Advent Awakening
Alfred Delp, S.J., was executed by the Nazis short months before the regime’s downfall. The Provincial of the English Jesuits has a moving personal reflection on his brother in the faith here.
Delp’s Prison Meditations and Prayers are not as well-known as those of Dietrich Bonhoeffer; but they very much deserve to be. Here are some Advent ponderings:
Advent is a time when we ought to be shaken and brought to a realization of ourselves. The necessary condition for the fulfillment of Advent is the renunciation of the presumptuous attitudes and alluring dreams in which and by means of which we always build ourselves imaginary worlds. In this way we force reality to take us to itself by force – by force, in much pain and suffering.
This shocked awakening is definitely part of experiencing Advent. But at the same time there is much more that belongs to it. Advent is blessed with God’s promises, which constitute the hidden happiness of this time. These promises kindle the inner light in our hearts. Being shattered, being awakened – only with these is life made capable of Advent. In the bitterness of awakening, in the helplessness of “coming to,” in the wretchedness of realizing our limitations, the golden threads that pass between heaven and earth in these times reach us. These golden threads give the world a taste of the abundance it can have.
We must not shy away from Advent thoughts of this kind. We must let our inner eye see and let our hearts range far. We will encounter the earnestness of Advent and the blessing of Advent in a different way. We will see characters, completed and whole personalities, that belong to these days and to all days – characters in whom the Advent message and the Advent blessing simply exist and live, calling out to us and touching us to cheer and shake us, to console and to uplift us.
The rest is here.
For many years I used Father Alfred Delp’s meditations as a source for my Advent reflections. This year I decided to take them up again and have not been disappointed. Orbis Books included them in Alfred Delp, SJ: Prison Writings, a part of their Moedern Spiritual Masters Series.
As Father Delp begins the Advent meditations, “Advent is a time for rousing.”
A modern way parallel to today’s Gospel, “Keep alert!”
A blessed Advent.
Thanks very much for this! Lovely!
I love the anticipation of Advent, the candle-lighting at home, the “golden threads” Delp talks about.
We have largely done away with buying presents in favor of prayerful giving that might include making a novena for someone; making a donation of time, money, or goods; or just sending a note or taking someone for coffee. One year, my brother took a picture of a bag of cat chow with a post-it note that said, “In honor of my MUCH older sister who loves cats,” which he sent to me before donating the bag to his animal shelter. A golden thread indeed!
I suppose it smacks of “random acts of kindness,” but we have found that spontaneous giving makes every Advent blessed in new and surprising ways.
Delp and Bonhoeffer were in Tegel Prison in Berlin at the same time, but they never met each other.
The Advent “meditations”, which were published by Herder in 1963 are a combination of meditations and sermons, as well as some letters he had written to family and friends when he was in prison. Some of sermons were delivered in Munich in the 1930s and early ’40s.
He is truly a remarkable figure whose writings are very little known. There are five volumes of collected writings in German. A few years ago I worked through eleven cartons of his personal effects at the Jesuit archive in Munich. I held and read the letters that he had written during his last months in prison. They were smuggled out by two women, both named Marianne, who brought him clean laundry each week. The last letter he wrote to his Jesuits brothers is incredibly moving, as is his final letter to his parents.
Alan Mitchell,
I corrected your original comment. Thank you for the further information. I don’t have the Orbis volume to which John Donaghy refers. Are those final letters published there? I believe Karl Rahner knew Father Delp. Were they fellow students, co-workers?
Thank you, Fr. Imbelli for cleaning up the mistakes. The Orbis volume is a reprint of the Herder one, and so you cannot tell which of the excerpts are from his letters. Robert Ellsberg asked to write an historical preface for the orbs volume, which I was happy to do. It reprints Thomas Merton’s preface from the Herder edition, too. I had wanted to re-translate some of the letters and other writings, since the original Herder translation is not completely accurate. The project was already pretty far along at Orbis, and Robert did not want to delay it any further, and so I was unable to correct the translations.
Rahner taught Delp Latin when Delp was a novice. They were in Theology together at Valkenburg. In an interview he was asked about Delp. He recalled with a certain pride, as he said, that he and Delp were good friends, and that they maintained that relationship. Rahner went on to say that he visited Delp shortly before his arrest. Rahner made the trip to Munich from Vienna.
Rahner described Delp as a lively brave individual who was at home in the intellectual atmosphere of his time. He remembered, too, that Delp had a vitality that was not always appreciated by his superiors. But he noted that Delp was absolutely faithful to his Jesuit vocation, even when the Nazis tried to indoctrinate him after he was arrested. Rahner was referring to the offer of release Delp was given if he would leave the Society of Jesus. Delp, of course, refused.
Rahner recalled, too, Delp’s interest in philosophical, sociopolitical and political questions. He mentioned Delp’s book on Heidegger, which was the first Catholic book on Heidegger. Rahner never agreed with Delp’s reading of Heidegger, and in the interview he said that objectively speaking it was not a very good book, which has long been forgotten. Rahner added “and rightly so.” Then saying “He was true to his ideals and to his vocation, and he sealed them with the sacrifice of his life.”
Finally, Rahner talked about Delp’s involvement with the Kreisauer Circle. His Provincial Augustin Rösch had recommended Delp to the Circle’s founder von Moltke. Their task was to plan for the rebuilding of Germany after the collapse of Nazism. Rahner made clear that they were not involved in plots to assassinate Hitler, but were arrested for that after Stauffenberg unsuccessfully planted the bomb on July 20, 1944. Rahner ended his remarks on Delp by noting that he really was in the front ranks of those advocating a Christian opposition to Nazism, and this is why he was executed.
