He Leadeth Me: An Extraordinary Testament of Faith

by Walter J. Ciszek

The vision of the kingdom, the call of Christ to labor and suffer with him, has overtones of a great and noble crusade—yet we must each of us translate that vision and retain that spirit in the routine, humdrum events of every day, even days in a prison camp. It would be easy, we think to ourselves, to be constantly on fire with that vision if we could be a Francis Xavier or a Richard the Lion-hearted, converting the Indies or scaling the walls of Jerusalem, sword in hand, caught up in the tumult of battle to win some great victory.

The kingdom of God will not be brought to fulfillment on earth by one great, sword-swinging battle against the powers of darkness, but only by each of us laboring and suffering day after day as Christ labored and suffered, until all things at last have been transformed.