The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp Quotes

“Our age, like those before us, has tried many other ways. But the life-urge is very strong in any man of genuine feeling and it keeps forcing him back to his own potentialities. We found it very hard to let go of beautiful things. But in the end we had to. We came to the stable by a road which was laborious, terrifying and blood-soaked and this miserable dwelling was at the end of it. Our hands are empty—more than empty. They are torn and bleeding because things literally had to be wrenched from their grasp. But if in spite of everything we can hear and recognize the call, if we can discover the inner meaning of the grim experience through which we are passing and if in the midst of this frightfulness we can learn to pray, then this hell will bring forth a new man and a blessed hour will strike for the troubled earth in the middle of the night—as it has so often before.”
― Fr. Alfred Delp, The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp

“The learned. Learning and prayer have little in common. It was so then and it is still so today. Learning is besotted and bemused by the brilliance of its own ideas and has an overweeningly high opinion of its own interpretation of the world’s affairs. And whenever the world takes a course not laid down in the books it is immediately suspect. Western thought is inordinately proud of having “grown up” in the last century. It considers itself completely adult and self-possessed. Meanwhile in obedience to its own law it is no longer spreading its wings like an eagle, no longer adventuring to the horizon. It has become a mere appendage to earthbound utility blind and blunted to certain aspects of the truth. But human nature is so constituted that even in its most debased and blinded state it still needs to ape God and set itself on a pedestal as if it were divine. Unconsciously it is reaching out towards a state it might be capable of achieving if it were not so in love with itself and forever leading itself and its world into the icy mire of materialism.”
― Fr. Alfred Delp, The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp

“The wilderness represents the law of endurance, the firmness that makes a man. It is the quiet corner reserved for tears, prayers for help, humiliations, terror. But it is a part of life and to try to avoid it only postpones the trial.”
― Fr. Alfred Delp, The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp

“And the world too will be in a bad way if ever it happens that there are no more wildernesses, no more silent unspoilt places to which a man can retire and think, if every corner of the earth is filled with noise and underground tunnels and soaring airplanes and communication networks, if cables and sewers scar the surface and undermine the crust. Mankind needs to keep a few quiet corners for those who seek a respite and feel the urge to retreat for a while from over-civilization to creative silence. For those who occasionally feel the hermit instinct there should at least be a chance to try it out. The law of absolute utility, of total functionalism, is not a law of life. There is an extraordinarily close connection between the wilderness and fruitful, satisfying life. Where all the secluded places ring with tumult, where the silent muses have been degraded to pack horses and all the sources of inspiration forced into the service of official mills grinding out propaganda, the wilderness has indeed been conquered—but at what a price. Even greater devastation has taken its place.”
― Fr. Alfred Delp, The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp

“The officers of the Church have the inner guidance of the Spirit—but what about the executive departments? And the bureaucratic officials? And the mechanical “believers” who “believe” in everything, in every ceremony, every ritual—but know nothing whatever about the living God? One has to be very careful in formulating this thought, not from cowardice but because the subject is so awe-inspiring. One thinks of all the meaningless attitudes and gestures—in the name of God? No, in the name of habit, of tradition, custom, convenience, safety and even—let us be honest—in the name of middle-class respectability which is perhaps the very least suitable vehicle for the coming of the Holy Spirit.”
― Fr. Alfred Delp, The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp

“Fear has become a cardinal virtue. This is not said in a spirit of anarchy. But power must regain its proper dimension allying itself with eternal purpose and genuine mission. Otherwise it will merely evoke counter-action and the ghastly struggle for survival will never end. And as a subordinate being man must waken to the inherent sovereignty of his spirit, believing in conscience and in his relationship with God.”
― Fr. Alfred Delp, The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp

“Western man today is spiritually homeless, naked and exposed. The moment he starts to be anything beyond “one of the masses” he becomes terribly aware of that isolation which has always encompassed the great. He realizes his homelessness and his exposure. So he sets to work to build himself some sort of house and shelter. Our ancestors, those among them who were really great men, could have left us a legacy much more helpful for our progress.”
― Fr. Alfred Delp, The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp