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Yale University Archives



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MESSAGE

FROM THOSE

KILLED IN ACTION

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NIHIL OBSTAT:

Fr. Albericus M. Wulf, O.G.S.0.

Fr. Maurice M. Malloy, O.C.S.O.

Censores

die 31a Julii

IMPRIMI POTEST:

F Fredericus M. Dunne, O.C.S.O.

Abbas B. M. de Gethsemani

die 20a Augu^ti

NIHIL OBSTAT:

Fintan Walker, Ph.D.

Censor Librorum

IMPRIMATUR:

F Josephus E. Ritter, D.D.

Episcopus Indianapolitanus

die 5a Septembris

Copyright 1944

by

Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc.

The Abbey Press,

St. Meinrad, Ind.



To

The Gold Star Parents

OF

America

Praying

That They Meet

Their Heroic Sons

In

Our Home

Beyond the Stars/



FOREWORD

THIS is not propaganda. I have no time for
that. For life is a wind, you see. Eternity

is tomorrow; so I have no second to spare on

mere propaganda. But I must pay my debts,
and I contracted a tremendous one the moment

the blue star in your flag of service turned to

gold. Let me pay some of it now.

I PAY it to you, for you are nearest of kin
to him who is my creditor—you, the Mother,
Father, Brother, Sister, Wife or Sweetheart

of the lad who was “killed in action.^’ He was

your lad, but he is my creditor; for thanks to
him and his all-out sacrifice, I can continue

to wear the black and white of a Trappist

monk and make my all-out effort to adore God.
I sing the praises of Jesus Christ this day and

hymn the glory of His Blessed Mother in the

peace of Gethsemani—America’s Hidden City
of God—only because your lad was courageous
enough to don the garb of a fighting man and

face the forces of antichrist thousands of miles

from home.

THIS is fact I speak, not fancy. I say there

are cloisters in America this moment pre-

cisely because there are American graves in

lands beyond the seas. And I know whereof

I speak. For behold! God was praised by

Trappist monks in Trappist monasteries in

Germany and France before the advent of

Hitler. For a time those praises ceased! But

now, once again praises will rise from Trap-

pist monks in Trappist monasteries in France

and Germany because ... I say it from a deep-

ly grateful heart . . . because the blue star in

your flag of service has turned to gold!

DO YOU see what I owe your lad? It is
something tremendous! Won’t you allow me

to pay some of that debt by giving you my
message, his message, then a command from

the dead? Please do!



MY MESSAGE

Feast of the Sacred Heart, 1944

FRIEND OF MINE:

Your heart is aching, isn’t it? This, then

is the most fitting day I could possibly choose

to address you; for it is the Feast day of Him

whose Heart broke. But just because His

Heart did break, yours can be healed. Never

forget that the moment the point of the lance

pierced the Heart of Christ there was a snap-

ping of bolts on the gates of Heaven, and

Paradise was regained for you, for me, and

for the lad who was ^‘killed in action.”

THAT is the truth we want to hear in this
black hour, isn’t it? We want to know that
life has a meaning, that human existence is

not madness, and that the highways and by-

ways of this war-wearied world lead some-

where. It is from the broken Heart of God

that we hear the one soul-sustaining truth.

With all the eloquence of His mangled Corpse

He tells us that Good Friday’s Blood and dark-

ness is but prelude to the Easter Dawn; that

suffering and sorrow purchase peace
;

that

death is promise of a radiant resurrection.

Believe Him! Believe that there is a Heaven;

that it is our Home; and that every heart-

beat is bringing us nearer it and Him. Be-

lieve that, and the world ceases to be black.

HAVING grasped that, go on and from the
depth of this Feast draw an even more con-

soling truth. Realize that if the Heart of

God craves anything Personal, if Jesus Christ

ever speaks for Himself, the one word He
uses is ‘‘Repay 1” That is the cry that broke

from His lips three hundred years ago when

He appeared to Margaret Mary at Paray-le-

- 5 -



Monial. That is the cry the world of man has
not heard, or hearing, has not heeded. And

it is that heedlessness which has brought on

this awful war. But your lad heard it! Yes,

he heard the cry of the wounded Christ, and

he answered that cry with the ^magnificent

answer of his own precious life! Your loved

one made a '‘beau geste'’ to God ! He repaid

Love with love!

THAT is the glory I write to you today, and
that is the glory I would have gladden your

aching heart. Twenty centuries ago God died

that men might live; today, in this mid-

twentieth century, American men have died,

and are still dying, precisely that God might

live. I mean it! With all the conviction of

my priested soul I say that your lad, and many
another like him, has turned the tables on Om-

nipotence—he has given wounds for Wounds,
blood for Blood, and life for Life.

IT MAY seem strange to hear one say that
your lad died for God. But that only proves

that to many people the phrase, “For God and

Country,” is only a catch-phrase—and they
have not caught its meaning! They do not

see that love for country not based on love for

God is at best a very shallow love; that pa-

triotism not sprung from devotedness to the

Eternal “Pater” in the eternal “Patria” is

but surface sentiment, not virtue that has

eternal value; that love for fellow man not

rooted in recognition of his kinship with Di-

vinity is superficial, unsubstantial and tragi-

cally hollow. I say your boy died for God

—

and there I place my period, because the awful
onslaught of war has beaten us to our knees

and we are recognizing more than ever before

that our Declaration of Independence opens

with a Declaration of Dependence; that Lin-

- 6 -



coin was speaking fact when he spoke of '‘this

nation under God*\- and that the motto on

the Great Seal of the United States, "In God

We Trust,” has got to be lived!

BUT THAT the phrase "For God and Coun-
try” has meaning that is sacred, that it em-

bodies the most thrilling truth of this heart-

sickening war, I leave to be told by your own

loved lad as he speaks to you from out the

beyond in the second part of this booklet. The

comfort I offer you is this: YouVe asked me

to pray for your lad, havenT you? I am glad
to tell you that your request was answered

before it was made. I am glad to tell you that
I prayed for him the day before he died and

the very day he died. I am even more delight-
ed to tell you that that prayer rose up

nomine Ecclesiae—in the name of the Holy,
Roman, Catholic Church”

;
in the name of

almost four hundred million souls who call

God their Father and Christ their King.

HAVE you ever thought of what it means to
pray "in the name of the Church”? For your

great comfort let me tell you a part of it. It

actually means that I gathered all the love of

the unnumbered and unknown "Little Flowers”

who this moment are unpetaling the roses of

their lives behind grate and grille and joyfully

strewing them at the feet of their Jesus; it

means that I gathered all the dauntless zeal

of countless modern Xaviers who this day are

squandering the rich, young energies of their

manhood in the unbroken stretches of arctic

snow and ice as well as in the tangled growth

of fever-breeding tropics, teaching these far-

away peoples the almost unbelievable truth

that God has fallen in love with them
;

it

means that I gathered up all the burning faith

of hundreds on hundreds of hidden Cures

- 7 -



d’Ars whose thirst for souls has burned their

very bodies to a state of emaciation; to this

I added the adoring love in the hearts of all

His anointed, from that of the youngster

whose “rose of priesthood has just slipped its

bud,’’ to that of the snow-white pastor bent

under the harvest of his heavy, fruit-filled

years; it means that I took all the fortitude

of our present day martyrs who no more

shrink from firing squads or the freezing .tor-

tures of Siberia than did our early martyrs

from the Arena’s lions and leopards or the

burning tortures of Nero’s gardens; it means

that I took the gratitude that throbs in the

hearts of hundreds of thousands of young par-

ents as they kneel beside the cradle of the

newly-born, as well as that deeper gratitude

that beats in the breast of the grey-haired

grieving as they kneel beside the coffin of one

who has loved much and died well. This

world of love, adoration, praise and thanks-

giving I took and poured out before God in

one unrestrained torrent. My voice rose “like
the voice of many waters,” as the Apocalypse

says; for it was as if I had gathered all the

waters of the world and placed them in one

sea, then let the wash of that full flood break

upon the ears of God. Still it was not only

“like the voice of many waters” but “like

a voice of thunder” and like the voice of

“harpers playing on their harps” that my
voice arose; for in very truth I had gathered

the music and melody of four hundred million

souls and sent that tremendous burst of song

into Heaven’s high halls through the lips of

the sweetest Singer Heaven or earth has ever

heard—the lips of Christ Jesus.

THAT IS something of what it means to pray
“in the name of the Church,” and that is the

way I prayed the day before your boy died

- 8 -



and the day he died. I took the lispings of

innocence who at Mother^s knees are just

learning to say, ‘‘Jesus” and blended them

with the broken “Aves” of the aged who slip

a Rosary through gnarled fingers as life’s sun

sets; I took the seraphic outpourings of mys-

tics who stand or kneel in transports of love

and merged them with the sobs of Magdalenes

awakened to the ecstacy of purity and the

rapture of mercy; I took the prayers of the

world’s countless Prodigals and joined them

to the praises of those whose souls have known

only the stain of Original sin; I went into

cloisters and convents, into homes and hos-

pitals, into highways and hedges and garnered

all the adoration, praise, thanksgiving and

generous reparation that stirs in the souls of

those who know Christ as Leader and Lover,

and cast it into one brazier that it might rise

as a cloud of incense before God. I took all

that and sent it as intoxicating perfume unto

the throne of the Father as if from a thurible

in- the hands of the Son.

COULD such a prayer go unheard? Hardly!
It is the prayer of the Mystical Body of

Christ. It is the prayer of four hundred mil-

lion hearts throbbing in unison with the Sa-

cred Heart. It is the prayer of four hundred

million lips crying: “Abba—Father!” through
the lips of the Son. It is the pleading prayer

of the eyes of four hundred million people

become eloquent with the eyes of Christ; for

the prayer of the Mystical Body is the prayer

of four hundred million members breaking up-

on the ears of God from the mouth of the

God-Man, the Head of that Body.

THAT was the prayer I prayed for your loved
one. It was the gathered eloquence of four

hundred million pleading through the eyes, the

- 9 -



lips and the Heart of Christ. And I prayed

it just before and just after he died; for I

always sing my sunset song of Compline for
the dying of the day and the dead. For years

I have done the same. In the name of the

Church and through the lips of Christ I sing

the Canonical hour of Compline asking the

Father to look down upon those who before the

next sunset hour are to face the Judgment,

as well as those who in the last twenty-four

hours have faced the Judgment, and see them

through the red mists of Calvary's Blood, see

them in the clefts of the Heart that was brok-

en one Friday afternoon towards sundown,

see them as members of that marvelous Body

of which His Jesus is Head.

DOES IT not comfort you to know that such
a petition came from the lips of the Son of

God? My poor prayers, of themselves, would
hardly reach the ribbed roof of our Cistercian

Gothic glory. Of myself, what am I? In-
finitesimal is accurately descriptive. If Isai^s

could say: ‘T am a man of unclean lips" what

can I say? I have been God's enemy. But be

comforted. It was not from my weak lips
that the prayer arose. No, for in choir I

pray as the ^^anonymous anointed," a little

priest calling to God through the lips of the

great High Priest, Jesus, who ‘‘was heard for

His reverence." Now remember He promised
that whatsoever we asked in His name would

be granted us. What can you expect, then,

from what is asked hy His lips?

SOMETHING MORE CONSOLING

BUT EVEN more consoling than my Com-
pline hour is my Mass. On the very day
your lad died I prayed for him just after I

had brought the Son of God to birth in bread.

- 10 -



As Jesus Christ, Body and Blood, soul and

divinity, lay before me on the white of the

corporal and in the gold of the cup, I spoke

of him who had been ‘^killed in action.” More I

Three hundred thousand times that same day

the attention of God the Father was called to

the soul of your dead lad by God the Son.

Four times every second the Father heard the

plea: ^‘Be mindful, O Lord, of Thy servants

and handmaids who have gone before us with

the sign of faith ‘ and rest in the sleep of

peace. Unto these, 0 Lord, and to all that

rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place

of refreshment, light and peace. Through the

same Christ, Our Lord, Amon.”

THINK of that ! Three hundred thousand
times the day he died the Godhead heard the

^Vhite Heart-break of a Host.” It was the

Heart of Jesus breaking in love for men—your
loved one among them. Three hundred thou-

sand times the day he died a golden cup was

lifted high and God the Father heard the

Blood of His Christ calling for mercy on men.

Three hundred thousand different times the

very day he died some ‘‘anonymous anointed,”

in the person of Christ, called out as did the

dying Jesus: “Father, forgive them; for they

know not what they do.” Yes, three hundred

thousand times that day, and three hundred

thousand times every day since, your loved

one^s eternal rest has been begged from God

“through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.”

OH, REALIZE what it means to be a Catholic
and you will know comfort. Realize what it

means to have the Sacrifice of the Mass of-

fered “from the rising of the sun to the going

down of the same,” and your soul will know

true consolation. It is not only the lips of

Christ moving in prayer, not only the hands

- 11 -



of Christ lifted in supplication, it is the Heart

of Christ breaking as only the Heart of God

can break—in a deathless love that men might
live forever. From the parched and blistered

lips of a God a prayer broke to God one Fri-

day afternoon as the sun hid its light. When-

ever you see a Host raised on high realize that

those same lips that were parched and blis-

tered are thirsting with a divine thirst today,

and are moving in the same earnest prayer

;

realize that the human Heart of Christ is

throbbing beneath the white of that round

wafer and is, as it were, fevering His Blood

with yearning for the souls of men; realize

that beneath the appearances of that tiny Host

a Body is hid, a Body that has five wounds

blazing like five tremendous suns as if they

would blind the Godhead to the madness of

sinful man; realize that Jesus is pleading

with all His infinite eloquence for you, for me,

and for your boy.

WITH THAT picture before you, you can un-
derstand my unwearying plea that you make
the Mass your life and your life a Mass. It

is the surest way of having the infinitesimal

become one with the Infinite, of having the

impotent merge with the Omnipotent, and the

creature who cringes in reverential awe pray

through the lips of the God who became man

that men might become like unto God.

ONE FURTHER word about the answer I
made before your request was received. To

the Canonical Office we chant in the name of

the Church, we Trappists always add the Lit-

tle Office of the Blessed Virgin, and it has

been my unvarying custom to make my Com-
pline hour of that Office a plea to Mother

Mary that she take care of those who have

died since last sundown and those who are to

- 12 -



die before the next. Now that may sound
like a very simple thing, but when you realize

that Mary has rightly been called **Omnipoten-

tia Supplex—The Suppliant Woman who can-
not fail to obtain her request,” you will see

how sublime that very simple thing is. You

parents know what it is to love your own flesh

and blood; you wives and sweethearts know

what it is to love a person so that you are

ready to surrender your whole being to him;

you brothers and sisters know what it is to

yearn and burn with love for your brother.

Well, let me tell you that Mary, the Mother of

God, knows what it is to love your lad with

all three loves! In her one Immaculate Heart

these three loves are united—for she is sister
through the flesh of Adam, Lady through the

Kingship of Christ, and Mother through Cal-

vary’s bequest. She has loved your boy as

brother, knight and son. When she pleads
with God the Father she is pleading for her

own! And her pleading is irresistible! For

when the Father looks into her eyes He sees

the light from which the Light of the World

was kindled; as He watches the fair blush

mantle her cheek He knows He is looking on

the source of the Blood that incarnadined

Gethsemani’s grass and stained the Cross of

Calvary; as His gaze rests on the face of the

most beautiful of mothers He recognizes the

features of the ‘‘most beautiful of the sons of

men.” Small wonder she is ^‘Omnipotentia

Supplex
''—she mothered His Jesus and she

yet mothers Christ’s mystical members. It

was to her I prayed the day your loved one

died and the day before he died. Don’t you

think, then, that Heaven was very near as he

lost his life in war’s cruel hell?

- 13 -



YOU HAVE NOT LOST

NOW THAT he is gone, don’t think that you
have lost him. No. You have gained him so

that he can never be lost! He is yours this
moment more than he ever was while on earth,

and he will be yours unchangeably. While he

lived, the only certitude you could ever have

of his unchanging love was a moral certitude.

Man is mutable. The only thing we are ab-
solutely sure of in this world is change. But

the one word perfectly descriptive of Heaven

is permanence. There is tragedy in his un-

lived life, I know; but look at the romance in

his love—it is now unchangeable! So I say
again: You have not lost him. You have

gained him so that he can never be lost.

TO YOU mothers and fathers, who had legiti-
mate hopes that he would be your mainstay

and support in your down-going years, I say

be not saddened. Your hopes are not blighted!

He will not contribute directly to your ma-

terial needs
;

he will not make your old age

secure by swelling a bank account; but he

will help you in a more important way. He

will not now be your bread-winner; but let

us realize that it is ‘‘not by bread alone that

man lives.” Believe me when I say your son

will help you as never before. You have not

lost. You have gained tremendously. And

not the least part of that gain lies in what I

call “God’s motherliness.” Christ has added

another touch to the mansion you are to oc-

cupy in His Father’s house. He has made it

much more homelike by placing your loved one

there! He wants to make you homesick for

Heaven. He does it by transporting your own

there.

NOW LET me tell you of your greatest gain.
God has conferred on you a greater honor than

- 14 -



that of being the honored living of the coun-

try's honored dead. He has given you some-

thing much more thrilling than that of being

the survivor of the world's saviors. With

reverence and awe I whisper that in changing

your blue star to gold, God has given you the

opportunity of completing the work of His

Only Begotten Son!

DOES THAT make you start? Does it seem
utterly incredible? Well the truth comes from

St. Paul. He tells us something seemingly

contradictory. He tells us that Christ satis-

fied ‘‘superabundantly"
;

then he says that

something is “wanting" to the Passion of

Christ. That would be a flat contradiction if

if was not for the fact that, as St. Augustine

explains, the satisfaction is “superabundant"

in the Head of the Body, but there is some-

thing “wanting," something to be “filled up" in

the members. In a certain sense, then, the

Passion of Christ is not ended. No. There

is a sea of suffering that must be brought to

the flood. Jesus cannot swell that tide in His

Physical Body, so He depends on you—yes, on
Y O U-—to do it in His Mystical Body. It was
with exultation that St. Paul cried: “I fill up

those things that are wanting to the Passion

of Christ in my flesh, for His Body, which is
the Church." Do you see your sacred oppor-

tunity?—It is to take the awful ache of your
heart, the loneliness, the longing and yearning

that shakes your soul, the anguish that is

yours for the loved one who is gone, and offer

them jubilantly to God the Father. Offer

them to “fill up those things that are wanting

to the Passion of His Son." It is not resigna-

tion that I speak of, understand; it is obla-

tion! I am asking you to be the heroic sur-
vivor of the heroic dead. He died that God
might live; you live that men may not die

- 15 -



eternally. You do that by offering the agony

of your heart to swell that mystic sea of suf-

fering to the very flood. It is a divine work

that Divinity allows you to do. Do it through

the heart that served as scabbard for seven

swords and that other Heart that was broken

by the point of a soldier^s lance. Yours is an

opportunity to satisfy God and save men. You

won’t let it slip, will you? Jesus did not miss

His. Mary did not miss hers. Your boy meas-

ured up perfectly. Won’t you? God needs

YOU. Don’t fail GOD!

