The quiet after loss …. The emptiness that death leaves us with - echoes of loneliness – along with memories of moments we’ll miss. Yet it gives us time to thank, to appreciate, to put into words and prayer what another means to us.
“Holy
Saturday. The best reminder that the silence of God doesn’t equal the absence of
God.”
Tullian Tchividjian
Friday, April 2, 2021
April 2, 2021
GOODFRIDAY
Is the key word, “good”? We know “bad” as in, “I’m having a bad day.” Bad as in we’re judged and condemned …. Bad as in we’re hit by spit …. Bad as in slipping and falling …. Bad as in we are nailed down …. Bad as in dying on a cross …. What’s a “good” day? Good as in someone helping us carry our cross …. Good as in someone nodding support to us on the way …. Good as in someone helping us when we fall … Good as in someone hearing our mutterings and moans …. Good as in someone there when we are dying ….
What’s a good day? What’s a bad day?
Each day is a different day – but each day we can enter into the mystery of carrying the giant cross of the world and experience death and resurrection.
“On
Good Friday last year the SS found some pretext to punish 60 priests with an
hour on "the tree." That is the mildest camp punishment. They tie a
man's hands together behind his back, palms facing out and fingers pointing
backward. Then they turn his hands inwards, tie a chain around his wrists and
hoist him up by it. His own weight twists his joints and pulls them apart...
Several of the priestswho were hung up
last year never recovered and died. If you don't have a strong heart, you don't
survive it. Many have a permanently crippled hand.”
― Jean
Bernard,
Priestlock 25487:
A Memoir of Dachau
Thursday, April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021
FOOT WASHING
My feet: skin flaking at times, hurting and aching as well, needing Vaseline or some type of soothing cream. I guess I’m getting old and dry. I’m needing kneading with my hands – but that’s not as easy as sit seems. Then surprise, YOU, walk into the room and wash my feet. Thank YOU.
“The
first days of January 1942 brought enormous amounts of snow. The reader already
knows what snow meant for the clergy. But this time the torture surpassed the
bounds of the endurable. At the same time the thermometer hovered between 5 and
15 degrees below zero. From morning till night we scraped, shoveled, and pushed
wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of snow to the brook. The work detail consisted
of more than 1,000 clergymen, forced to keep moving by SS men and Capos who
kicked us and beat us with truncheons.
We had to make rounds with the wheelbarrows from
the assembly square to the brook and back. Not a moment of rest was allowed,
and much of the time we were forced to run.
At one point I tripped over my barrow and fell,
and it took me a while to get up again. An SS man dashed over and ordered me to
turn with the full load. He ran beside me, beating me constantly with a leather
strap. When I got to the brook I was not allowed to dump out the heavy snow,
but had to make a second complete round with it instead.
When the guard finally went off and I tried to
let go of the wheelbarrow, I found that one of my hands was frozen fast to it.
I had to blow on it with warm breath to get it free.”
― Jean Bernard,
Priestblock 25487:
A Memoir of Dachau
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
March 31, 2021
SPY WEDNESDAY
Judas could feel the feel of the 30 silver coins in the side pocket of his cloak. Then guilt, regret, anger, resentment and 26 other rancid feelings rubbed against his brain. Judas resented being called “Thief” by Jesus, - yet he
knew that Jesus knew he helped himself from the money bag. He waited and waited for his moment - to sneak away to the chief priests and ask what would they give for him to betray Jesus. They gave him 30 pieces of silver. They gave him 30 pieces of hell – which ripped him up inside and out. When he realized what he had done, he threw the coins back and went searching for a rope to hang around his
neck and end it all.
