Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Writings - 1941-1944

by Alfred Delp

Fr. Alfred Delp,S.J., was a heroic German Jesuit priest who was imprisoned and martyred by the Nazis in a Nazi death camp in 1945. At the time of his arrest, he was the Rector of St. Georg Church in Munich, and had a reputation for being a gripping, dynamic preacher, and one who was an outspoken critic of the Nazi regime. He was an important figure in the Resistance movement against Nazism. Accused of conspiring against the Nazi government, he was arrested in 1944, tortured, imprisoned, and executed on Feb 2, 1945. While in prison, Fr. Delp was able to write a few meditations found in this book, which also includes his powerful reflections from prison during the Advent season about the profound spiritual meaning and lessons of Advent, as well as his sermons he gave on the season of Advent at his parish in Munich. These meditations were smuggled out of Berlin and read by friends and parishioners of St. Georg in Munich. His approach to Advent, the season that prepares us for Christmas, is what Fr. Delp called an "Advent of the heart." More than just preparing us for Christmas, it is a spiritual program, a way of life. He proclaimed that our personal, social and historical circumstances, even suffering, offer us entry into the true Advent, our personal journey toward a meeting and dialogue with God. Indeed, his own life, and great sufferings, illustrated the true Advent he preached and wrote about. From his very prison cell he presented a timeless spiritual message, and in an extreme situation, his deep faith gave him the courage to draw closer to God, and to witness to the truth even at the cost of his own life. These meditations will challenge and inspire all Christians to embark upon that same spiritual journey toward union with God, a journey that will transform our lives. ?As one of the last witnesses who knew Fr. Alfred Delp personally, I am very pleased this book will make him better known in America. The more one reads his writings, the more one clearly recognizes the prophetic message for our times! Like his contemporary, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Delp ranks among the great prophets who endured the horror of Nazism and handed down a powerful message for our times.?
—Karl Kreuser, S.J., from the Foreword

Genres: Catholic, Nonfiction, Christianity, Spirituality, Christmas, Religion, Theology

213 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 30, 2006

About the author

Alfred Delp was a German Jesuit priest and philosopher of the German Resistance. A member of the inner Kreisau Circle resistance group, he is considered a significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism. Falsely implicated in the failed 1944 July Plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler, Delp was arrested and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1945.

Reviews

[Ramón S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It times where ideological totalitarianism is spread all over this book is very important.
Alfred Delp is a martyr of totalitarianism and he understands perfectly the roots of it and the only answer towards Evil.
The text is not easy at the beginning but during the reading the depth of the sermons is clear and we can see the importancy of every word.
Highly recommend if you think we are living in dark times and you need Hope

[Fr. Wirth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional spiritual read for the Advent/Christmas season with an equally powerful message. This book is a classic which is a great yearly read if not more frequently as it greatly applies to the practical daily Christian life. The themes depicted by Fr. Delp are beautifully expressed and serve as beautiful meditation/prayer topics. Such writings are all the more powerful considering the harsh extremities Fr. Delp faced as a prisoner within the horrific Nazi reign. Additionally, Fr. Delp exhibits profound levels of courage and faith which ultimately lead to eventual martyrdom. A must read for all Christians/Catholics.

[Madyson Hamling · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new favorite book. All of our life is advent- an awakening of the reality of the life we live in. A reminder we are continually preparing our hearts for eternity with Christ!

2nd time thought it was even better !!!

[A Enwright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful Advent reading. I wrote that I had finished the book, which I did. But it's meditative reading, which means it's never really finished!

[Patrick Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best book about Advent I’ve ever read.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know it's a good book when you have to highlight 80% of the text!
These texts, written by Alfred Delp, in the 1940s, are very specific to his time and place. He writes about the longing for peace and justice, the anticipation for safety and comfort in times of true darkness. His writings surely called the people of his time and in his community to fall to their knees in supplication to the Lord to spare the lives of the innocent and bring the horrors of war to an end. But even knowing the perspective in which these meditations and homilies were written, I couldnt find a single passage that didn't apply to today's political and social climate. Our world is truly in darkness and the faithful must weather this Advent with a deep commitment to prayer and action for Our Lord and His Gospel.

