Former inmate recalls daring escape from Auschwitz

A wonderful story:

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press Writer Monika Scislowska, Associated Press Writer

NOWY TARG, Poland – With every step toward the gate, Jerzy Bielecki was certain he would be shot.

The day was July 21, 1944. Bielecki was walking in broad daylight down a pathway at Auschwitz, wearing a stolen SS uniform with his Jewish sweetheart Cyla Cybulska by his side.

His knees buckling with fear, he tried to keep a stern bearing on the long stretch of gravel to the sentry post.

The German guard frowned at his forged pass and eyed the two for a period that seemed like an eternity — then uttered the miraculous words: "Ja, danke" — yes, thank you — and let Jerzy and Cyla out of the death camp and into freedom.

It was a common saying among Auschwitz inmates that the only way out was through the crematorium chimneys. These were among the few ever to escape through the side door.

The 23-year-old Bielecki used his relatively privileged position as a German-speaking Catholic Pole to orchestrate the daring rescue of his Jewish girlfriend who was doomed to die.

"It was great love," Bielecki, now 89, recalled in an interview at his home in this small southern town 55 miles (85 kilometers) from Auschwitz.

"We were making plans that we would get married and would live together forever."

Bielecki was 19 when the Germans seized him on the false suspicion he was a resistance fighter, and brought to the camp in April 1940 in the first transport of inmates, all Poles.

He was given number 243 and was sent to work in warehouses, where occasional access to additional food offered some chance of survival.

It was two years before the first mass transports of Jews started arriving in 1942. Most of the Jews were taken straight to the gas chambers of neighboring Birkenau, while a few were designated to be forced laborers amid horrific conditions, allowing them to postpone death.

In September 1943 Bielecki was assigned to a grain storage warehouse. Another inmate was showing him around when suddenly a door opened and a group of girls walked in.

"It seemed to me that one of them, a pretty dark-haired one, winked at me," Bielecki said with a broad smile as he recalled the scene. It was Cyla — who had just been assigned to repair grain sacks.

Their friendship grew into love, as the warehouse offered brief chances for more face-to-face meetings.

In a report she wrote for the Auschwitz memorial in 1983, Cybulska recalled that during the meetings they told each other their life stories and "every meeting was a truly important event for both of us."

Cybulska, her parents, two brothers and a younger sister were rounded up in January 1943 in the Lomza ghetto in northern Poland and taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her parents and sister were immediately killed in the gas chambers, but she and her brothers were sent to work.

By September, 22-year-old Cybulska was the only one left alive, with inmate number 29558 tattooed on her left forearm.

As their love blossomed, Bielecki began working on the daring plan for escape.

From a fellow Polish inmate working at a uniform warehouse he secretly got a complete SS uniform and a pass. Using an eraser and a pencil, he changed the officer's name in the pass from Rottenfuehrer Helmut Stehler to Steiner just in case the guard knew the real Stehler, and filled it in to say an inmate was being led out of the camp for police interrogation at a nearby station. He secured some food, a razor for himself and a sweater and boots for Cybulska.

He briefed her on his plan: "Tomorrow an SS-man will come to take you for an interrogation. The SS-man will be me."

The next afternoon, Bielecki, dressed in the stolen uniform, came to the laundry barrack where Cybulska had been moved for work duty. Sweating with fear, he demanded the German supervisor release the woman.

Bielecki led her out of the barrack and onto a long path leading to a side gate guarded by the sleepy SS-man who let them go through.

The fear of being gunned down remained with him in his first steps of freedom: "I felt pain in my backbone, where I was expecting to be shot," Bielecki said.

But when he eventually looked back, the guard was in his booth. They walked on to a road, then into fields where they hid in dense bushes until dark, when they started to march.

"Marching across fields and woods was very exhausting, especially for me, not used to such intensive walks," Cybulska said in her report to Auschwitz as quoted in a Polish-language book Bielecki has written, "He Who Saves One Life ..."

"Far from any settlements, we had to cross rivers," she wrote. "When water was high ... Jurek carried me to the other side."

At one point she was too tired to walk and asked him to leave her.

"Jurek did not want to hear that and kept repeating: 'we fled together and will walk on together,'" she reported, referring to Jerzy by his Polish diminutive.

