The Healing Journey

January 16, 2026

The Jesuit Alfred Depp was falsely implicated in the failed plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler in 1944. He wrote the following words after he was arrested and waiting to be executed. He was executed in 1945.

“Outwardly things have never been worse. This is the first New Year I have ever approached without so much as a crust of bread to my name. I have absolutely nothing I can call my own. The only gesture of goodwill I have encountered is the jailers agreeing to fasten my handcuffs loosely enough for me to slip my left hand out. The handcuffs hang from my right wrist so I am able to write. But I have to keep one ear glued to the door – heaven help me if they should catch me at work!

Undeniably I find myself in the very shadow of the scaffold. Unless I can disprove the accusations on every point I shall most certainly hang. Yet on the altar of my suffering much has been consumed by fire, and much has been melted and become pliable. It is one of God’s blessings, and one of the signs of his indwelling grace, that I have been so wonderfully helped in keeping my vows. He will, I am confident, extend his blessing to my outward existence as soon as I am ready for the next task with which he wishes to entrust me. From this outward activity and intensified inner light, new passion will be born to give witness for the living God, for I have truly learned to know him in these days of trial and to feel his healing presence. The thought ‘God alone suffices’ is literally and absolutely true.”

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