[Katherine Prezioso · Rating 4 out of 5]

"God is with us: that was the promise, and we have wept and pleaded for it. And it has been realized in accordance with each individual's capacity, and each life's capacity: completely different, much more fulfilled, and, at the same time, much simpler than we thought.


We should not avoid the burdens God gives us. They lead us into the blessing of God. To those who remain faithful to the ascetic and hard life, the interior springs of reality will be unsealed, and the world is not silent as we might have thought. The silver threads of God's mysteries within everything that is real begin sparkling and singing. The burden is blessed, because it has been recognized and carried as a burden from God


God becomes man. Man does not become God. The human order remains and continues to be our duty, but it is consecrated. And man has become something more, something mightier. Let us trust life because this night must lead to light. Let us trust life because we do not have to live it alone. God lives it with us."

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very good . It was a digital download from the Formed app . I would like to read it again sometime.

[Leslie Moellering · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep reflections on advent, especially how advent must shake us up.

[V Forr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read slowly week by week, these sermons and writings speak profoundly to life now and are sources of excellent preparation during Advent. I highly recommend this book.

[John Engelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alfred Delp was born in 1907 in Manheim, Germany. As a Jesuit priest he worked with the anti Nazi resistance and helped Jews flee the Holocaust. He was arrested in 1944, tortured, and executed by the Nazis in 1945. The sermons and prison writings in Advent of the Heart serve as an eloquent rebuttal to the monstrous lie that Adolf Hitler was a Christian.

Hitler understood better than Vladimir Lenin, who did not understand it at all, that if he occasionally posed as a Christian, he could win the support of those who supported him for other reasons. In a speech given April 12, 1922 Hitler said:

“For as a Christian I have a duty to my own people. And when I look on my people, I see it work and work and toil and labor, and at the end of the week it has only for its wage wretchedness and misery. When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their wretched faces, then I would be no Christian, but a very devil, if I felt no pity for them.”

To learn what Hitler really thought of Christianity we should turn to Hitler’s Table Talk: 1941 – 1944. This consists of comments Hitler said privately to associates and foreign dignitaries. These were copied with Hitler’s permission by a secretary.

In the night of 11th – 12th July 1941 Hitler said:

“The heaviest blow that ever-struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity’s illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew.”

Hitler’s Table Talk has many comments like that.

When Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union, Nazi propagandists portrayed the invasion as a Christian crusade against atheism.

Arch Bishop of Canterbury William Temple described the difference between Communism and Nazism more appropriately by saying, “Communism is a Christian heresy. Nazism is anti Christian paganism.”

In Advent of the Heart Alfred Delp articulates what Christianity really is.

[Katherine Szerdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each year, I choose an Advent devotional with which to journey throughout my favorite season of the Church calendar. After reading my friend Melody’s 5-Star review of this, I had to get it. She has yet to steer me wrong. And oh my—-there are no words.
Fr. Alfred Delp, a heroic German Jesuit priest and contemporary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was a gifted and dynamic preacher. He was originally arrested by the Nazi’s under suspicion of having been involved in the assassination attempt on Hitler, for which Bonhoeffer was also arrested. Both played an important part in the resistance movement. Those charges were dropped against Fr. Delp, and the Nazi’s offered to release him if he would renounce his Jesuit vows. He refused and, thus, was martyred just weeks before the Nazi surrender. He was 37.
To encourage his parishioners and friends, he wrote the devotions (of which this book is comprised) on tiny pieces of paper smuggled out with laundry and collected by friends in the resistance movement. His message is prophetic for his time and for our own!
If you are tired of devotionals written by rockstar preachers living in McMansions and sporting $800 sneakers and, instead, desire a book written by a man whose faith is so strong that even the threat of execution cannot extinguish it, a book that will challenge and encourage you, your faith, this holiday season, this is your book!

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This spiritual book of meditation is also a powerful reflection on what the Advent season is really about. Written during one of the most tumultuous times in 20th Century, Father Delp's reflections is beautifully profound and uplifting.