For nine nights they moved under the cover of darkness toward Bielecki's uncle's home in a village not far from Krakow.

His mother, who was living at the house, was overjoyed to see him alive, though wasted-away after four years at Auschwitz. A devout Catholic, however, she was dead-set against him marrying a Jewish girl.

"How will you live? How will you raise your children?" Bielecki recalls her asking.

To keep her away from possible Nazi patrols, Cybulska was hidden on a nearby farm. Bielecki decided to go into hiding in Krakow — a fateful choice they believed would improve their chances of avoiding capture by the Nazis. The couple spent their last night together under a pear tree in an orchard, saying their goodbyes and making plans to meet right after the war.

After the Soviet army rolled through Krakow in January 1945, Bielecki left the city where he had been hiding from Nazi pursuit and walked 25-miles (40-kilometers) along snow-covered roads to meet Cybulska at the farmhouse.

But he was four days too late.

Cybulska, not aware that the area where she had been hiding had been liberated three weeks before Krakow, gave up waiting for him, concluding her "Juracek" either was dead or had abandoned their plans.

She got on a train to Warsaw, planning to find an uncle in the United States. On the train she met a Jewish man, David Zacharowitz, and the two began a relationship and eventually married. They headed to Sweden, then to Cybulska's uncle in New York, who helped them start a jewelry business. Zacharowitz died in 1975.

In Poland, Bielecki eventually started a family of his own and worked as the director of a school for car mechanics. He had no news of Cybulska and had no way of finding her.

In her report Cybulska said that she was haunted in the years after she left Poland by a wish to see her hometown and to find Jurek, if he was alive.

Sheer chance made her wish come true.

While talking to her Polish cleaning woman in 1982, Cybulska related her Auschwitz escape story.

The woman was stunned.

"I know the story, I saw a man on Polish TV saying he had led his Jewish girlfriend out of Auschwitz," the cleaning lady told Cybulska, according to Bielecki.

She tracked down his phone number and one early morning in May 1983 the telephone rang in Bielecki's apartment in Nowy Targ.

"I heard someone laughing — or crying — on the phone and then a female voice said "Juracku, this is me, your little Cyla," Bielecki recalls.

A few weeks later they met at Krakow airport. He brought 39 red roses, one for each year they spent apart. She visited him in Poland many times, and they jointly visited the Auschwitz memorial, the farmer family that hid her and many other places, staying together in hotels.

"The love started to come back," Bielecki said.

"Cyla was telling me: leave your wife, come with me to America," he recalls. "She cried a lot when I told her: Look, I have such fine children, I have a son, how could I do that?"

She returned to New York and wrote to him: "Jurek I will not come again," Bielecki recalled.

They never met again and she did not reply to his letters.

Cybulska died a few years later in New York in 2002.

In 1985, the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem awarded Bielecki the Righteous Among the Nations title for saving Cybulska. The institute's website account of the escape and its aftermath is consistent with Bielecki's account to The Associated Press.

"I was very much in love with Cyla, very much," Bielecki said. "Sometimes I cried after the war, that she was not with me. I dreamed of her at night and woke up crying."

"Fate decided for us, but I would do the same again."

Source (with pics).

AFA ends boycott: McDonald's agrees to changes

From an email received today:

Great news! Because of AFA supporters like you, McDonald’s has told AFA they will remain neutral in the culture war regarding homosexual marriage. AFA is ending the boycott of McDonald’s. As you know, AFA called for the boycott in May after McDonald’s joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).

McDonald’s said McDonald’s Vice President Richard Ellis has resigned his position on the board of NGLCC and that his seat on the board will not be replaced. McDonald’s also said that the company has no plans to renew their membership in NGLCC when it expires in December.

In an e-mail to McDonald’s franchised owners the company said, “It is our policy to not be involved in political and social issues. McDonald’s remains neutral on same sex marriage or any ‘homosexual agenda’ as defined by the American Family Association.”

We appreciate the decision by McDonald’s to no longer support political activity by homosexual activist organizations. You might want to thank your local McDonald’s manager.

On Parade in Rome (Diogenes)

Rome was the scene of another gay pride parade on Saturday. It was over-reported, as usual, the sympathies of journalists and editors having overmastered their professional objectivity. As usual, hatred and ridicule of the Church was a chief theme of the festivities, which the media treated with amused indulgence.