NOW ONE little word of explanation before
I deliver the message from the dead. When I
wrote my ‘‘Letter to Mothers Whose Sons are
in the Service” I addressed only “Mother.”

That little pamphlet was hardly off the press

when the very mother who had inspired it

wrote: “Dad misses him as much as I do.”

That sentence has given me pause more than
once since. I see that a certain preoccupation

with Mothers has worked a real injustice to

Fathers. They DO miss the lads as much as
Mothers! Their love may not be as demon-

strative, but it is as deep and as undying. I

know. I had a father who loved! Those who

say that a father’s love is not to be compared

to a mother’s, have never seen a father’s

heart! With that conviction fully formed I

had determined to do justice to the fathers of

our American heroes in my next effort. I was
just about to address this to “Our Gold-Star

Parents” when a letter came in asking for

prayers for a lad who had just given his all

“somewhere in Italy,” leaving behind him his

bride of a year and a half and a baby-daugh-

ter of two months—a child he had never seen
and never will see. The next day or so I re-

ceived a note about a pilot who is “missing in

action” since the first day of the Invasion.

- 16 -



His heart-broken wife contemplates the fea-

tures of the man she loved in the face of a

six-months-old boy. With those facts before

you, you can understand why I address Moth-

er, Father, Sister, Brother, Wife and Sweet-

heart. It is you who are addressed in the title

‘"Beloved” in the pages that follow.

TO THOSE who need consolation—which
means everyone closely connected with the one

whose blue star has turned to gold—I have a
message to deliver. It is from the lad to whom
I owe so much, the boy who gave his all that

God niight live, your loved one! Listen to him

speak . .

.

- 17 -



PART II

HIS MESSAGE

BELOVED:

From out the beyond I speak. The Govern-

ment has informed you that I was ‘'killed in

action.^' In a general way it has told you

where my body lies. But what it has not told
you, because it is something it could not tell

you, is the one thing you want to hear. To

tell you that I speak from out the beyond.

AS LONG as I lived, you were uneasy, weren't
you? Your waking hours were filled with

worry and your troubled sleep broken with

fears. Now that I am dead one aching robs
your days of quiet and your nights of rest.

With all the suddenness of the burst of a bomb

it has broken on you that life on earth is

flung against a background of utter finality,

and that eternal issues are settled in the fleet-

ing moments called time. Now as never before
you see that one thing, and one thing alone, is

necessary, no matter how many thousand oth-

ers may be useful or pleasant. Now as never
before you see that the only thing that really

matters in life and in death is—GRACE. You
have always accepted this truth with your in-

tellect; now you feel its absolute truthfulness

in the very depths of your being. Your heart

aches to know what was the state of my soul
when I died. Your very vitals are gnawed

with anxiety about the issue of my years. Let
me ease that ache and end that gnawing by

saying softly and reverently: “Beloved, re-

joice! and thank God!”

THAT IS my message from out the beyond:
“Rejoice and thank God!” As you love me, I

- 18 -



adjure you to thank God unceasingly for let-

ting me die when I did, where I did, and as I

did. Thank Him night and day for allowing

me to be ‘‘killed in action.^’ It was His great-

est gift to me ! I know you will thank Him

for all He did for me during life, but what I
am especially begging of you is that you thank
Him for what He did to me at death!

AS YOU change my blue star to gold, weep!
I know well that tears will fall from your eyes

in loneliness and love. I garner them as heart-

pearls offered to me. I accept them with eter-

nal humility and eternal gratitude. But, Be-

loved, I want you to weep for joy! I want

sparkling diamonds to spill from those lashes

of yours, and I Want them to drop in brilliant-

ly grateful tribute to God. His mercies I will

sing forever. Be not behind me in paying Him

your thanks. And for what?—For taking me
just as my youth opened into full flower,
thrusting me into the service of my country,
and there hardening my body, steadying my
nerves, and by those months of relentless dis-

cipline fibering my whole being for the awful
shock of battle. Thank Him for all that was
done to my mind and will during those days
of training. It was the tempering of my young
soul; and that soul needed tempering. Be-

loved, believe me when I tell you it was all

part of His kind Providence, part of His in-

finitely wise and merciful plan. He was slow-
ly working up the crescendo to the climax that

came when my young life was snuffed out “in
action.”

FOR THAT climax I want you to thank Him
with all the warm, enthusiastic love of your

great heart. For that was the changing of

my star of service into a star of sacrifice ! Do
you hear. Beloved? I say thank God for stop-

- 19 -



ping the beat of my heart in the heat of bat-
tle, for that has meant the setting of my soul
athrob with the throb of triumph! As you

love me, let every pulsation of your being be

an act of thanksgiving to the God who was

merciful enough to see that I was listed

amongst those “killed in action,” for that has

meant my enrollment amongst those who live
and love, and shall so live forever!

THAT IS what youVe been longing to hear,
isn^t it? Well, hear it with a grateful heart

and from it learn that God still loves paradox.

For me He changed war's curse into a bless-

ing; by robbing me of life “in action” He
gave me life's greatest gift; and now, after

almost breaking your heart with sorrow He

will almost break it again with joy. Yes, He

still loves paradox. The truth I tell from out

the beyond is this: With wildly prodigal hand

God's enemy scattered the seeds of hate the

world over; from that mad sowing, the Divine

Reaper gathers, and yet more joyfully gathers

fat, full harvests of love. I am one of those
fortunate and highly favored sheaves. Thank

Him for that. I say it again: Thank Him

for taking me when He did, where He did, and

as He did. For in losing my life I have
found it! In dying I live! In giving all I

have received everything!

DOES THAT PUZZLE you? Does it seem
strange. Beloved, that I would have you, who

feel crushed under sorrow, rejoice? Do I

sound harsh and unfeeling when I beg you to

thank God for taking me from you? If so, I

can but ask you to listen acutely. You love

me. You know now, perhaps as never before,

that life is not meaningless, that there is a

pattern to the seeming formlessness of our

days, and that time is only for eternity. It is

- 20 -



just because you love me so well that I tell

you to rejoice, for I tell you that my time has

not been wasted, my days have not gone up in
smoke, my young years have not been without

eternal issue! But, Beloved, realize that had

I not been killed in action^’ the issue might

have been different! That is the basis of your

gratitude

!

IT WAS De Ranee, the great reformer of La
Trappe, whence^ the Trappists received their

name, who listed fourteen occasions on which,

if God had called him to Judgment, he would

have been condemned to hell. He kept that

list ever before him. Its fourteen points

stirred him to gratitude for the Divine pa-

tience so prodigally shown him. Beloved, if

we who are dead had made out our list, you

can be sure that for most of us it would have

been longer! Yes, for most of us there were

many more than fourteen occasions on which,

if our hearts had stopped beating, our souls

would have been damned eternally.

YOU KNOW something of the world of men.
You know full well that those in the service

were not exactly angelic ! Their language was

not always pure, their lives were not always

clean. No. Bad whisky and bad women were

too often too near the camps. Many a mother,
many a wife, many a . sweetheart was dis-

turbed by this knowledge so long as their

loved one lived. It has frightened them some-

what since he is dead. They knew the loyalty

and love of their boy, but they also knew that

he was human. Beloved, that is precisely why
I say thank God that He took me when He did,
where He did, and as He did. The Divine
Alchemist is working incessantly in this war.

He is ending lives that could hardly be called

'^good” with deaths that are truly glorious!

- 21 -



He is giving boys who had not the moral

stamina sufficient to withstand the allurements

of the devil the courage to sacrifice not only

momentary pleasure but their whole lifetimes

of possible legitimate joys.

THE EXPLANATION

YOUR SOUL cries for explanation, I know.
I give it by saying that the President was

right, Sherman was wrong, and God is to be

taken at His word.

IT WAS Roosevelt who said: ‘Tt is not so
much a duty as a privilege to serve. Beloved,

in saying that, he said more than he knew!

He meant that it was a privilege to be allowed

to fight for homes, for hearths, for fellow-

men; and he was right. But the deeper truth

is that we became more than warriors for our

country when we donned the uniform of Uncle

Sam; we became crusaders for Christ! We
were battling not so much that men might be

free to call their souls their own, as that God

might be free to live in the world He had

created.

LOOK, BELOVED! A cross marks my grave.
A cross marks the grave of every brave man
who has been buried. Over the waters that

have swallowed hundreds, crosses have been

traced. Had we not died, my dearest, most

likely the world would know no crosses ! Think

what that would mean. As is all too evident,

the swastika is no sign of salvation. No God-

become-man ever flung Himself with out-

stretched arms on that twisted thing, there to

die that men might live. Never! That mean-

ingless zigzag can speak of no love because

over it no drops of Divine Blood have ever

dropped from the wounds of a dying God. Be-

- 22 -



lieve me, Beloved, it was a privilege to die

that God might live!

