To the Kreuser family Dear Friends, Well, Christmas is still taking place for me on earth. And although my position hasn’t changed substantially, I’m optimistic these days that we’ll be seeing each other again…. Today something came to my cell, wrapped in paper, on which I recognized...
To Marianne Hapig and Marianne Pünder I heard about the negative results of the efforts regarding Sperr. So we’ll have to start all over again. Put a piece of wood or some such thing between the bread so he’ll have to pay attention. Keep trying to ask...
To Franz von Tattenbach SJ L.T., [caption id="attachment_588" align="alignright" width="221"] Delp in earlier days[/caption] Thanks for everything. It’s going to be just fine. We’ve simply fallen off the mountain and the miracle is going to reveal itself in the hundred efforts we make to succeed….Even though I sometimes...
To the Kreuser family [friends in Munich, where Delp’s mother Maria and his sister Greta’s daughter Marianne were staying] Dear Friends, It’s time to send you a few good Christmas greetings. May the night into which we have stumbled be broadened and transformed by God into the...
To Marianne Hapig and Marianne Punder: Good people! God reward you for the care and love you’re always showing me. I hope you don’t ever have to experience how much this goodness and loyalty mean to a person. May God let you know in his own...
To Franz von Tattenbach SJ [Delp is planning for his trial, which will take place in January] The following idea is for consideration: The police people of the Reich’s head office of security have no notion of the political value in Count Moltke’s plans for after the...
To Luise Oestreicher [Delp’s secretary in Munich] Dear L., Greetings! By now you’ll have heard of the beautiful, rich happening of this week. That was a big surprise and a great grace and help. At that point I was in a bit of a depression, but now...
To Marianne Hapig and Marianne Punder: [caption id="attachment_569" align="alignleft" width="215"] Delp hiking in the mountains with a group of students (early 1940s)[/caption] That [the surprise visit from Tattenbach, allowing Delp to make his final vows on December 8] was a blessing, you good people. I wouldn’t have...
On December 8, 1944, came another turning point in Delp’s life. He had been scheduled to make his final vows as a Jesuit on August 15 (the original date having been postponed by his superiors through a decision-making process that remains confidential). By that date,...
Second Sunday of Advent Delp writes, “The primary condition for a fruitful and rewarding Advent is renunciation, surrender.” During this Advent of 1944 which he spends in Tegel Prison in Berlin, manacled and in isolation, he comes back again and again to this word: surrender--only God...