...

The upshot is that, while the image of Benedict as a reptilian horned Hitler may be dismaying to Catholics, it's an indication that the pope is doing his job and that the Church over which he presides is doing hers.

Amen! And a reminder why we need to keep the Holy Father in our prayers.

40 Days for Life Campaign

In its "News from the trenches," California Catholic Daily has an encouraging story:

...California Catholic Daily presents an interview with Wynette Sills, a veteran sidewalk counselor and co-director of the 40 Days for Life Campaign in Sacramento. Wynette is a Catholic wife and mother of three. She and her husband, Ed, are organic farmers north of Sacramento....

One of the comments which stood out as an example of something for which we all should strive, is this:

Does the intensity of this kind of campaign take a toll on you?

Our whole family experiences a sacrifice in service to Him with regards to this Sidewalk Ministry, particularly prior to and during these "40 Day" periods. Yet, we persevere through prayer, knowing all that Christ sacrificed for our sake.

Sacrifice...Persevering through prayer...Recalling Our Lord's suffering and death for our salvation...

Mother Teresa was human...

Time Magazine: Mother Teresa's crisis of faith

"Jesus has a very special love for you...as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand." — Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979

A recent article in Time, in referring to a new book about Mother Teresa and her years of spiritual darkness, states:

Although perpetually cheery in public, the Teresa of the letters lived in a state of deep and abiding spiritual pain. In more than 40 communications, many of which have never before been published, she bemoans the "dryness," "darkness," "loneliness" and "torture" she is undergoing. She compares the experience to hell and at one point says it has driven her to doubt the existence of heaven and even of God.

She is acutely aware of the discrepancy between her inner state and her public demeanor. "The smile," she writes, is "a mask" or "a cloak that covers everything." Similarly, she wonders whether she is engaged in verbal deception. "I spoke as if my very heart was in love with God — tender, personal love," she remarks to an adviser. "If you were [there], you would have said, 'What hypocrisy.'"

Says the Rev. James Martin, an editor at the Jesuit magazine America and the author of My Life with the Saints, a book that dealt with far briefer reports in 2003 of Teresa's doubts: "I've never read a saint's life where the saint has such an intense spiritual darkness. No one knew she was that tormented." Recalls Kolodiejchuk, Come Be My Light's editor: "I read one letter to the Sisters [of Teresa's Missionaries of Charity], and their mouths just dropped open. It will give a whole new dimension to the way people understand her."

Hopefully, this news of her intense spiritual darkness, which is not unheard of in the lives of many saints, can be used as a means to enlighten others that perseverance in living for Christ can strengthen and grow the virtues of faith, hope and charity, especially in periods of spiritual doubt or darkness.

It is undeniable that some will use these latest revelations to ridicule Mother Teresa, the faith (as we believe it), piety, virtue and religion in general - and for those, we should continue to pray. And when we might find ourselves, seemingly deserted and separated from God, suffering that horrible aridity and darkness which can appear so overwhelming at times, we can and should ask for the prayers of our saintly brothers and sisters who suffered this same darkness or worse, and who persevered - precisely because of their faith and their love of our Lord.

The Time article is here.

The Priest at Prayer for August 13, Confession for the Priest

The Fourth Part - Some Means of Perseverence

Confession for the Priest

First Meditation - The Need of Frequent Confession

I. All praise to Thee, dear Lord, Author of the Sacra­ments, for having bestowed on me, Thy most unworthy servant, so many graces and favours through the Sacra­ment of Penance!

Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis. How sweet and tender Thy words of pardon ring in my ears: pardon for my hideous sins, a pardon so often and so abundantly flowing from Thy divine lips!

Thanks to this pardon I can face my own conscience without nightmarish fears, without a sense of unbearable loathing for the blackness and filth of the vile offences I have committed against Thee, and without having my heart torn to shreds by the thorns of remorse.

Thanks to this Sacrament, I have learned to know myself a little, having been constrained to probe so frequently into the tortuous, obscure, labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and thus I have succeeded in determining the substance, shape, and form of my duties in life. Sacramental con­fession has become for me the chief spur goading me along the path of virtue without deviating to the right or left; it has been, humanly speaking, a divine and human bridle, wrought of divine faith and lawful human respect, drawing me back with shame from life's miry swamps, reminding me that I should have to confess the evil which I was about to perpetrate.