Father Delp may be a matryr to his religious convictions, but he died knowing that his convictions would outlive the secular faith of the Fascist Party he strived against. Highly recommended reading during the Advent season and worth re-reading outside of the Christmas season as well.

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a beautiful book. Very inspiring and Father Delp give you the message of God during the Advent season. Father Delp is very specific and inspiring in his homilies. He gives you the message of God and gets your heart and directs you on what is really important during Advent season. I liked the listed chronology of Father Delp's events compared to what was happening in the secular world. I also liked the 3 plays at the end of the book and the message it brought to seek happiness in God.

[Jeff Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the man who ordered the emperor's image set up in the sacred space; and this was the man who had only one priority in his life: to remain a friend of Caesar.

When once, during his meeting with the true Lord, his conscience began to vibrate softly, and he began to lose something of his forceful certainty, it was enough to remind him:

> "Friend of Caesar, your friendship is in danger!" Then, like a desert jackal, all was forgotten, and our Lord went to the Cross.

[Derek Barber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and life-changing book to read during Advent. Knowing that the sermons in this book were written under Nazi oppression and some even written from a prison cell gives a weight and depth to the words that have resonated in my soul. This is a book to read slowly and prayerfully. Fr. Alfred Delp, pray for us.

[Tom Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A challenging, inspiring, and deeply moving collection. Timely words from a deeply faithful priest and heroic martyr.

"There is no reason to lose heart or give up and be depressed. Instead this is a time for confidence and for tirelessly calling on God. We must unite ourselves with God against our distress."

(Meditation, Tegel Prison, December 1944, pg. 148)

[Kathleen Basi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is deep, intense brain work, but it is well worth the investment. Though they were written about Germany in World War II, Delp's reflections on joy and the coming of God into time and its implications for humanity ring painfully clear in 2025 America.

[Kathleen Kirchner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrifying and beautiful

[Thomas Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful witness and historical archive.

[Kel · Rating 4 out of 5]

finally read this book this advent - some really beautiful and prescient writing.

[Tyler Lomnitzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many spiritual nuggets - this books will “shake you awake” - should def revisit it every Advent. It really amplifies the season.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great advent reading

I loved how he made advent more personal! It was a very dark time in the history of Germany. Christian institutions were proselytized politically. Life for Germans and Delp were extremely challenging. He used Advent candles to describe the true nature of a Christian who realized the grace of God and had the confidence found in God’s promises; basically, the redeeming power of God in one’s life to produce light in dark times. Delp in the gloom of prison was able to reflect the life of Christ to his audience then and for us today.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written by a Catholic priest living in Nazi Germany, who opposed Hitler's regime. The book is organized around the Sundays of Advent, including the readings for each day. They are followed by a sermon Father Delp preached before his arrest, and a reflection from his imprisonment on a similar theme.

[Sarah Cain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fr. Delp has now been my spiritual companion for two Advents. His writings herein are thoughtful, and call us to change ourselves in light of the season, as well as revelation. To think that he wrote them while inside of a prison, held on false charges, is incredible. He kept and lived the faith in the worst of circumstances, while calling us to do the same in our (almost certainly) better ones.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth reading a second time. Alfred Delp's Advent sermons are both beautiful and thought provoking. I have read the 1944 sermon, that he wrote in prison shortly before he was executed, many times and always find something new in it.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alfred Delp was among the conscious religious resisters to Nazism. These meditations on Advent are meditations in the midst of evil-doing and the challenges to the human spirit to continue to resist, to do what is just, and to persevere in hope.

[Andrew Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very powerful and moving sermons for Advent; all the more so when one knows the background. These were written either when Delp was resisting the Nazis and awaiting arrest, or when in the concentration camp, awaiting his martyrdom...

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought provoking collection of Advent meditations by a German Jesuit imprisoned,tortured and killed by the Nazis.

[Raymond Browne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb reflections for the whole Christian life all the more compelling for the circumstances in which the were refined- Nazi Germany in which he was a prisoner and ultimately a martyr.