Dear Friend,

Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent

Reflection by Dianne Traflet, J.D., S.T.D.

In the early morning hours, a friend asked a priest: “Did you sleep well?”  The priest responded that he had woken at 2 a.m. and spent the rest of the night in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.

It’s always an inspiration to hear of an individual rising in the middle of the night to go to a Catholic Church, and pray silently, often alone, before the Tabernacle.  Imagine if that person knew that physical labor awaited him at daybreak.  Imagine, still, if the same person had been brutally attacked earlier in the day, and was nursing terrible, painful, bruises on his face and body from punches and kicks.

The priest was Fr. Titus Brandsma, and the place was the barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp.  Father had been arrested for speaking out courageously against Nazism. After being interned in prison and in transit camps, he was sent to Dachau. There, he suffered frequent beatings, and during one particularly vicious attack, he was helped back to the barracks by a Carmelite Brother, Br. Raphael Tijhuis.   Fr. Titus was strangely calm, as he explained, “Don’t worry, I was holding the One Whom I adore.” He had hidden in an eyeglass case a consecrated host.  Seeing the host, Br. Raphael immediately began to kneel, but Fr. Titus, fearing that guards would notice and retaliate, advised his friend not to do so. Rather, Fr. Titus suggested, “Will you join me in an Adoro Te?”

Imagine these two Carmelites, in their prison garb, focusing their eyes on the Sacred Host, and slowly meditating on the words of St. Thomas Aquinas: “Make me believe much more in You, hope in You and love You.” 

Finishing their hushed prayers, they both fell asleep, but Fr. Titus woke soon thereafter, and continued to pray.  The days following brought more suffering, but also opportunities to pray and to minister to other prisoners, even offering forgiveness to his persecutors. He died by lethal injection on July 26, 1942, after being subjected to horrific experimentation.  The nurse who witnessed his torture testified that Father, in his final agony, prayed: “Thy will be done.” She also said that Father had given her his Rosary beads and assured her he would pray for her. The nurse converted to Catholicism shortly thereafter, explaining how much an impact Father’s final days meant to her; she would never be the same after witnessing his faith, courage, and love.

Today, perhaps, we, too, can pray an Adoro Te, and ask God to be with us in our struggles, helping us to fulfill His will, even to our final breath. Might there be a word or phrase in St. Thomas’ prayer that God might be calling on us to meditate on today, or even throughout Advent?

Prayer:

Dear Lord, we thank you for the gift of the Eucharist and for the example of St. Titus Brandsma.   Help us to pray with St. Titus’ fervor these words from the Adoro Te:

I devoutly adore You, hidden Deity,

Who are truly hidden beneath these appearances….

On the cross only the divinity was hidden,

But here the humanity is also hidden.

Yet believing and confessing both,

I ask for what the penitent thief asked.

I do not see wounds as Thomas did,

But I confess that You are my God.

Make me believe much more in You,

Hope in you and love You.

O memorial of our Lord’s death,

Living Bread that gives life to man,

Grant my soul to live on You,

And always to savor your sweetness.

…Jesus, whom now I see hidden,

I ask You to fulfill what I so desire:

That the sight of Your Face being unveiled

I may have the happiness of seeing Your glory.

Amen.

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Dianne M. Traflet, J.D., S.T.D., Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Administration and Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology, earned a J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law, an M.A. in Catholic Theology and Pastoral Ministry from The Institute of Advanced Studies of Catholic Doctrine, St. John's University, and an S.T.L. and an S.T.D. from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (The Angelicum), Rome. Dr. Traflet is a key leader in the Center for Diaconal Formation, and she gives numerous lectures, retreats, and days of recollection, including some specific to wives of deacons and deacon candidates. She is the author of Edith Stein: A Spiritual Portrait (Pauline Media, 2008).