Thou well knowest, O God, and I know too, that when in the vertigo of passions carrying me to the edge of the precipice, without this leash I would have thrown myself headlong into the abyss, never perhaps to rise again; this Thou knowest, and I know it, too.

And is it possible, dear Lord, for Christians, let alone Thy priests, to consider this Sacrament of Divine Pity something tyrannical and unworthy of our human
dignity? Could the Goodness of God invent anything more concise, less arduous, more ennobling to the heart of man, and within easier reach of all, whereby man must lift himself up, spontaneously regenerate himself, so to speak, without the application of exterior forces?

Heaven and earth bless the Lord, for He is the Father of all mercies!

II. These two concluding meditations are the most important in the whole book. For if they really convince me and make me determined to show practical devotion to the Sacrament of Penance they will profit me as much as all the other meditations combined.

I have to confess my sins very often. Why say, I have to? I certainly have the right, the supreme privilege, of confessing frequently, every week or more often still; approaching the arms and feet of my heavenly Father, like a poor prodigal. And my Father wishes me to do this, He requires it of me:

Canon 906: Each and everyone of the faithful of either sex has the obligation, from the time he attains the use of reason, to confess all his sins truthfully at least once a year, that is to say, all his mortal sins which have not yet been properly con­fessed and directly remitted by absolution.

What shame and sorrow for the Church, and what ignominy for the priest, if the latter should even fail to confess his sins once a year! Is it possible to visualise such a terrible case?

Canon 125: The Ordinary must take care that the clergy go frequently to Confession.

What does" frequently" mean? Would you call three-monthly or even monthly confession frequent? Any Christian in the world would say no. Confession is frequent when made once a week or at least once a every two weeks.

And remember your obligation sub gravi to administer the Sacraments in the state of grace, and the admonition given in the Missal under the heading Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae. In a prefatory paragraph it says:

"The priest about to say Mass having, if neces­sary, made his sacramental confession. . ."

And Canon Law defines this obligation more explicitly:

Canon 807: The priest who should find himself in mortal sin shall not dare to say Holy Mass with­out previous sacramental confession, no matter how contrite he may be over his sins.

You see? In order not to fall into grievous sin, or in order to rise again after having fallen, you must go to confession frequently, even twice a week or more, if needs be, so as not to sink into the deepest and most terrible profanations.

III. There are obstacles in the way of frequent con­fession, occasionally obstacles that would seem insur­mountable: either physical, such as the isolation of your parish, the rough roads and long distances to reach the neighbouring parish, your age and state of health; or moral obstacles, which are no less painful: the lack of a good confessor, a man of virtue and sound common­ sense, in whom you can have confidence.

There is no denying that such obstacles do exist, and Thou, Lord, who knowest and weighest these obstacles at their true value, art moved to pity for those poor priests who for Thy sake and in order to obey their Prelates deprive themselves of facilities which the laity themselves enjoy in abundant measure, the facilities to receive Thy forgiveness in the sacred Tribunal. Therefore in this, as in many other matters, we might apply the literal interpretation of the psalm as contained in the Vulgate:

Propter verba labiorum tuorum ego custodivi vias duras. . . .

But I must not exaggerate the difficulties and obstacles. If a medical doctor told me to go to him once a week or even more frequently, and promised me a definite cure on condition that I followed his orders, would bad roads or long journeys or any amount of expense and trouble stop me from going to him?

Then, for the sake of spiritual healing, Lord, I shall overcome just as great difficulties; because life has taught me that the only treatment which cures or arrests the course of moral disease is the Sacrament of Penance; and if, unfortunately, I do not dispose of a prudent, understand­ing and virtuous confessor, I shall kneel before any priest, however unworthy and incompetent I may feel him to be. A loving trust in Thee, dear Lord, will enable me to do this. But besides, the efficacy of this spiritual treatment does not depend on the good or bad qualities of the minister of the Sacrament; it is Thou, Lord, who bestowest forgiveness through him.

IV. Will-power is not enough to make me approach the confessor every week or as often as I need him. It is to be feared that my confessions are ineffective through lack of serious preparation. The day I go to confession I shall devote my morning meditation to preparing for it.