SHERMAN SAID: “War is hell.” He was
wrong—at least as far as I was concerned.
For me, and millions like me, war was not

hell; it was Purgatory! We suffered more
than we knew as we were transformed from

little more than growing boys at play into

grim fighters for the U.S.A. It cost us much

to obey. We sweated and strained mentally
as well as physically while learning to execute

commands with all the promptness and per-

fection of an automaton. Almost unknown to

ourselves we were paying the price for our

sins; we were doing penance for our way-

wardness as we lived under the rigid discipline

of the service. Not all of us were as Christ-

conscious as was Joyce Kilmer, but the merci-

ful God, who reads the hearts better than the

hearts’ owners’ interpreted our deeds kindly.

In His great love for us, God says that as we

did our duty because it was duty we virtually

prayed what Kilmer prayed actually. His In-

finite Mercy heard our deeds saying:

“My shoulders ache beneath my pack.
(Lie easier. Cross, upon His back.)

I march with feet that burn and smart.

(Tread, Holy Feet, upon my heart.)

I may not lift a hand to clear
My eyes of salty drops that sear.

(Then shall my fickle soul forget
Thy Agony of Bloody Sweat?)

My rifle hand is stiff and numb.
(From Thy pierced palms red rivers
come.)

Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me
Than all the hosts of land or sea.

So, let me render back again
This millionth of Thy gift. Amen.”

- 23 -



BELOVED, you know that love is not blind.

No. The warmth of the heart burns all scales

from the eyes, and love sees more clearly than

the eagle. Every blemish in the Beloved is

sharply noted. Love, which can forgive all,

seemingly can condone nothing. It is jealous,

exacting, inexorable. You know that. You

also know that while it wants everything, it

is pleased beyond measure with whatever little

is given. That is love. AVith that as premise,

let me tell you that God loves! He is love!

“This millionth of His gift'' seems to have

opened the very flood-gates of His mercy!

I DON'T understand it all. I cannot explain

it fully. I know that love can forbear and

that love can forgive. But I also know that

love can never be reconciled to an unlovely

object. And a sinner is unlovely! Perhaps

there is deeper truth in the saying that “God

hates the sin but loves the sinner" than most

people realize. We mortals often find diffi-

culty in separating the act from the actor. The

act we see as final, once placed it can never be

removed. But what we don't see clearly enough

is that the actor can be changed! He can

show remorse for the irremovable act he has

placed and thus show himself a different per-

son from the one who placed the deed. In

that case we can love the actor but hate his

act. I think that is the way God looked on

the ‘‘millionth part" of His gift that we gave

back. It was not that His love made Him

blind, but that it sharpened His vision
and

enabled Him to see more in the last few days

of our lives than we ourselves saw. What we

offered as service. He accepted as sacrifice! He

still hates sin with an infinite hate; but
I

can tell you that He loves one who was a sin-

ner.

- 24 -



AND THAT is why I say God can be taken
at His word. Do you remember Christ saying:

^^Greater love than this no man hath, that he

lay down his life for his friend?’^ (Jno. 15:13)

Do you remember St. Paul saying: ^^Love is

the fulfilling of the law?^’ (Rom. 8:10) Do

you remember how Jesus summed up the whole

Law and the Prophets in the two Command-

ments of love? Do you remember how He

said: ^‘As long as you did it to one of these,

the least of my brethren, you did it unto Me?^^
(Mt. 25:40) Well, Beloved, if you remember

all those sayings, I have little more to say;

for I^m sure you believe that God can be taken

at His word. In truth, nothing more need be

said. The whole puzzling, almost miraculous

affair is solved. If you would but understand

me rightly I would sum it all up by saying

that I am ‘^the man who got even with God.”

I DON'T say it; for it would sound too much

like a boast, and all I want to do is sing the

mercies of God. But, Beloved, that is His mer-

cy! After showing infinite patience with my
weakness, my waywardness, my wickedness.
He crowns His work with an act of Paternal

prodigality. He allows me to die in circum-
stances that He can interpret as my act of
perfect love. His omnipotent generosity says

that my being “killed in action” was the “lay-
ing down of my life for my friend.” He says
it was “the fulfilling of the law.” More! He

claims I got even with His Christ; for I car-

ried my cross unto my Golgotha and gave up
the ghost ’that there might be room in the

world for His Holy Ghost. In short, He says
I actually died that He might live!

I KNOW that sounds like the language of a
mystic, so I let you hear the same thing from

the lips of a man—a great man! Back in
- 25 -



World War I Cardinal Mercier, Christ's Bel-
gian giant, was asked if soldiers, falling in

a righteous cause, could be called ^‘martyrs.”

He answered that they could not, in the strict
theological sense of the word; for martyrs

give themselves to their persecutors undefend-

ed and unarmed, whereas soldiers die fighting.

“But," he continued, “if you ask me what I
think concerning the eternal salvation of a

brave man who voluntarily lays down his life
in defense of his country's honor and in vin-

dication of violated justice, I do not hesitate

to reply that one cannot doubt in the least

that Christ will crown his military valor, and

that death, accepted in this Christian spirit,

will assure the salvation of that man’s soul.”

I KNOW you will see the pivot on which the
whole issue swings; and I know you will won-

der if we “voluntarily laid down our lives"

and “accepted death in a Christian spirit."

Beloved, let me tell you that danger of death

developed in us a God-consciousness that was

almost equal to our self-consciousness! There

were no atheists in fox-holes! Men who bat-

tled in the Solomons knew that they fought

not so much under the blazing sun of the trop-

ics as under the blinding light of eternity.

Major Kenneth G. Stack, chaplain of the

U.S.A., has told much about God on Guadal-

canal. He has told of a little Jewish lad, tail-

gimner on a B-17, who squeezed a miraculous

medal he had received from the chaplain of

the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, as the

badly battered ship limped home and the Irish

waist-gunner said the Eosary with the chap-

lain. That was God-consciousness, wasn't it?

It was the same Major Stack who answered

the question: “What does the war do to men

spiritually?" by saying: “As I see it, it brings

some men very close to being canonized saints

- 26 -



and martyrs, who are offering up their lives

in the spirit of resignation to God’s will for

the salvation of such a%you and me—^who, I
sometimes feel, deserve it very little.”

THE ATLANTIC Charter did much to make
it clear that we were fighting for God. Facts

from Poland and Prussia made it even clearer.

^ But, Beloved, the men who made it clearest

are the men on whom you must pray God’s
unending blessings—the Catholic Chaplains!
The Government did many wonderful things

for us in the service. While in training, op-

portunities for wholesome recreation were af-

forded almost without number. Even to the

combat area they sent Jills in Jeeps,” the best

of our stage and screen comedians, and celeb-

rities from many walks in life. That was con-

siderate. Even more considerate was the un-

surpassed efficiency of the medical corps. The

Government was prodigal in its outlay for

equipment. The medical profession of the land

was spendthrift with men and women and sur-

gical skill. Into the stinking jungles of the

South Pacific, over the burning sands of Af-

rica’s desert, across poor desolate France went

doctors and nurses with blood for the almost

bloodless and life for the almost dead. Yes,

we had much to be grateful for; but for noth-

ing more than for our Catholic Chaplains

!

SCIENCE DID all it could to bring us bodily
well-being. Entertainers lifted our morale and

took care of our mental health. But only

Catholic Chaplains could take care of our soul-

sicknesses and prepare us for eternal life.

They were the men who would never let us
forget for what we were fighting. They were

the ones who kept us mindful of God. And
thank God they were everywhere! Believe

me. Beloved, we may have listened with our

- 27 -



tongues in our cheeks as they told us how to

live. We were so stupidly sophisticated! But
we listened with both^ears, with all our minds,

and all our hearts as they told us how to die.

FATHER JAMES J. Galvin, C.SS.R., wrote*
most truthfully of them when he wrote:

In the olive groves of Sicily we lift the
Sacred Host.

In the jungle swamps of Papua where
strong Marines grow thin

And the scarlet parrots chatter and the
yellow snipers grin;

With fox-hole for confessional, we kneel
and pardon sin!

And on palm and orchid islands naked
natives gape in awe

To see strong men in brown and green
from New York and Arkansas

Gather round our altar-jeeps with beads

and bended head

And stack their guns to kneel and pay
mute homage to the dead.

And they wear Our Lady’s medal and
they bless themselves and rise

And a sense of pride steals o’er us and
gathers in our eyes.

For, for this it is we follow them on keel
and wheel and wing . .

.

By the chrism on our hands we’ve sworn
this oath to Christ the King:

To sleep and creep and climb with them to

keep their spirits bright,

To keep them in the Grace of God—hil-
arious

,

delight !

—

To stand abreast of each of them and

school their hearts to ring

With three eternal cheers for Christ!

(For death has lost its sting!)

Vivat Ecclesia! Domino gloria!

Mori pro Patria! We fight for Christ
the King!''

- 28 -



BELOVED, THAT oath has been, and is yet
being, kept! Hearts are ringing ^Vith three

eternal cheers for Christ^’ because these men

took all the sting from Death by showing us

that we fought ‘‘for Christ the King/’

IS THE pivotal sentence in Cardinal Herder’s
statement proved? Listen then to how this

man of God and lover of God’s people went on

:

“
‘Greater love than this no man hath,”’ said

Our Savior, ‘that a man lay down his life for

his friends.’ The soldier who dies to save his

brethren, and to defend the hearths and altars

of his country, reaches this highest degree of

charity. He may not have made a close analy-

sis of the value of his sacrifice; but must we

suppose that God requires of the plain soldier

in the exitement of the battle the methodical

precision of the moralist and theologian? Can

we, who revere his heroism, doubt that God

looks upon it with love?”

