Quotes from Walter J. Ciszek

Mysteriously, God in his providence must make use of our tragedies to remind our fallen human nature of his presence and his love, of the constancy of his concern and care for us. It is not vindictiveness on his part; he does not send us tragedies to punish us for having so long forgotten him. The failing is on our part.

if you are in a situation or difficulty, you can make a U-turn; instead of putting the blame on something outside or on someone else, look within yourself to see how you have contributed to the problem, and then find a way to restore peace to the situation.

Through the long years of isolation and suffering, God had led me to an understanding of life and his love that only those who have experienced it can fathom. He had stripped away from me many of the external consolations, physical and religious, that men rely on and had left me with a core of seemingly simple truths to guide me. And yet what a profound difference they had made in my life, what strength they gave me, what courage to go on!

And the greatest grace God can give such a man is to send him a trial he cannot bear with his own powers—and then sustain him with his grace so he may endure to the end and be saved.

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.

It is much easier to see the redemptive role of pain and suffering in God's plan if you are not actually undergoing pain and suffering. It was only by struggling with such feelings, however, that growth occurred. Each victory over discouragement gave an increase in spiritual courage; every success, however fleeting, in finding the hand of God behind all things, made it easier to recapture the sense of his purpose in a new day of seemingly senseless

Solo puedo describir la experiencia de conversión como una sensación de «dejarse llevar», de renunciar a todo esfuerzo o incluso a mi deseo de tomar las riendas de mi propia vida. Aunque suene demasiado simple, esa decisión ha condicionado a partir de entonces cada uno de los momentos de mi vida. Solo puedo llamarlo una conversión.

The Soviets are here." The news spread like panic through the small village of Albertyn, Poland, on October 17, 1939. I had just finished Mass and breakfast on that memorable morning, when bewildered parishioners came to the mission to tell me the news. It was news we had feared ever since it had become clear that Germany and Russia were dividing up Poland. But now our fears were a reality. The Red Army was in Albertyn.

Faith is inseparable from love; out of these two twins hope is born.

And each one of us drives love from our lives, drives the longing, the desire for happiness and peace from our lives, each time we run from generosity. There is no love, there is no peace, there is no joy without him. He and he alone is our reward exceedingly great; no physical comfort, no thing, no person can ever truly fill our lives.

I knew what my answer would be. I had no doubts, no fears, no hesitation. I knew what I was going to do next, what I had wanted all my life, what the mission to Albertyn had been meant for in God's providence.

He wants men of greatest generosity and self-sacrificing," he wrote, "who renounce their own will and embrace his will instead." So, "Lord, if that is thy will in regard to me, unworthy one, I embrace it fully and promise with thy grace to remain faithful to the end to thy most holy will. This is my life, my joy, my strength and courage.

I was lonely enough and homesick in the years that followed. My father died while I was studying in Rome, and I could not be at his funeral. When I was at last ordained in Rome, none of my family could afford to make the trip to be with me. Yet through those years I never once wavered in my conviction that God had called me for the Russian missions; I never doubted that I would one day serve him there.

The children of this world were dedicated to surviving this life by whatever method possible. I, too, must be totally dedicated, but with an added dimension. I must not seek to avoid hardships or to soften their impact. I must see in them the will of God and through them work out my salvation.

A man needs something, some sense of accomplishment to maintain his sense of human dignity, of his value and worth as a person; even under the most stringent, most repetitious and boring routine, a man seeks something to maintain his sense of dignity and of worth.

Tendemos demasiado fácilmente a asociar nuestra satisfacción con un sentimiento de bienestar, a buscarla únicamente en nuestra comodidad. Perdemos de vista que, por debajo y detrás de todo eso, está Dios, que nos mantiene y sostiene. Dios permite que nuestro mundo se trastoque para recordarnos que no es nuestra morada permanente ni nuestro destino final y trabajemos por nuestro destino eterno y nuestra salvación.

Quizá Dios tenga que recordarnos con tremenda claridad que eso es exactamente lo que quería decirnos con esas palabras aparentemente tan simples del Sermón de la Montaña: «No estéis preocupados por vuestra vida: qué vais a comer; o por vuestro cuerpo: con qué os vais a vestir. Buscad primero el Reino de Dios y su justicia, y todas estas cosas se os añadirán».

That the movements of God's grace must always be accepted and understood in virtue of the life of faith, because ultimately the truth of every mysterious action of his grace is discerned in the light of faith rather than by the powers of reason or of intellect.

That God's will can be discerned by the fruits of the spirit it brings. That peace of soul and joy of heart are two such signs, provided they follow upon total commitment and openness to God alone and are not founded on the self's desires.

There are movements of the soul, deeper than words can describe and yet more powerful than any reason, that can give a man to know beyond question or arguing or doubt that digitus Dei est hic (the finger of God is here),

Every moment of every man's life is precious in God's sight, and none must be wasted through doubt and discouragement. The work of the kingdom, the work of laboring and suffering with Christ, is no more spectacular for the most part than the routine of daily living.

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.

If God had preserved him this far, a prisoner would tell you, if he had not rejected him with all his transgressions but had kept him alive until now, then surely he would not abandon him. That was the source of their confidence and trust in him.

Children are told to humor their elders who still believe in such things and have never had the scientific and technical training that would show them how incompatible such notions are with modern science.