Here are the three main points I shall consider:
First: Examination of conscience. I shall delve cour­ageously into my conscience, not sparing its most rugged or boggy patches, asking God for strength and light to arrive at a clear-cut knowledge of the quality, kind, and number of my mortal sins, or, if I have no mortal sins, to discover three or four venial sins which expose me to the greatest dangers.

Second: Contrition. In order to excite myself to sincere sorrow for having offended God my Redeemer, for having repaid Him with so much ingratitude, and transgressed His precepts, I shall dwell upon the most persuasive and impressive motives of faith, and I shall detest my wrong-doing wholeheartedly.

Third: Purpose of amendment. I shall resolve, no matter what the cost, to correct all my seriously sinful lapses, and, if I have only venial sins, at least that which does me the most damage, and to promise their amend­ment specifically until my next confession.

If only I had taken my shortcomings one by one and combated each one with resoluteness and energy after each confession, how many of them would have been rooted out by now!

Above all and however much trouble it may entail, I shall resolve to cut out the voluntary proximate occa­sions of sin. If the occasion is not voluntary, if it is inevitable (and I shall not allow myself to be deceived easily on this point), I shall make it a remote occasion. This I shall resolve to do even if it should be as painful to me as cutting off my right hand or foot, or plucking out an eye. And I shall put my resolution into practice as soon as I have got up from confession, if I had not already done so before confession - which would be the best thing to do - or if a prudent confessor does not oblige me to take these measures before returning for absolution.

Dear Lord and God, I really do wish to save my soul, I do want to walk the road to heaven, even if I have to go all alone or eyeless or without hands and feet.

Resolutions
1. As often as I confess my sins I shall do so making an effort to reap all the fruits of the Sacrament, con­sidering my preparation for confession the most serious and profoundest act of my religious and moral life. I can make a good Communion without much reflexion, but I cannot confess properly without a complete renewal of my innermost mind:

Cor mundum crea in me Deus, et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis.

2. I shall go to confession invariably once a week­ or more if the need arises - with a fixed and well ­chosen confessor, or, if I have no choice, with anyone available. God, Who sees my good will, is pledged to make up for the shortcomings of His minister. All my other acts of piety and self-denial must give place to this great and fundamental act of frequent confession.

Convinced that in the fulfilment of these two resol­utions lies the surest sign of my predestination, I trust, O God and Father of the predestined, that Thou wilt not refuse me the strength of will required to carry them out faithfully.
_________________________
Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!

The Priest at Prayer for August 8, Priestly Piety

The Fourth Part - Some Means of Perseverence

Priestly Piety

Second Meditation - The Need for Priestly Piety

I. The priest is the man of God, appointed by his fellow-men their ambassador before God. When man must appear before God in order to obtain mercy or the remission of sin or supernatural grace and strength or temporal and eternal gifts, he fears for his own little­ness or unworthiness, he is afraid lest he be not admitted to the Divine Presence, his petitions be left unheeded; because he knows he is not pleasing to the Lord's scrutinising gaze.

He, therefore, instinctively goes to the priest, as to a person who enjoys God's familiar friend­ship; and in the priest's hands he lays his confidence and his requests. He knows that the priest of Christ, like Christ Himself, will be given audience at the Throne of the Eternal God; he knows that the priest has free access, for he is the King's close friend and privy coun­cillor. Such is the idea of the priest in the minds of Christians; and, in its main outline, such is the idea of every priest from the day the world began.

But what if the priest is actually God's enemy? What if the priest has not practice in conversing with God but rather flees from the divine Countenance as from a source of annoyance? What if the man of God is hateful to God? How will he put before God the petitions of the people whom he represents? Will he appease God, or will he provoke God to anger? Here we have, perhaps, the clue to the doctrine taught by so many holy and hard-thinking men, the doctrine that one bad priest is the ruin of a whole town or nation, and is responsible for the greater part of public calamities.

It is obvious, O God, that if I am to acquit myself properly of my office as the world's ambassador and mediator, in imitation of Christ, I must render myself acceptable to Thee, must be a friend of Thine, a member of Thy Household, a true pleader at Thy Court; in a word: pious.

