Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp by Alfred Delp
"Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp" is a poignant collection of reflections by Father Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest who faced execution by the Nazis during World War II. Captured for his involvement in the Kreisau Circle, a group advocating for a Christian-based social order in post-war Germany, Delp's writings emerge from the depths of despair and isolation, providing a profound commentary on faith, suffering, and the human condition. His meditations explore themes such as the pervasive sense of godlessness in modern society, the necessity of recognizing one's separation from God, and the importance of spiritual renewal in both individuals and communities.
Delp's insights underscore the idea that authentic faith transcends mere ritualism and calls for a deeper, transformative relationship with the divine. He advocates for a new social order that not only respects individual dignity but also fosters conditions conducive to spiritual growth. Through his reflections, Delp articulates a vision of "God-conscious humanism," highlighting the need for inner transformation and social responsibility as essential for reconnecting with God. His enduring message resonates with those seeking meaning and hope in the face of adversity, making his meditations a valuable resource for contemporary spiritual seekers.
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Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp by Alfred Delp
First published:Im Angesicht des Todes, 1956 (English translation, 1962, as Facing Death)
Edition(s) used:Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp, with an introduction by Thomas Merton. New York: Herder & Herder, 1963
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Journal or diary; letters; meditation and contemplation
Core issue(s): Catholics and Catholicism; death; God; good vs. evil; persecution; religion; sin and sinners; social action; suffering; surrender
Overview
Alfred Delp was born in Mannheim, Germany. He joined the Jesuits when he was nineteen, after having become a convert to Catholicism. He was editor of Stimmen der Zeit (voices of the time) from 1939 until 1942, when the Nazis suppressed the publication. In 1943, at the height of World War II, he joined in the work of the Kreisau Circle, an anti-Nazi group devoted to planning a new social order built on the principles of Christianity. Delp joined the circle at the invitation of Count Helmuth von Moltke, and with Moltke he stood trial for treason and was sentenced to be executed. The execution took place in Plotzensee prison on February 2, 1945.
The principles of Christian spirituality revealed in The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp are wrapped in the personal experiences of a man sentenced to die by the Nazis. Delp and a group of his friends were arrested by the Gestapo in 1944. He had joined a secret group called the Kreisau Circle who expected German chancellor Adolf Hitler’s defeat and were planning a new social order to be built on Christian lines after World War II. These “rechristianising intentions” were considered heresy. Charges that he was part of a plot to assassinate Hitler were dropped; the trial was plainly a religious one. Delp maintained that he was condemned because he “happened to be, and chose to remain, a Jesuit.” After a mock trial and a perfunctory sentencing he was executed in Plotzensee prison on February 2, 1945.
The insights that he gained during his last months of life have universal validity for contemporary Christian spirituality. They are bare and unsentimental; he had no time for extraneous matters. As he awaited the executioner’s certain but unscheduled arrival, he wrote:
On this ultimate peak of existence at which I have arrived many ordinary words seem to have lost the meaning they used to have for me and I have now come to see them in quite a different sense. Some I don’t even care to use at all any more; they belong to the past which already is far away. Here I am, on the edge of my cliff, waiting for the thrust that will send me over. In this solitude time has grown wings—angels’ wings; I can almost sense the soft current as they cleave the air, keeping their distance because of the immense height. And the noises from below are softened and quietened—I hear them rather as the distant murmur of a stream tossing and tumbling in a narrow gorge.
What he could see from the cliff’s edge is recorded for us in excerpts from his diary; meditations on Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany; some short essays; reflections on the Lord’s Prayer and a pentecostal liturgy; and his parting words after the death sentence. These writings, written in the face of Nazi terror, peer deep into the dark heart of modern evil and point unfailingly to the saving reality of faith in God.
Father Delp’s description of his time is disturbingly realistic for our own. From “the very shadow of the scaffold” Father Delp saw that his world had entered a new era that had as its recurring theme a humanity that is profoundly godless, no longer even capable of knowing God. Drowned by the noises of everyday life, forbidden by restrictions, lost in the hurry of “progress,” stifled by authority, misled by fear, the ordinary person’s “spiritual mechanism has rusted and become practically useless.” He portrayed Western humanity as “spiritually homeless, naked and exposed.” The modern world seems “incapable of being God-conscious.” Ground down by the totalitarian machinery of a ruthless nation-state, Father Delp had no illusions about the strength of human evil in the modern age.
The Church was not spared by the critique coming from the shackled priest in solitary confinement. He wrote:
But recently the man turning to the Church for enlightenment has all too often found only a tired man to receive him—a man who then had the dishonesty to hide his fatigue under pious words and fervent gestures. At some future date the honest historian will have some bitter things to say about the contribution made by the churches to the creation of the mass-mind, of collectivism, dictatorships and so on.
Admitting that the Church was no longer one of the controlling powers in human affairs, Delp urged believers to leave the familiar territory of religious habit and a privileged clergy. He found himself surrounded by “mechanical ’believers’ who ’believe’ in everything, in every ceremony, every ritual—but know nothing whatever about the living God.”
Father Delp’s meditations are not just the cynical analyses of a doomed man; they are a message of hope despite the harsh realities portrayed. Indeed the very shock that arises when one knows what one is capable of, as well as the “failings of humanity as a whole,” are essential elements in the journey to renewed contact with God. Two things must be accepted unreservedly according to Delp: first, “that life is both powerless and futile in so far as by itself it has neither purpose nor fulfillment”; and second, “it must be recognised that it is God’s alliance with man, his being on our side, ranging himself with us that corrects this state of meaningless futility.” The recognition of our separation from God is Delp’s most important message, for it helps us to realize that only by the direct intervention of God, “who breaks the fetters, absolves the guilt and bestows the inevitable blessing,” can humankind recognize its true identity. “The essential requirement is that man must wake up to the truth about himself.” In the unfolding of history, even the dark history of the 1940’s, this word of truth is carried into effect.
Once that recognition of the true state of affairs occurs, persons are free to turn away from “passionate preoccupation with self” and turn toward God. Delp’s suffering led him to see that thinking only in terms of self destroys self. The “happy” alternative is that one “needs the eternal, the infinite.” The hunger and thirst and awareness of lack turn life into “a continuous Advent” that is hope itself. As humankind turns toward God, consciously trying to make contact with him, we find we are no longer on our own. Freedom is restored for real contact with the living God. This surrender of self Delp calls “God-conscious humanism.”
The conversion of a soul is an act of God and requires an inner turning, but it does not take place in a vacuum. For the reestablishment of contact with God to occur, a new social order is demanded. “As long as human beings have to exist in inhuman and unworthy conditions the majority will succumb to them and nothing will make them either pray or think.” The spiritual insights that Delp found in his isolation are to be applied to all of life, to the whole human race. Only then are they valid for the prisoner of God-forsakenness.
Delp believed that every human being required space in which to grow. This space includes an “existence minimum” of living space, stable government, and adequate nourishment; an ethical minimum of honesty in society, dedication to the search for truth, and a sense of service; and a “minimum of transcendence”—an ultimate goal to live toward. Delp sums these up “in the words respect, awe, devotion, love, freedom, law.” Individually they are expressed in character; collectively in family, community, economy.
In themselves these insights are valuable and good, but the force of Delp’s writing is the personal incarnation of this spirituality. The principles expressed by one who was forced to test their validity in the face of death carry the force of truth. His struggles and doubt are there in black and white. Near the end, he wrote, “So is it madness to hope—or conceit, or cowardice, or grace?” but he also added, “One thing is gradually becoming clear—I must surrender myself completely.” This process of surrender to God worked out before our eyes in his writings is a treasure for all Christians who seek God in a seemingly godless age. He concluded his wrestling with these words:
I will honestly and patiently await God’s will. I will trust him till they come to fetch me. I will do my best to ensure that this blessing, too, shall not find me broken and in despair.
Christian Themes
Delp’s meditation, produced at the height of World War II and under the greatest pressures a human being can face—imprisonment, persecution, and knowledge of certain, imminent death—is a testament to his Christian faith. In the worst days of Nazi oppression, he produced an honest appraisal of modern Western humankind, concluding that humanity is profoundly godless and seemingly incapable of knowing God. The task, as he saw it, was to help create the fundamental conditions that would reestablish living contact with God, who alone can give meaning and purpose to life. This regeneration must come from God, is to be received by the believer, and is inextricably bound to a renewal of the entire social order.
Sources for Further Study
Coady, Mary Frances. “Hitler and the Jesuits.” Commonweal 121, no. 18 (October 22, 2004): 20-21. Coady addresses the anti-Nazi work of the Jesuits during World War II, in particular the priests Lothar König, Augustin Rösch, and Alfred Delp.
Coady, Mary Frances. With Bound Hands: A Jesuit in Nazi Germany—The Life and Selected Prison Letters of Alfred Delp. Chicago: Jesuit Way, 2003. The first full-length English-language biography of Delp.