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The Seventh Day of Christmas
I have found as a significant companion in this season of Advent and Nativity the book "Prison Meditations of Father Delp."
Father Alfred Delp was born in Mannheim, Germany in 1907. A convert to Catholicism who joined the Jesuit Order at the age of 19. He was the editor of Stimmen der Zeit, a Jesuit publication until the Nazis shut it down in 1942. In 1943, he was invited to join a group planning for the restoration of German social order after the end of WWII.
After a failed attempt on Hitler’s life in the summer of 1944 by an unrelated group, Father Delp and others were arrested. They were acquitted of charges they participated in the assassination attempt, and yet were found guilty of treason for their failure to support the Nazi regime. In the fall of 1944, Father Delp was imprisoned awaiting execution. During this time he journaled. These writings are now found in the book, “Prison Meditations of Father Delp.”
In his introduction to the later published journals, Thomas Merton writes, ‘Those who are used to the normal run of spiritual books will have to adjust themselves to a new and perhaps disturbing outlook. Written by a man literally in chains, these pages are free of platitudes and routine piety.”
Included in Father Delp’s journals are reflections on the liturgical year. They run from Advent through Epiphany as Father Delp was executed on February 5, 1945.
Excerpts from those journals:
“It is necessary to celebrate the feast of the nativity, the vigil of Christmas, with great realism, otherwise one’s imagination will conjure up magical happenings. As a result of that (magical conjuring), the celebration could easily lead to bitter disappointment and deep depression.
Each day I have to steel myself for the hours of daylight and each night for the hours of darkness. I often sit or kneel before God, my silent Host, and talk over with him circumstances. Without this constant contact with God I should have despaired long ago.”
“We are approaching the feast of God made man. It is an indisputable, and incomprehensible fact that God enters our homes, our existence actually as one of us- in the darkest cells, on the high roads and in the lanes- he is there to help us bear it.”
“Outwardly things are just as before and yet something has happened- there is a new consciousness of God’s care… Suddenly we discover that events are not impersonal…”
“Let us trust in life because the night will pass and a new day will dawn. Let us trust in life because we do not have to live through it alone. God is with us.”
Blessed Seventh Day of Christmas.
Todd Donatelli