With God in Russia Quotes

“no matter what my small sufferings are, I have a choice. I can either let them make me bitter, or I can meet them with the confidence that God will not abandon me.”
― Walter J. Ciszek, With God in Russia: The Inspiring Classic Account of a Catholic Priest's Twenty-three Years in Soviet Prisons and Labor Camps

“On the bunks at night, he wanted to talk for hours about America. He was like a little boy, listening with wide eyes to my descriptions, asking questions, laughing, and shouting “Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!” to my answers. He couldn’t imagine buildings 50 or 60 stories tall. He refused to believe that people had houses with five or six rooms all to themselves, only one family to a house.”
― Walter J. Ciszek, With God in Russia: The Inspiring Classic Account of a Catholic Priest's Twenty-three Years in Soviet Prisons and Labor Camps

“I learned there the lesson which would keep me going in the years to come: religion, prayer, and love of God do not change reality, but they give it a new meaning.”
― Walter J. Ciszek, With God in Russia: The Inspiring Classic Account of a Catholic Priest's Twenty-three Years in Soviet Prisons and Labor Camps

“The nearness of the war had another more immediate effect. The food, which had been fairly good, was growing worse; some days there was none at all. There was little food in the town itself; there were too many prisoners now, and the prison kitchen was just not equipped to handle such a crisis. One evening, as our group was being led to the toilet, I noticed a big hambone in a corner of the corridor. When the guard wasn’t looking, I snatched it up and hid it inside my coat. In the toilet I washed it off as best I could under the faucet and put it in my pocket. The rest of the day I sat in the cell, biting off pieces of it, grinding it to powder between my teeth and swallowing it. I broke it up and offered pieces to the others, but their teeth weren’t strong enough to chew”
― Walter J. Ciszek, With God in Russia