II. As a means of bringing souls to God, riches are of no avail, nor learning, nor eloquence, nor worldly pomp and power. How many surprises time springs upon the educators of candidates for the priesthood! We have all witnessed it: young men who seemed to be the cream of talent while in the seminary, when raised to the priest­hood and given the cure of souls they proved to be very mediocre or even failures.

On the other hand, young men who were almost thrown out by their professors, soon after ordination began to do wonders for the con­version and renewal of souls throughout the district. What hidden talent came to light in the latter, that was missing in the former? The Spirit of Christ, Who wielded mastery over their hearts, Who guided them in their holy endeavours.

When it comes to returning to God in all sincerity, to being converted, to following the inspirations of divine grace, the human heart obeys only one deep impulse: God's personal invitation; it obeys only one attraction: the pure light of the Faith; one thing alone fascinates and captures: the life-giving perfume of Christ. (2 Cor. ii, 15:) And priests who are full of the Spirit of God, not merely good and honest men like any soldier or father of a family but solidly pious, have become this life-giving perfume of Christ, and souls run to them, and in their voice they hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.

Thy Church, O Lord, has need of learned ministers, men steeped in the sciences of things human and divine; grant them unto Her. Thy Church needs priests without blemish in the eyes of a prying world; refuse them not to Her, O Lord. But little will the Church accomplishwithout pious priests, Her best treasure, fishers of men for Thee. Lord, never refuse Thy Church these priests of piety; increase their number; let them be the salt of the earth, to free the earth from its so great corruption; let them be the light of the world, to scatter the world's darkness!

III. God help me if I am not pious! An ordinary Christian, a farmer or a family man, will perhaps man­age to observe all the commandments, will go for months and years without a single serious breach of the divine law, merely on the strength of Sunday Mass, Easter duties, and a few popular practices of devotion; that is, without being particularly pious.

But shall I, a priest, be as good and as honest without real, solid piety? I wish to God it would bear contradiction, but no, the fact is that if a priest is not solidly pious he will not even reach the standards of ordinary decency and honesty, in the elastic meaning given by the world to these terms. The fundamental and unassailable truth is that a priest who is not pious will very soon degenerate into a perverse Christian, into a man without a moral conscience, into a rake, a blackguard, a public scandal. . . .

The duties incumbent upon me are so very heavy! Take, for example, the duty of observing absolute and perpetual chastity of body and soul. Am I going to break that vow freely entered into before God and the world? If I do not keep it, if my soul burns with impure desire, if my body seeks to wallow in lustful pleasure, how is it possible for me to give rein to my appetites and not sustain the loss of moral integrity and common decency? How can I indulge my passions without plung­ing into the direst depths of infamy and abomination? No, it is quite clear, I cannot. Therefore, an unchaste priest is a perverse and abominable man.

Now then, am I, or anyone else for that matter, capable of such absolute purity by my own unaided efforts?

"To be master of myself was a thing I could not hope to come by except of God's Bounty; I was wise enough already to know whence the gift came. So to the Lord I turned, and made my request of him, praying with all my heart. . . ." (Wisdom viii, 21.)

No merely human interest or consideration was ever, of itself, sufficient a bridle to fleshly concupiscence: neither the desire for health, nor the dread of disgrace, nor the natural esteem of purity, nor nature's noblest aspirations. Has not my own experience taught me the lesson? Only a longing for the rewards of everlasting life, the fear of eternal punishment, a respectful regard for God's constant and all-seeing Presence, a contempt for degrading satisfactions, a sober life united to Jesus Christ, the laborious steering clear of sinful allurements; all this, together with divine grace, is the only force which adequately refrains and harnesses to reason and to God our most violent appetite of the flesh. And all this is called piety.

IV. Priestly piety encounters, to be sure, powerful and formidable opposition. One type of adversary proceeds - ­who would believe it? - from the ranks of some of your own fellow priests.