I KNOW how you will answer those two ques-
tions; but bear with me while I point out a
difference between the two wars. The first

World War was bitter. The invasion of Bel-
gium was unjust. The Allies did fight in self-

defense. But this second World War is differ-
ent in kind as well as degree! Twenty-five

years ago we were defending the rights God

had given to man; today our role is somewhat

reversed and in very truth it can be said that

we are defending the rights some men will not

give to God.. I mean it. This war is a crusade

or it is a crime. If we who are dead did not

battle that God might live in the minds of the

men He has created and be loved by the hearts

He has set beating, then we were merely mur-

dering. If we were not actually shielding

Jesus Christ from the blitzkrieg of antichrist,

if we did not actually give our all that Christ’s

- 29 -



Cross might shine from steeple and spire, and

that the love of His Sacred Heart might be

known and had by the love-hungry hearts of

men, then we were simply slaughtering; and

we were slaughtered!

GILBERT K. CHESTERTON once said: “The
only defensible war is a war for defense.” He
was right; and because he was so right, I

am not wrong when I say the most defensible
of all wars is the war in defense of God. And,

Beloved, that is this war! Oh, we fought for

homes and hearths; we battled for temples

and altars; but we Catholics knew that there

were homes with hearths and temples with

altars only because there is a God. Back in

1917-1918 thousands fell in Flanders fields and

Belleau Wood. As the Cardinal said, they

deserved to be crowned by Christ; for they

were avenging the outraged rights of small

nations, and fighting that men might live amid

justice. But today, in the Far East and in

the far West, amid the chill snows of the

North as well as in the tangled growths of

the tropics, thousands and hundreds of thou-

sands have died precisely that God might live.

DonT you see, then, how doubly applicable the

CardinaFs words are to us whose blue stars

have already turned to gold? We had the
honor to die for Him at whose birth a golden

star of exceptional brilliance burst into the

midnight blue and was seen by Wise Men in

the East! What a blessing has been ours!

THE CARDINAL IS NOT GUILTY

I KNOW that there some who have called this
“wishful thinking.” But, Beloved, if any

should again call it such, be not affected.

Realize that more correctly it can be called

thought-filled wishing!” By that I mean that

- 30 -



this consoling doctrine is based on solid truth.

Wasn’t it you who told me about the Catholic

belief concerning women who die in child-

birth? Didn’t you say that it was commonly

held by careful theologians that God would

reward with eternal life those who had given

their temporal life that another babe might

be born? That stands to reason; and it is

backed by revelation. For the text “Greater

love than this no man hath, that he lay down

his life for his friends,” certainly applies to

such a mother. Don’t you see, then, how con-

sonant with Catholic belief is the truth I tell

about men who have been “killed in action”?

CAEDINAL MERCIER could never be ac-
cused of “wishful thinking.” Not that pene-

trating genius! And it was he who said:

“Christian mothers, be proud of your sons.

Of all griefs, of all human sorrows, yours is

perhaps the most worthy of veneration. I

seem to see you in mourning, but erect never-

theless! standing beside the Mother of Sor-

rows at the foot of the Cross. Allow us to

offer you not only our condolences, but also our

congratulations. Not all heroes obtain temporal

honors, but we have the right to hope that to

all will be given the immortal crown of the

elect

r

WHAT A statement ! It does sound like “wish-
ful thinking,” doesn’t it? When one thinks of
the conduct of some of the service men “on

leave”; when one considers the almost bru-

talizing effects of barrack-life in time of war;

when one reflects on the proneness of man to
evil and the awful purity of God, then one is

tempted to say that the Cardinal is guilty of

“wishful thinking.” But, Beloved, before any-

one condemns this princely prelate, insist that

they read the reason His Eminence assigned.

- 31 -



Cardinal Mercier knew life! He was aware

of the animal in man! He saw soldiers from

many lands, and he saw them in many varied
actions. He well knew that they were men,
not angels; and not many of them angelic
men! Yes, he knew all this, and yet he said:

‘^We have the right to hope^’ that those who

^‘voluntarily lay down their lives in defense

of their country’s honor and in vindication of

violated justice,” that those who “accepted

death in the Christian spirit,” would “be given

the immortal crown of the elect.” His next

sentence is the sentence that proves that he

was expressing “thought-filled wishing” and

not “wishful thinking.” It runs: “For such

is the virtue of a perfect act of charity that

it cancels a whole life of sin!”

HE WAS not thinking that we warriors were
sinless. No indeed. He was only too well

aware of the shameful fact that too often we

were sin-filled. But, just as he knew men, so

did he know the mercy of God! That is why

his next line was: “In the twinkling of an

eye it (the act of perfect charity) transforms

a sinful man into a saint!”

THOSE WHO call that “wishful thinking”
should stop and think ! They should read again

the parable of the Prodigal Son. It will teach

them a thrilling truth ! That boy was no

saint! Far from it. He ended up with swine

after squandering his patrimony on harlots.

But how did his father receive him on his

return? Why, the, old man could not wait for

the boy to reach home. Love gave life to aged

limbs. Out onto the road he ran to meet his

son! Then he would not even allow the lad

to make his confession. No. He kissed him.

Called servants. Commanded the fatted calf

killed. Demanded the best robe, and placed

- 32 -



the ring on the finger of a wastrel who had

fiung away a fortune in riotous living. Re-

flection on that parable will rob every cynic

of his cynicism and every skeptic of his doubt.

It tells us the humbling, hope-filled, intoxicat-

truth that we limping Prodigals have for

our Father God

!

A LATE President of Notre Dame University,
the Rev. Charles L. O’Donnell, knew Christ

and Christians. That is why he wrote

:

He talked with sinners, ate with them,
and died

With two for company on a sorry hill.

And when grey dawns have brought us
to His side.

We know, heart-brokenly, that He
loves us still!

He wrote that about Confession. If he had

written about the Judgment, I think he would

have changed but one word. He would have

said:

‘‘We know, soul-startlingly, that He

loves us still!”

BELOVED, YOU hear what I am saying and
what Cardinal Mercier has said. Not that

we who were “killed in action” were holy, but

that we were humble; not that we led sinless

lives, but that God granted us saintly deaths;

not that by our own unaided bravery we have

scaled the “hid battlements of eternity,” but

that by the strong arms of Christ we have

been snatched from the jaws of hell.

SHOULD ANYONE still smile at the message
I send, I recommend to them a sober recollec-

tion of what happened as the God-man died.

On His right was an individual who revelation

says was a robber and who tradition gives us

reason to believe was a murderer. His life had

been so criminal that he himself openly ad-

- 33 -



mitted that his crucifixion was just. And yet,
Jesus Christ, Unerring Truth, He who nei-
ther deceives nor can be deceived, canonized

that man before that man was dead! And for
what?—For a single act of Faith and a hum-
ble petition for remembrance. ‘‘Lord, remem-

ber me . . he said, and from the Cross of

Christ came the canonizing words: “This day

thou shalt be with Me in Paradise!”

LET THOSE who call this “wishful thinking”
think on that! Let them contrast the life and

death of any ordinary service man with the
life and death of Saint Dismas. Since he re-

ceived Paradise for a single act of Faith and

a simple humble petition, isnT it thought-filled

wishing” rather than “wishful thinking” to

believe that lads “killed in action” will receive

Heaven for their act of Perfect Love?

ONE DEEPER TRUTH

I HAVE called this war a “crusade,” Beloved.
And I was right. For in all truth it is being

waged that God might live on the earth He

has made. But one deeper truth was expressed

by a young English girl, Caryll Houselander

by name. She said: “TH/S WAR IS THE
PASSION '' By that she meant that Christ in
Christians is living over again His Agony of

Bloody Sweat and His three hours of awful

anguish. She is theologically exact. But, Be-

loved, do you see the wondrous implication in

her words? Since this war is the Passion,

since Christ in Christians is again sweating

Blood and dying between thieves, it follows

that Christians in Christ are on their way to

their Resurrection!

THAT IS A TRUTH too little recognized.
The Passion is not the close of the Christ

- 34 -



drama, Beloved, it is only its turning point!

The curtain does not fall on Christ’s life as

the gloom of Golgotha blots out the sun. Nev-

er! That were to make of His life a tragedy,

\yhen in reality it was a triumph ! It is against

the background of Easter’s golden dawn that

we must see Christ if we would see Him

rightly. For it is Sunday morning, and only

Sunday morning, that makes Friday after-

noon “Good.” It is the splitting of the Roman

sealed tomb and not the rending of the rocks

or the sundering of the Jewish veil that ulti-

mately makes Christianity a religion and the

Crucifixion a redemption. That is why Caryll

Houselander was actually prophesying the sal-

vation and resurrection of man in Christ Jesus

when she penetrated the blood haze that hangs

over this war and saw it as the Passion of the

Mystical Jesus.

THAT IS the truth that explains all that I
have been trying to say: Christ is in Chris-

tians and Christians are in Christ! The Mys-

tical Body is the world’s greatest fact! It

explains not only my salvation, but it tells its
means! For what had I ever done to merit

such a glory from God that I should be num-

bered amongst those whose death can be called

an act of Perfect Charity? Nothing! And

yet, that glory was merited! By whom?—By
YOU! Yes, you and millions like you who
live in Christ Jesus! Let me clarify

BELOVED, the day I received your last letter
I sat in the sands and mused on how many
hands were needed before that manifestation

of your heart could reach me. I saw woods-

men in the virginal forests of the Northwest

cut down trees and work them into the waters

that carried them to the sea. I saw bargemen

lash the giant logs together and tow them to

- 35 -



a mill. As I watched them being reduced to

pulp, then saw the pulp being moulded, pressed

and dried, my mind called up the chemists
behind that process, the iron and steel work-

ers behind the machines and the miners still

further back behind the ore for those ma-

chines. Then I lost count. I next fell to re-

constructing the experiences of the letter since

you sealed it with your kiss. A man collected
it from a box; a girl sorted it and put it in

a sack; after a ride in the truck it had a

ride in the train. Before it reached my side
of the world it got both sea-sick and air-sick.

There it was sorted again, resorted and re-

sacked. By this time it knew every different

kind of hand possessed by man—^the hard,
rough, calloused, soft, gentle, careless, kind.

Men, women and girls had fingered it. But

now it came in possession of the Army. Those

boys sent it along the regular route until my
Captain gave it to my Sergeant, and my Ser-
geant gave it to me. What an immense amount

of co-operation was necessary before I could

read what your loving heart had dictated to

your hand!

I HAD ARRIVED at this point in my mus-
ings when a plane passed overhead. I re-

flected that for one man in the air there had

to be eleven dr twelve on the ground beneath.

To keep these twelve or thirteen in fighting

trim a veritable army of scholars and work-

ers had to contribute their share. Farmers,

scientists, millhands, packers, shippers, steve-

dores, munition workers! The mere problem

of fuel to keep that ship in the air staggered

me. My imagination pictured for me the mo-
notonous rise and fall of a pump in a Cali-

fornia oil-field. I saw the crude oil pour into

a refinery. I saw the finished product put

aboard tankers. With anxious eye I watched

- 36 -



these bury their noses in the billows of a

submarine-infested ocean. I cheered as I saw

them make port, then marvelled at the effi-

i^ency and despatch with which they were

unloaded. I was having a moment of enlight-

enment on the intimate relations shared by

the most distant of men.

THE THOUGHT that all this massing of ef-
fort was only for destruction depressed me.

But then, clearer than any bugle call across

a quiet lake, came the question the Chaplain

had fired at us just a week before: ^^What

does the doctrine of the Mystical Body mean

to you?'’ None of us had a ready answer, so

he told us in unmistakable terms just how

near you and all at home were to us mystically

and how the prayers of millions were keeping

us going spiritually. I forgot the war then

and thought of the thousands of nuns and

monks cloistered away from the madness of

the world with only one work to do—to praise
God and ask His mercy on the madness of

men. I thought of the hundreds of thousands

of priests who daily lift up a round white

Host and a ruby red cup, not for themselves

alone, but for me and for every other human

to whom God has given the breath of life.
Then it was that I caught my breath as I
thought of how often you and I had asked the

Blessed Mother of God to ‘‘pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.” Instinc-

tively my hand went to my pocket. My Rosary
was there. I started to say a “Hail Mary.”

I got as far as “blessed is the fruit of thy

womb, Jesus,” when all that I had ever heard

or read about the Mystical Body of Christ

rushed upon me like a bursting sea. I was no
longer a lone service man sitting in the sand
reading your letter, I was a member of the

Body that numbers almost four hundred mil-

- 37 -



lions as members, I was as intimately connect-

ed with Christ, the Son of the Living God, as

was my hand to my wrist, my wrist to my
arm, the beat of my heart to my heart!

ALL FEAR of death left me. But, Beloved,
believe me when I say that it is not death that
any mortal fears; it is the Judgment. Fear

of the Judgment left me. With Christ as Ad-

vocate and the Mother of Christ as Suppliant;

with you calling on her daily to ‘‘pray for me

now and at the hour of my death”; with Him
praying at the hour of His death “that all

may be one,” as He and the Father are one;

with three hundred thousand priests renewing

Calvary three hundred thousand time a day;

with four hundred million Catholics as fellow

members of a Mystical Body all co-operating

for my soul's salvation, why should I fear?

I KISSED your letter. I knelt there on the
sands and actually sobbed: “Thank You, God,

for being my Father! Thank You, Jesus, for
being my Jesus! Thank yo-u, Mary, for being
Mother of God and my mother! Thank you.
Beloved, and you my fellow members!” Next
day I was dead.

IF ANYONE whispers that I have sent you
some “wishful thinking,” tell them the soul- •

shaking truth that Christ and Christians are

one, and that the most amazing thing in all

creation is not that Christians should be saved

but that any Christian should be so stubbornly

determined as to be lost!

THAT IS the consolation that I give you from
out the beyond. But now. Beloved, I must

give you a command. It is:

LET NO ONE MOCK YOUR DEAD!

- 38 -



PART III

THE COMMAND

LET NO ONE mock your dead! Does that
strike you as an idea that is fantastic? Does

it stir your indignation somewhat? Do you

think the command uncalled for and unneces-

sary? If so, just pause, look around you and

realize that there can be mockery in magnifi-

cence !

GLISTENING WHITE in the National Ceme-
tery at Arlington is an imposing and impres-

sive mausoleum holding the bones of an un-

known soldier. At the side of that mute ele-

glance paces a stalwart sentry paying homage

to the dead. Thus in the shadow of the Na-

tion's Capitol the people of the nation would

honor those unknown heroes who gave their

all in World War I. Beloved, that bit of mag-
nificence is a gigantic mockery! If that Un-

known Soldier were given tongue today he

would shout: ‘‘Have done with this sham!

You shame us! We died that the world might
be safe for democracy; you allowed it to lapse

into demagogy. Twenty-five years have not

fled and you who live have played truant to

the trust we who were true unto death left

you. Recklessly we spilled out our lifers blood
and won the brutal battle; but you, in care-

lessness and callousness, have lost the very

things we battled for. This tomb is not to
our honor but to our undying disgrace. It tells

the world that we flung away our lives like

fools!'’

YES, INDEED, there can be mockery in mag-
nificence. Can you imagine what the Unknown
Soldier of France, who lies, I believe, in tragic

- 39 -



irony near the Arc de Triomphe, would say to

his survivors? Think what he would say for

the thousands and hundreds of thousands who
battled and bled under Foch at the Marne!

Think what he would say for the French Poilu

and the four years agony he endured. Can

you not hear him indignantly cry: ‘‘Was it

for this that we died? Was it to have our
Nation collapse within twenty-two years that

we flung away our youth? Did we give our
all only to have the enemy we so doggedly

battled and finally subdued walk into our loved

land almost unopposed? Did we make the
supreme sacrifice of our unlived lives only to

have the Prussian pagan goose-step past Notre

Dame de Paris? Destroy this magnificence.
It is mockery! It perdures to our disgrace!”

BELOVED, LET not the dead of World War
II be mocked as were the dead of World War
I. We want no memorials. We demand mem-
ories! We want to live; not to be entombed!
So give us no mausoleums of marble, statues

of bronze or shafts of grim granite. Such

things may be impressive; they are utterly

inadequate; for while they tell the world that

we are dead, they say nothing about the things

for which we died. That is why we demand

memories. Unless we live in the warm, puls-

ing memories of men, every memorial, no mat-

ter how magnificent, will be hollow mockery!

SUPPOSE THAT after they had defeated the
British, Washington and his associates ordered

a statue of the Minute-Man for Concordes

Common, monuments of stone to be erected at

Saratoga, Yorktown and Valley Forge, and

the Declaration of Independence to be framed

in gold and hung in Philadelphia, but at the

same time allowed England to continue her

rule of the Colonies, impose taxation without

- 40 -



representation, and Parliament to be supreme,

'"^ould they have honored or dishonored their

dead? Would the Revolution have been won

or lost? Stupid question, isn’t it? Beloved,

if the things these men bled and died for had

not been kept alive in the ^nemories of those

who did not die, independence would never

have been obtained, and every memorial erect-

ed to the honor of the dead would have stood

to their undying disgrace! You see the point,

and you see the parallel, but bear with me

while I adduce another argument.

SUPPOSE THAT after Appomattox the North
had allowed the Confederacy to keep its own

government, its own army, its slaves, and its

own concept of State’s Rights, while here,

there and everywhere it set up shafts, statues,

tablets and crosses to mark the places where

bloody battles had been fought and where hun-

dreds of brave men had lost their lives; sup-

pose that the survivors ignored the fact that

these men died precisely that ‘‘the UNION
might be preserved,” would not every mem-

orial be a mockery? Well, that is the danger

that looms for us who have died in World War
II; and that is why we demand memories!

AS HE STOOD dedicating the ground at
Gettysburg, Lincoln sensed this truth. He

knew that memories counted, not memorials.

That is why he said: “7t is for us the living

to he dedicated, ,

,

That’s the point, the

essential point. It is for the living to be dedi-

cated! And to what?—To what Lincoln said:
. . to the unfinished work which they who

fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is for us to be dedicated to the great task

remaining before us—^that from these honored
dead we take increased devotion to that cause

for which they gave the last full measure of

- 41 -



devotion—that we here highly resolve that the
dead shall not have died in vain.”