Here is my translation of Del’s last letter to his mother and to his Jesuit brothers. Until her death Maria Delp kept a suitcase of Alfred’s things under her bed. She remained totally devoted to his memory and was beloved by the Jesuits, who always called her Mutter Delp.
January 11, 1945
Dear Mother,
Now I must write to you the most difficult letter a child could ever write to his mother. Everything has become hopeless. I have to reckon now with the death sentence and its being carried out. Dear mother, please remain brave and upright. He Lord God directs our fate. We want to give ourselves to him and not to be angry. It will be hard for you dear mother, however you must bear it.
Sincere thanks for all your love and goodness. You cared for us so well, having done and having suffered so much for us. Sincere thanks for everything you have given me and for all you are to me.
Greet father for me. I don’t think I will write him separately. You have to prepare him for it all. Please thank him for me for everything.
Remain brave dear mother. Pray for me. If I am with God I will always pray for you and make up for all I have failed to do for you in love.
We will surely see one another again. In just a short while we will be with one another. Then we will live eternally in the joy of God.
God protect you mom. Look after Marianne, that she grows up properly. I will indeed keep an eye on her. I send you sincere greeting.
Thankfully yours,
Alfred
Dear Brothers,
Now I must travel another way. The death sentence has been prescribed. The atmosphere is so full of hate and enmity, that today I have to reckon with its proclamation and impending execution.
I thank the Society and my fellow Jesuits for all the goodness, loyalty and help, most especially during these last difficult weeks. I beg forgiveness for much in my life that was not true and right, and I ask for some help and care for my elderly, ill, parents.
The actual basis for the judgment is this: that I am and remain a Jesuit. No connection to the matter of July 20 was established. Also the Stauffenberg accusation was never legally proven. Other charges against those who knew about July 20th were actually less serious even though they were factually established. The atmosphere of the trial was so infused with hatred and enmity. Its fundamental thesis: a Jesuit is a priori an enemy and an opponent of the Reich. Even Moltke was badly mishandled because of his connection to us, especially to Rösch. The whole thing was, on the one hand, a farce and, on the other, it became the defining motif of my life. It wasn’t really a fair judgment, but rather was a function of a will to destroy.
My the Lord God protect you all. I ask for your prayers. I will make every effort from the other side to make up for all that I am yet guilty of in this life.
In the middle of the week I will celebrate Mass and then in the name of God I will go the way of his providence and direction.”
God’s blessing and protection be with you.
Thankfully yours,
Alfred Delp, SJ
Out of courtesy to Prof. Mitchell, I’ll let him answer Fr. Imbelli’s question about Fr. Delp’s final letters, but I will note that Prof. Mitchell provided the very helpful biographical preface to the Orbis anthology mentioned by John Donaghy. And the introduction by somebody named Thomas Merton is pretty good, too. :)
Fr. Delp authored some very beautiful meditations. I’m sure his awareness of his plight and the specter of death helped to focus his thoughts, but his compassion and his faith are clearly evident in his meditations. For example, he has a meditation about “Those Round the Crib” on Christmas night that I particularly like. As to St. Joseph, he has the following to say in part:
“He is the man on the outskirts, standing in the shadows, silently waiting, there when wanted and always ready to help. He is the man in whose life God is constantly intervening with warnings and visions. Without complaint he allows his own plans to be set aside. His life is a succession of prophecies and dream-messages, of packing up and moving on. He is the man who dreams of setting up a quiet household, simply leading a decent home life and going about his everyday affairs, attending to his business and worshipping God and who, instead, is condemned to a life of wandering. Beset with doubts,heavy hearted and uneasy in his mind, his whole life disrupted, he has to take to the open road, to make his way through an unfriendly country finding no shelter but a miserable stable for those he holds most dear. He is the man who sets aside all thought of self and shoulders his responsibilities bravely–and obeys.”
William Collier
Thank you for adding that description of St. Joseph, which is one of my favorite things that Delp wrote. It has the vibrancy of the descriptions of the “Figures of Advent.” In some ways what Delp said about St. Joseph could have bee said about him. He lived his own kind of obscurity and his life was marked by suffering. Terrible dental abscesses, physical exhaustion and fatigue, not to mention the misunderstandings of others. He managed to maintain his humor through it all. As he was being led to his death he said the the Catholic chaplain accompanying him: “In thirty minutes, I will know more than you do.”
Speaking of Rahner and Delp, there was an interesting article in The Way about them by Philip Endean SJ – ‘A Symbol Perfected in Death: Rahner’s Theology and Alfred Delp (1907-1945)’, The Way, 43/4 (October 2004), 67-82. It can be downloaded at his website – http://www.theway.org.uk/endeanweb/pubs.htm
Gene Palumbo kindly called my attention to some typos in the letters I posted. In line three of the first letter He Lord God should be The Lord God. At the end it should be greetings instead of greeting. In the second letter, line 15, My should be May.
There’s also another book on Father Delp in English by Mary Frances Coady, With Bared Hands: A Jesuit in Germany: The Life and Selected Prison Letters of Alfred Delp. It was published by Loyola Press in 2003.
John A, Doonaghy
There are many problems with Coady’s portrayal of Delp, and so her book is not really reliable. Here is a link to my review of it for Theological Studies:
http://bit.ly/va8j6w
i am very partial to the meditation on the Lord’s Prayer in the Delp volume published by Herder.
May I also thank Alan Mitchell for the wonderful posts (above). I wonder if he thinks highly of the Coady vlume mentioned by John Donaghy. I should very much like to read more on Delp.