Experience, unfortunately, bears witness to this. When certain priests get together for their little parties and gossiping parlours, perhaps your name crops up in the course of conversation. "We know him well enough; not what he makes himself out to be. What does he mean by going around with the face of a mystic, mumbling his prayers at every hour of the day - the old wheedling humbug!" They may even throw it into your face and make social contact almost an impossibility for you among your colleagues. You'll be the target of numberless unfair and scathing remarks. Take stock of it, but meanwhile, esto vir, be a man; don't let it daunt you. If God and your own tempera­ment have endowed you with calmness of manner and strong convictions, choose an opportunity, when there are a number of witnesses, to face up to your accusers, and serenely, without losing your nerve or your temper, take the ring-leader to task along the following line of thought, if not in so many words:

"Let me be frank with you. Yes, I am trying to be pious, I am trying to keep in close touch with our Lord; and for very serious reasons. Experience has shown me how weak I am and how I am bound to yield to passion and break my most solemn promises, if I am left to my own devices. I don't want to take back every word I gave to God and the Church; loyalty is no more than common decency, like that of the military man not to run away from the firing­ line; but I'm convinced that my own unaided efforts are not enough to ward off defeat; so I'm determined to gather strength to remain loyal. That strength has its source in God and in Christ, nowhere else; and it is piety that opens up that source of strength to me. So now you know why I am trying to lead a life of piety."

Resolutions
1. From this very day I shall conform not only to the standards of liturgical piety and those of self-sacri­ficing obedience and service, as outlined in the last meditation, but also to the following prescriptions of Canon Law:

Canon 124 : Both the interior life and the exterior behaviour of the clergy must be superior to that of the laity, and must excel them by the example of virtue and good deeds.

Canon 125: The Ordinary must take care (1) that the clergy frequently go to confession; (2) that they make each day a meditation of some duration, visit the Blessed Sacrament, say the rosary, and examine their consciences.

Canon 126 : All secular priests must at least once in three years make a retreat for a length of time to be specified by the Ordinary, in a religious house or other place designated by the bishop. No one shall be exempted from the retreat, except in a particular case, for a just reason, and with the explicit permission of the Ordinary.

2. Besides my ministerial duties and liturgical functions, my daily timetable of piety will include the devotional exercises prescribed by the above Canons; and I shall not omit any pious exercise except for serious reasons, giving preference to the above-mentioned over any others, however holy, commendable, and enriched with indulgences, the latter may be.

This programme, besides being meritorious in itself and in the sight of Jesus Christ, who was obedient unto death, death on the Cross; besides consisting of acts which are essentially good and efficaciously sanctifying, will have the great merit of obedience to the divinest Authority on earth, our Holy Mother Church.
_________________________
Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!

The Priest at Prayer for August 6, Perseverence

[Note: This begins the final chapter of The Priest at Prayer. There are 8 more meditations after this one. These will lead us through to the Feast of the Assumption.]
_________________________


The Fourth Part - Some Means of Perseverence

Perseverence

Meaning and Characteristics of Perseverance

I. Every pious exercise, in particular that intensive series known as a retreat or the "spiritual exercises" has a purpose which goes beyond mere performance for the sake of adhering to a point of daily routine or of carry­ing out the Church's wishes or command; its primary purpose is to unite us ever more closely to God and to amend our lives; or, as the ascetical phrase runs, to advance in perfection.

To advance - that IS the great Christian word. To advance continually - because no one with any understanding of the Gospel spirit will ever boast of having reached the goal, no matter how many years of progressing he may count to his credit, no matter how swift his flight towards the summits of the Christian life.

"Not that I have already won the prize, alteady reached fulfilment. I only press on, in hope of win­ning the mastery." (Philip iii, 12)

And the same Apostle, whose life was coming to an end, continues:

"No, brethren, I do not claim to have the mastery already, but this at least I do: forgetting what I have left behind, intent on what lies before me, I press on with the goal in view, eager for the prize, God's heavenly summons in Christ Jesus." (id. 13-14)

Christ Himself expressed the height of our supreme calling in life when He said: Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. We shall never reach up to that infinite Model however much we may have run.

If, therefore, after any exercise of perfection, such as a retreat, I remain where I was before, as backward and lukewarm and sinful as before, it means that the exercise I was supposed to perform proved useless to me, or even harmful. Verbum meum non revertetur ad me vacuum. The grace of God is never ineffectual either one way or the other, for better or for worse. It either brings us nearer to God, if we correspond to it; or, if we reject it, we become inexcusable in God's sight.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. (John xv, 22)

II. The two great hallmarks of perseverance and continual progress in the good begun are, first, an unshakable determination - burned into my deepest soul by the fire of the Holy Spirit - not to sin, and to avoid the occa­sions of sin, especially the proximate voluntary occa­sions; and, second, to repent without delay for any relapse.

