"The 'Diary of a Provincial Curate' is presented as a nightmarish gallery of faces, each of which, at a given moment, reveals not only the feelings of the hero, the young provincial curate of Ambrikour, but also the supernatural fate of each creature ... Only the hand of divine Grace has the power to open cracks in the invisible walls that people build within themselves ... The supernatural gift of the young priest is to compel the souls of his parishioners, in the small French province of Ambrikour, to abandon the reservations with which they have fenced off their lives, and to face the prospect of their salvation. Hence the conflicts that define the "Diary of a Provincial Curate," which are nothing more than specific manifestations of Grace, as it is practically applied.

In the novel, the world of nature and divine Grace are not in substantial conflict with each other, but work through a spirit of harmony to achieve their complete reconciliation. They are worlds of cooperation and exchange that move on the edge and, in the end, come to an end. The priest of Ambrikour, at the end of his short life, surrenders completely to the divine will and faces death with childlike trust in the Father's will, through a supernatural hope and compassionate reconciliation with himself. The priesthood will be the means of experiencing his destiny as a redemptive victim and at the same time as the savior of others."