THAT IS the proper way to honor the dead.
Enshrine them in living memories. Entomb

them not in mute memorials. Be mindful of

why they died and not only of the fact that
they are dead. Lincoln was a practical man.

He would have the living honor the heroes
who fell by entering practical testament with

them, and not by erecting impractical testi-

monials to them. And that is what we, the

dead of World War II, demand!

WE DID not die to rid the world of Hitler.
We did not die to wreak vengeance on Japan.
We did not die to avenge Poland, Hungary or
Czechoslovakia. If a country must be named,

name our own loved land, the glorious United

States. But, Beloved, the truer truth is that

we died for God. We died that God might live
in the hearts and minds of the peoples of the

world, first among them the people of the

United States. And mocked, hideously mocked,

we shall be if you, the living, do not dedicate

yourselves to the unfinished work we ad-

vanced ! If you do not consecrate yourselves

to the task of seeing that God goes back into

the schools^ that Religion returns to Education,

then the world’s Western Hemisphere was

turned into an Haceldama in vain! And what

is more, you prove us mad! You prove that

in a dementia unparalleled we dunged much

of six whole continents and countless islands

in the seven seas with rotten death—the corps-
es of our own strong, young, full-flowered

American youth! Unless God goes back into

the schools a barren holocaust has been made,

and you, the living, have turned the sacrifice

of the dead into sacrilege

!

- 42 -



BISMARCK ONCE said: ‘‘If you want a
thing in the nation, put it into the schools.”

That he was right has been proved by Commu-

nistic Russia and Nazi Germany. The child

of today is the citizen of tommorrow. What

he learns in the class-room as a lad he will

preach on the street as a youth and practice

in business as a man. But why talk? We our-
selves have proved the Iron Chancellor right.

We have godlessness in our Nation this mo-
ment because we have had godlessness in

our schools for over half a century ! It is high

time for us to take a page from another book.

Christ told us to learn from the children of

the world who “are wiser in their generation

than are the children of light.” Learn from

Bismarck, from Russia, from Germany, from

our own awful mistake of the past. Make the

United States the nation we died that it might

be; make it the nation Lincoln claimed it to

be; make it the nation our Founding Fathers

hoped and planned it would be. Make it a

“nation under God,” by putting God back into

the schools

!

THAT IS our demand. But by that we do
not mean the “Sunday Schools.” No. That

is the fatal error we made decades ago. We
divorced religion from real life. We relegated
it to the realms of the unimportant. Five and

even six days a week we insisted that our

children worship at the altar of Science; on

the seventh we hoped, more or less, that they

might go unto the altar of God. Then we

wring our hands and lament our juvenile de-

linquency, our crime waves, our immoral, un-

moral and amoral adults! Where is our logic?

Where, our common sense? We sow the wind
and marvel that we reap the whirlwind! No
great intelligence is required to see that with-

out God there is no real authority; without

- 43 -



real authority there is no real law and order;

without real law and order there is and ever

will be social suicide! Now is the time to
prove that America did not suffer an intellec-

tual black-out. Do it by putting God back not
only in the Sunday School, but in every school

from ‘^the little red schoolhouse” up to and

inclusive of the majestic halls of our great

Universities. Get God back in every class

from kindergarten to collegiate post-graduate,

and you will be keeping us in mind and not

putting us in memorials!

BELOVED, THE three “R’s” have not pro-
duced good citizens. Reading, ’Kiting and

’Rithmetic have not inculcated the reverence,

respect and proper regard for the rights of

others without which there can be no truly

civilized state. And they never will ! For

without recognition of duties toward God why

should anyone admit duties toward man? If

God is not sovereign, why should men not be

utterly, ruthlessly and recklessly selfish?

Without religion there is no morality, and

without morality you may develop manners in

men but you will never develop manhood; you

may produce people who will submit, but never

people who will obey. You are preparing the

Servile State! That is the barbarism we bat-

tled! We died that America might be civil-
ized; that her people might be free. Prove

that we haven’t died in vain by putting Re-

ligion back in Education, for that is the only

way to get morality back into the nation and

law and order into everyday life.

YOU MAY wonder why we who demand mem-
ories instead of memorials do not, in specify-

ing the particular memory, say something

about those hideous blotches that have broken

out on our National countenance and rob it

- 44 -



of all beauty. You may wonder why we say

nothing about divorce, birth-control and ab-

ortion, nothing about the rankling injustice

that has set Capital and Labor standing like

two angry bulls with locked horns, nothing

about that corruption in politics which has

produced hordes of men for the political par-

ties but not a statesman for the people.

IT IS true that we did not die that our coun-

try might outdo pagan Japan in its mockery

of marriage. It is true that we did not leave

the women we almost worshipped—our moth-
ers and sisters—and the ‘‘one woman in all
the world’^—^the woman we almost adored

—

our wife or wife-to-be—that womanhood might
be degraded by that accursed thing some legis-

lators have stupidly written into the statutes

of their States. No, we did not die for that.

We died that God might live, and that women
might attain their God-given destiny, which is

to become very like the Mother of God by

bringing into the world other syllables of the

Word Divine, other little redeemers of a world

that needs redemption, other children to be

adopted by God the Father and made heirs of

Heaven. That is why we died—that God
might live and that men and women might
live under God! But neither can ever be done

as long as men dare to put asunder what God

has joined together. Neither can ever be done

as long as our Nation countenances divorce.

WE KNOW that. Beloved. We also know that
statistics show that out of every six American

marriages one ends in the divorce courts. And
yet our people remain complacent! What a
proof of national paganism! If one out of

every six banks in America failed; if one out

of every six American business houses dropped

out of existence
;

if one out of every six

- 45 -



American buildings crumbled into dust, you

can be sure that the people of America would

lose their complacency. A further proof of
their accursed materialism. Beloved, stability

in marriage is of much more import to the

nation as a nation than the stability of her

banks, her business houses or her buildings.

The family is the nation's very foundation.

How can you have a nation if you have no
families? How can you have families if you
permit divorce? Fogs can rest on strong

mountains but strong mountains cannot rest

on fogs ! And yet some of our legislators plan

to build a strong nation on such shifty, va-

porous, unstable stuff as marriages that allow

for divorce! If the foundation is not solid

how can the building be safe? If marriage is

not sacred what is? If husband and wife can

look upon this holy contract as a ^^scrap of

paper" why should anyone view the State or

Federal Constitution in any other light?

IT IS not that we are unmindful of the hide-

ousness of this blotch on the face of our na-

tion, it is only that we are very mindful of

its cause. A blotch on the face does not say
that the skin is poor but that the blood is

bad! So instead of pinching the pimple or

putting salve on the blemish, we aim to purge

the blood! Men and women have no respect

for marriage because they have no respect for

the God who instituted marriage and the

Christ who raised it to the dignity of a Sac-

rament. Speaking in Cleveland on March 12,

1944, Chief Justice Silbert, after stating that

69% of the cases filed in the courts of the coun-

try were for divorce, said: ^Tf the whole

Country were Catholic, I'd be out of a job."

There is our whole case in a sentence! Unless

he does lose that kind of a job, we the dead

have died in vain! In his facetiousness, the

- 46 -



Chief Justice has pointed to the infallible rem-

edy. To put an end to our shameful divorces

we don’t need law, we need love! Not love

for one another so much as love for God! To

prevent divorces between men and women, we

say give the boys and girls Eeligion I Put the

fourth ‘‘R” back into Education and you have

drained the pond whose waters have turned

the wheels of the country’s divorce mills!

THE SAME holds true for birth-control and
abortion. Of course you know I mean birth-

prevention! We the dead had no comrades-in-
arms sprung from the wombs of birth-

preventers. If we succeeded in keeping Wash-

ington and New York from being bombed, if
we succeeded in keeping the Japanese from

streaming into Seattle or sweeping through

the Golden Gate, we owe no thanks to the

Margaret Sangers, the Marie Stopes, or the

organizers and abettors of the League for the

Dissemination of Literature on Birth-Control.

We the dead ask you the living if you are
going to allow all that to live?

YOU MARVEL that we do not demand the
extirpation of these enemies of our loved

America—these people who have perverted the
holiest of human relations and changed mar-

riage into concubinage; these people who, as

Victor C. Pedersen, a non-Catholic doctor,

wrote, have ^^taught our mothers and daugh-

ters, our sweethearts and wives the common

practices of the brothel.” The Reverend Igna-

tius Cox, S.J., well named them when he called

them “the executioners of our American civili-

zation and the grave-diggers of our nation.”

You marvel that we who are in the grave do

not demand that you level all such organiza-

tions more completely than we leveled Berlin.

Beloved, we do! But instead of bombing from

- 47 -



above, we demand that you blast from be-

neath ! To keep contraceptives out of th-e mar-

riage chamber, we tell you to put Christ in

the classrooms!

TEACH BOYS and girls their dignity and
their destiny

;
teach them that they are breaths

of God in vessels of clay; teach them that

they are destined for mystical union in Christ

on earth and eternal union with God in glory;

teach them that their bodies are in all truth

temples of the Holy Ghost and that God de-

pends on married couples and the proper use

of their bodies to bring the human race to the

gigantic stature of the God-Man; teach them

these truths thoroughly and they themselves

will indignantly repel every advance of the

Birth-Preventers; they will resent every sug-

gestion of contraception as an outrageous in-

sult to their mutual love, loyalty and inviolable

respect; they will recognize these people for

what they actually are—emissaries of the Dev-
il who offer a barbarous affront to the man-

hood and womanhood of the married pair and

cast an unforgivable aspersion on their dignity

as collaborators with God Almighty in the

work of creation.