In carrying out the good resolutions of a retreat or any other pious exercise, I must avoid two extremes.

I must not make the mistake of imagining that from now onwards, thanks to the light and ardent desires enkindled in me by a life of solid piety or a fervent retreat, I am immune to the possibility of offending God or of relapsing into former sins.

No, I cannot afford to rest on my laurels; it would be a most dangerous illusion. Satan is not going to relax - his onslaughts may well increase until he has got us back to our old habits of sin.

Our passions have not died at the hands of grace and enlightenment during the retreat - a temporary respite, perhaps, in order to bide their time and return to the charge at a more favourable opportunity; a dozing off for a while, and then the old incentives both from within and from the outer world will re-appear: the blood will boil up again, my imagin­ation will conjure up fresh allurements, I shall experience anew the fascination of things and people, and my wild appetites will shake off their drowsiness and leap to the clamorous pursuit of pleasure.

These strong, treacherous enemies of mine are only lying in ambush, so I shall be always on the alert, with God's grace for my shield of protection, and armed with my resolve not to sin and to flee from the occasions of sin.

III. Another pitfall would be to exaggerate unreasonably the difficulties and obstacles which beset the path of my perseverance and progress. If, as is not unlikely, I have the misfortune to fall again into sin, I must beware of considering the resolutions I now make the utopian and imprudent dreams of a passing fervour. I must not stray from the charted course because of unforeseen circumstances or past experience. To adopt the attitude that such and such a line of conduct is not for me to follow, having failed to follow it before, is a fatal illusion that causes the loss of many and drives them into the depths of despair, or very near.

Because I have fallen once or twice or a hundred times I am tempted to jump to the conclusion that I simply cannot keep to the right path and that all my efforts will be of no avail. But what would happen if we adopted this despairing attitude in human affairs? What should we say of a sick man who after a second, third, or hundredth relapse gave it all up as a bad job, neglected himself, refused all doctors and medical aid? Don't we see people going year after year to drink and bathe in the same medicinal spring­waters? And what do they say? "Oh, if I'm not entirely cured, at least I get some relief, and I'm able to carry on."


Likewise in the ailments of the spirit. The reasonable thing to do, as soon as you feel you are down again, is to rise up, and to rise up as often as you fall, be it twice or a thousand times; to rise up, first, by an act of perfect contrition elicited immediately after you realise you have fallen, while the natural and healthy reaction is still upon you; and, secondly, to go to confession at the earliest opportunity. There is far greater harm and danger in allowing one single sin to take root undis­turbed than in frequent relapse coupled with frequent and immediate repentance where the sins are not given time to seep into your inmost soul and poison you. This undelayed repentance is the second essential practical means of perseverance.

IV. As a safeguard and outer wall of defence, make use of the following practices:

1. Weekly confession, whatever the cost, and prefer­ably with the same confessor or spiritual director. Con­fession as often as required in order to celebrate Mass worthily. This is not an impossibility, far from it; you will find it easier than is commonly supposed; a strong, inflexible will is all that is needed. And if this practice of weekly or even more frequent confession is adhered to faithfully, it will suffice to keep you on the path of virtue.

2. On rising, to say your morning prayers and make your meditation.

3. To prepare properly for the Holy Mass, at least by making your daily meditation; and to say Mass always in the state of grace, never, never in mortal sin. If you have fallen into this wretched condition, never approach the altar without first having gone to confes­sion, no matter what amount of trouble this may put you to.

4. To recite the Divine Office, giving to each Hour ample time, and choosing a place conducive to recollec­tion.

5. A protracted visit to the Blessed Sacrament in the afternoon. This practice, besides being an act of faith and piety, and good example to the faithful, will ensure the observance of the Church's law to keep open for a few hours each day every place of worship where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved.

6. To bear in a penitential spirit the griefs and afflictions which accompany my priestly state and office.

7. To live united with my Lord Jesus Christ, taking refuge within the sacred sanctuary of His Divine Heart, safely ensconced away from my own weakness and from the seductions and ingratitude of the world.
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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