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The cover of "He Leadeth Me," co-authored by Jesuit Fathers Walter J. Ciszek and Daniel L. Flaherty, features the quote, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” This work reflects on Father Ciszek's experiences in Soviet prisons from 1941 to 1963.
Father Ciszek's journey began with a mission to minister in Russia alongside a fellow priest. They initially faced challenges due to Soviet hostility towards religion. Despite this, he realized that their struggles stemmed from an "inability to work as we thought God would surely want us to work."
He reflected on God's will, writing, “His will is what he actually wills to send us each day.” His faith was tested when he was arrested as a German spy and imprisoned at Lubianka prison in Moscow. After enduring interrogations and solitary confinement for a year, he signed a false confession under threat of execution.
Reflecting on his actions, Father Ciszek noted, “We were created to do God’s will and not our own...God must sometimes allow us to act on our own so we can learn humility.”
Following despair after signing the confession, he found peace through surrendering entirely to God's will: “Only when I had reached a point of total bankruptcy of my own powers had I at last surrendered.”
After four more years at Lubianka, Father Ciszek was sent to a Siberian labor camp where he secretly celebrated Mass with sympathetic prisoners. He observed their devotion: “I have seen priests pass up breakfast and work at hard labor on an empty stomach until noon in order to keep the Eucharistic fast.”
Upon release but still under surveillance in the Soviet Union, Father Ciszek noted that death was nearly taboo among communists but found Russians still held strong beliefs about the afterlife: “Death...was not an end but a beginning...a passage into eternal life.”
He learned much from their faith: “Salvation...depends ultimately on our belief in God and our abandonment in him.” For Christians like himself, death meant returning home to God.
Father Walter Ciszek’s story offers spiritual insights into understanding God's will daily and surrendering during life's trials. His experiences teach seeing death without fear as part of new life.
Lauretta Brown is culture editor for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @LaurettaBrown6.