TO MAKE Americans human, teach young
Americans that they are partly divine! To

make marriage sacred you do not have to out-

lobby the Birth-Preventers at Washington,

you only have to put the Author of marriage

back into the schools. Vanishing cream has

never yet cured cancer; it calls for the knife.

Give the teachers of the nation the two-edged

sword of the truth of Christ, and they will

cut away the cancer of godlessness that allows

the existence of Sangerites in our nation.

Beloved, take the word of the dead: The hus-

bands and wives of the nation will never be

- 48 -



forced into fidelity to one another and to God

by human legislation; they must be led into

it by the lofty truths of their human dignity

and their human-divine destiny. That is why

we concentrate on Education. If America is

to have God-conscious husbands and wives, she

must develop God-conscious school-boys and

school-girls. As you train the twig so grows

the tree.

THE IDENTICAL argument holds true for
Economics and Politics. We are not asking
you to honor us by purging politics or legis-

lating for Social Justice. We know that if
the rulers are wrong-minded, no matter what

you label their rule, the people will suffer.

Ever since World War I a continual lamenta-
tion has been wailed from one end of the land

to the other about our lack of leaders both

political and economic. Some have explained

the dearth by the deaths of our best in Flan-

ders fields. That explanation is partial, not

total. No. Cal Coolidge, with his habitual

Yankee shrewdness, gave the better and fuller

explanation when he said: ‘^Unless our people

are thoroughly instructed in the great truths

of Religion, they are not fitted to understand

our institutions.^' Since we are a government

‘'of the people and by the people,” he was im-

plicitly saying that we are governed by men

who do not understand our institutions. And

he was right! The blind leading the blind

never end up well. There is always the ditch!

And we have seen the ditch of Depression, the

deeper ditch of national drunkenness, and the

still deeper ditch of nation-wide materialistic

paganism

!

WILLIAM PENN once said: ‘^Men will be
ruled by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.”

We believe him to have been right. We base

- 49 -



our belief on the actual experience of Russia

and Germany. More. We base our belief on
the words of Jesus Christ: “He who is not

with Me, is against Me!”

AS WE the dead see it, you the living have a
choice between Religion with a Cross and anti-

religion with a criss-cross; between the Reli-

gion that is God-given and the antireligion

that is man-made; between Religion from the

Savior and antireligion from the State. We
died that you would choose the first. Keep

that in mind, and don’t put us in memorials!

WHAT YOU CAN DO

BELOVED, I hope I have not bewildered you.
I suppose you wonder what I expect you to

do to get God back in the schools. You marvel

that I should even ask you to do something

about it, you who have never mixed in public

‘affairs. Darling, remember that “more things

are wrought by prayer than this world dreams

of.” You can pray! Pray importunately I

Pester God! Allow Him no rest from your

reverent insistence until He enlighten the lead-

ers of the land to the darkness into which the

nation is plunged because of godlessness in

our schools. Pray that He raise up fearless

Catholics, public servants whose every word

and work will show them first to be Servants

of God ! Pray that He give us Catholic writ-

ers and Catholic speakers who will be as forth-

right as was St. Paul!

YES, YOU can pray, you can also protest!
Protest by word and action. Politicians are

always looking for votes; threaten them with

the loss of yours unless they campaign to put

Christ back into the classroom. Newspapers

and magazines are always watching their cir-

- 50 -



culation; threaten them with the discontinua-

tion of your subscription unless they, too,

honor your dead by printing only the news

that is in accord with Christ’s Good News!

School-boards are jealous of their position and

their pay; threaten both by making an issue

out of Religion in the school’s curriculum.

Three ^^R’s,” and only three have been taught

in our grade schools for half a century; make

them see that the fourth is needed! Our high

schools have been teaching all the sciences

with never a word about Him who is Omnis-

cience ! For years pedagogues have been ‘‘cru-

cifying Christ in our colleges.” And ever

since Eliot of Harvard introduced harakiri

into our halls of learning by insisting on elec-

tivism and specialization, men have specialized

in everything but the one thing that calls for

human specialization—the knowledge of God!
Bring these truths home to your school-boards,

your school-superintendents, your boards of

directors, your College Deans and your Uni-

versity Presidents. Protest with pen and pa-

per. Protest by radio and the editorial page.

Protest by your ballots and your boycotts

!

TAKE WINSTON Churchill’s slogan and
Archbishop Spellman’s title of “Action This

Day” and see that it is Catholic action. You

belong to the Church Militant; then militate

for the honor of your military men who died

that America might be what Lincoln called it
—“a nation under GodT

SAINT BENEDICT’S watch words were “Ora
et labora—pray and work.” St. Ignatius ex-
plained them more practically by saying:

**Pray as if it all depended on God; work as

if it all depended on you.” We the dead try
to make them even more pointed and practical

by saying: “Pray and Protest!” Pray and

- 51 -



protest until Keligion dominates Education.

Pray and protest until God rules the land I

THERE IS much that you can do, Beloved.
You can always pray; yes, and you can al-

ways protest—at least with that loudest of
all protests—a perfect Catholic life!

PICTURE THIS

THIS IS the age of the tabloid and the graph-

ic, so we the dead give you a picture. We died
that little tots might kneel beside their moth-

er's knee and learn of the God who loved them

enough to become a little Tot who toddled to

His Mother's knee. We died that little tots
might learn from mother's lips that God made

them! that He made them to know Him! to

love Him! to serve Him in this world! and to

be happy with Him forever in the next! Pic-

ture that

!

YES, PICTURE that, then plaster it on your
billboards. Placard it in your street-cars and

busses. Feature it in your Sunday Supple-

ments. Put it on the mast-heads of your

dailies. Do that and we will have some hope

that we have not died in vain. Do that and

you will have some comfort in the fact that

you have not allowed the living to mock your

dead. But before that picture will represent

reality there must be legitimate children to

real American mothers in real American

homes, which necessarily means no birth-pre-

vention! and no divorce!

BEFORE YOU will ever reach that blessed
goal, Americans will have to rid themselves of

their horrible superficiality and their sickening

sophistication and live up not only to the

Declaration of Independence but to the nation's

Declaration of Dependence! Washington and

- 52 -



his fellow-workers drew up the first at Phila-

delphia. You will find it in the Preamble to

our Constitution. Lincoln published the sec-

ond when at Gettysburg he claimed that we

were a ‘‘nation under God.” The first will

never be lived up to unless the second is ob-

served; and the second will not even be ad-

mitted, much less accomplished, unless you

put God back into the schools!

AMERICA NEEDS sanctity in marriage,
stability to the home, justice in economics and

honesty in politics. She can have all if she

will but honor the dead of World War II by
putting the “Ducator” back in the Educator!

Education means to lead out; but no one can

be led out unless there is a Leader. You have

your choice to be led by the One who said:

“Suffer the little children to come unto Me;

for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven,” (Mt.

19:14) or the one who says: “Force the little

children to come unto me; for of such is the

supremacy of the State.” The first, as you

know, is the voice of Christ. The second I

unqualifiedly label “the voice of antichrist.”

It has been heard and heeded in Russia. It

has been heard and heeded in Germany.

“When the battlers fought and won” it will be
heard in America. From the Great Beyond we
the dead ask : “Are you going to mock us who

died that Christ might live by heeding the

voice of antichrist?”

YOURS IS the choice. But let us prophesy
that unless you spurn it, there will be a World

War III that will far surpass this present one
in the horror of its barbaric devastation. It

will be fought by the children you send to

those schools!

GIVE US only memorials and not memories
and you are piling up the waters for a cata-

- 53 -



clysm that will leave in its wake no trace of

the actual civilization you know, and no pos-

sibility of the civilization we hoped for.

BELOVED, IF you are not going to pray
and protest and get others to pray and pro-

test, don’t change our blue stars to gold

—

black us out!

- 54 -





i



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The Soul of the Apostolate, paper

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The Cistercian Life
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Joseph Cassant, Trappist Priest, paper . ao

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Yvo Poussin, Trappist Lay Brother, paper ........ .66

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Louise Tessier, Trappistine Nun v... 1,00
Descriptive Booklet of Gethaemani Abbey .......... JS6
Holy Abandonment, Dom Lehodey ................ 4,00
Spiritual Directory (Cistercian) 2 vols., each .... 1.76
Cistercian Spirit of SimpUdty

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Lieutenant Michael CarUer, Monk . ..Zv^.

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BOOKLETS (10 cents each)
Are You?
Fiat and Remake Your World
Life is a Divine Romance
The God-Man*8 Double
Whata Wrong?
Set the World on Fire I B
Doubling for the Mother of God

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Whispers from the Wings
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What are you doing to Jesus Christ? / S
Do you want Life and Love? f Z
Have you met (3od7

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For your own Defense V SA Startling Thing for you /

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To Mrtherj Who H«ye Sons fa the Service / gHelp Grod be a Success
I ^Fa^ about Reason, Revelation, and Religion ^ -A Message from Those Killed In Action . «

Eventually : Why not Now? 1 ^
Apostolate of the Contemplativce
Master Magnet (St Bernard)
24 Hours a Catholic
An Hour with Christ
Let’s Build a Home

Abbay of Our Lady of Gethsemani

Trappist, Ky.