account of Pascal’s glorious divine encounter includes the following:

“Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.

GOD of Jesus Christ.

My God and your God.

Your GOD will be my God.

Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.

He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.

Grandeur of the human soul.

Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.

I have departed from him:

They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.

My God, will you leave me?

Let me not be separated from him forever.

This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the Christ.

Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ.

I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.

Let me never be separated from him.

He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:

Renunciation, total and sweet.

Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.

Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth.

I will not forget thy word. Amen.”

Ablaze for God’s Glory

Pascal’s ideas, discoveries and achievements still impact our modern world in very practical ways, whether they be computers, wrist watches or buses. He used his genius to benefit his fellow human beings. Not only did he love them in tangible ways, but he applied his extraordinary intellect in guiding them towards spiritual realities; the abundant life that can only be found in a loving relationship with the Living God, through Jesus Christ.

All to the glory of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Roger Stanway August 2025