Honoring the priesthood

Fr. Ciszek is in a slave labor camp in Siberia after spending 5 years in solitary confinement at Lubianka. As a priest he is given the lowest, demeaning, and most demanding physical labor and is subject to periodic interrogations. He spends most of his waking hours in back breaking labor and then in his 'free time' ministers to the men he shares his labor with. Even with all this burden, he has this to say:

As I worked daily in the camps, I thanked God over and over again for the awful period of purification I underwent in Lubianka so that I could serve these tortured men, and I thanked Him, too, for the mysterious workings of His providence which brought me here. But above all I thanked him for having chosen me to be a priest and for the joy he gave me now being able to function as a priest again.

We thank God for the priests who have touched our lives and all his faithful priests, especially: Fr. Lane (RIP), Fr. HilaryMahaney, Fr. John Debicki, Fr. Al, Fr. Michael Foley, Msgr. Rowland, Msgr. Hamburger (RIP), Fr. Gary Linsky, Fr. Kendall, Fr. Miles, Fr. Selzer, Fr. Tom Corcoran, Fr. John O'Holohan.

Deo Gratias!