This book is recommend by Mater Amabilis™ in Level 4 for Catholic Culture. It also aligns very well with twentieth century history (scheduled for Level 4), especially if you choose a focus on Russian history.
Father Walter Ciszek followed God's call to Russia in 1939. He was eventually arrested, spent five years in solitary confinement and ten years at a labor camp. After his release, he remained in Russia, under constant surveillance and control until 1963. In this book, he writes passionately about following God's will, both his personal experience in Russia, and the universal experience of every Christian.
Each of us has no need to wonder about what God's will must be for us; his will for us is clearly revealed in every situation of every day, if only we could learn to view all things as he sees them and sends them to us. (p. 40)
He writes often of this revelation of God's will in the people who appear before us each day. He learned to find true freedom in following this will. All he had to do was respond to the events and people presented to him. While in solitary confinement, he learned to focus on prayer and the present moment, without worrying about how he would handle the next day, the next interrogation. Not that these lessons were easy to learn. He writes eloquently of his own fears and failures. After his eventual release from the prison, his joy overflowed, even as he traveled by crowded railcar to a labor camp.
For me, each day came forth from the hand of God newly created and alive with opportunities to do his will. For me, each day was a series of moments and incidents to be offered back to God, to be consecrated and returned in total dedication to his will. That was what my priesthood demanded of me, as it demanded of every Christian. (p. 93)
Life at the labor camp was harsh. Attempts to minister to the few Christians in the camp were fraught with danger. The daily work was arduous and the food minimal. Despite the rough treatment and severe conditions, Father Ciszek did not shirk his assignments.
I did each job as best I could. I worked to the limit of my strength each day and did as much as my health and endurance under the circumstances made possible. Why? Because I saw this work as the will of God for me. [...] The labor I did was not a punishment, but a way of working out my salvation in fear and trembling. Work was not a curse, even the brutish grunt work I was doing, but a way to God--and perhaps even a way to help others to God. I could not, therefore, look upon this work as degrading; it was ennobling, for it came to me from the hand of God himself. (p. 106)
Father's words are comforting and encouraging. In an inescapable situation, he found grace and hope, following the will of God each moment of each day. I do think there are situations where God is calling us to action to change our situation, these words of faith are inspiring coming from a man who suffered so much so joyfully. I don't believe God will's our suffering (especially in labor camps), but he can grant us great joy and grace when we offer our sacrifices to Him.
The thought that actions otherwise worthless in themselves could be somehow redemptive, could serve the growth of his kingdom upon earth because they were undertaken in obedience to his will, and that such actions could even be the source of grace for others, could share in Christ's work of meriting grace for all--that thought sustained me in joy and drove me on to work ever harder to achieve more perfect communion with God and his will. (p. 123)
In the labor camp and his time working as a "free" man, Father Ciszek always found small groups of Christians to whom he could minister, or close friends with whom he could talk long into the night about God and enduring faith. Yet he admits to few converts. He placed his faith in God's will and his eternal view. Father's words readied the soil for God's "seeds" of faith, to be sown and reaped at a time or place beyond his sight.
This was the place he had chosen for us, the situation and circumstances in which he had placed us. One thing we could do and do daily: we could seek first the kingdom of God and his justice--first of in our own lives, and then in the lives of those around us. From the time of the apostles--twelve simple men, alone and afraid, who had received the commission to go forth into the whole world to preach the good news of the kingdom--there has been no other way for the spreading of the kingdom than by the acts and the lives of individual Christians striving each day to fulfill the will of God. (p. 177)
I relished this book, sometimes only reading a page or two at a time, often before the Eucharist in Adoration. To be honest, there is a lot of repetition, but these are surely lessons we struggle to absorb, so perhaps a little repetition is worthwhile.
I believe this will be an excellent book for First Daughter in Level 4 (eighth grade). I've assigned it to her for third term, when it will be read as she studies the Russian Revolution, and reads One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. First Son did not read this book; I just didn't want to buy it that year. But it's so worthwhile (at any age), I intend to assign it to him next year, in twelfth grade.
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