Description:
With God in America is a collection of previously unpublished writings on Walter Ciszek, SJ's, post-imprisonment life and thoughts.
Review Quotes: With God in America: The Spiritual Legacy of an Unlikely Jesuit, Walter Cisxek, compiled and edited by John M. DeJak and Mark Lindeijer, S.J. Loyola Press, Chicago. The author of this book died in 1988 but the writings it contains are still lively and are marked by a freshness that defies passing years The editors have done a service for persons seeking to live a spiritual life in difficult times. This work constitutes a supplement to the fascination account of Fr. Ciszek's adventurous life in communist Russia. In order to appreciate more fully the basis of the wisdom and sage advice found in this account of the Jesuit's life as a spiritual guide to many religious and lay persons it is helpful to read his own version of that enforced imprisonment and the events surrounding it. The story of Fr. Ciszek's twenty-three years in Russia. He spent four years in solitary confinement in the notorious Lubianka in Moscow. From there the Russian authorities shipped him in a box car in which he managed to survive in spite of the criminal occupants who controlled the distribution of the very limited food. He spent sixteen yaers of his sentence in hard labor above the arctic-circle. Life was not much easier for him after he finished his prison sentence for he was considered a Vatican spy. But after some time, he managed to contact his two sisters by mail, and was eventually exchanged through their persistent efforts with the USA State Department. The officials they dealt with proved responsive and arranged to exchange him for two Soviet spies that had been captured and were held in arrest.
This present work provides an illuminating account of the unusual and rugged character to join a Religious Order. His own words and the editors' supplementary additions result in a readable, absorbing story of an American citizen of the last century that gives fruitful insight into the makings of a saintly character. I myself had occasion to verify the result of the events described in this work and in his own earlier account as given in With God in Russia. I had read the spiritual writings of Fr. George Maloney, SJ, and found them insightful. Some monastic business required traveling for my community and I took the occasion to visit the author at the Russian Center, near the Fordham University grounds. When I asked for Fr. Maloney, the middle-aged priest who answered the door explained that Fr. Maloney was not present. He cordially invited me to enter and visit the center. His very friendly manner made me feel welcome and interested in what he might have to say about the Russian spirituality I had found so appealing. The warm friendliness of my host was such that it proved easy to speak with him about things of the spiritual life. When he took me into the chapel he spoke with such warmth about the presence of Christ in the sacrament there, that even now, forty years after, I recall his deeply felt words with the conviction that Fr. Ciszek has met the Lord. --Abbot John Eudes Bamberger, OCSO, Abbey of the Genesee