As Advent begins Nov. 30, the faithful have an opportunity to turn toward the writings of a priest whose sermons were smuggled out of a Nazi prison as he awaited execution.
Advent of the Heart, available through The Catholic Company, gathers the Advent sermons and handwritten prison reflections of Father Alfred Delp, S.J., a German Jesuit who was arrested for speaking against the Nazi regime.
Fr. Delp served as a parish priest in Munich, Germany, where he became known for his powerful preaching and unwavering resistance to Nazi ideology. His outspoken witness led to his arrest by the Gestapo in July 1944, a consequence of both his public opposition to the regime and his association with resistance circles.
Fr. Delp’s courage, moral clarity, and quiet involvement with the Kreisau Circle — a group of intellectuals and officers plotting a moral renewal of Germany after Hitler — put him squarely in the Gestapo’s sights. On July 28, 1944, he was arrested, accused of high treason, and sent to Berlin’s Tegel prison, where he awaited execution and continued to write with extraordinary faith.
While imprisoned in a freezing cell, often handcuffed and deprived of basic needs, Fr. Delp continued to write. Advent had always been his favorite liturgical season, so much so that he considered the whole of life was Advent, a constant posture of expectation and readiness for God. In the bleakness of imprisonment, this conviction only deepened.
Using scraps of paper and smuggling them out through prison laundry, Delp sent reflections into the world. These secret writings, along with Advent sermons he preached before his arrest, were later gathered and preserved in Advent of the Heart.
Fr. Delp was executed Feb. 2, 1945. February 2, also known as Candlemas, is the feast celebrating the Presentation of the Lord, which concludes the Christmas season. Jesus’ death, foretold at the temple during the Presentation, came as the final fulfillment of His own Advent: a soul prepared to meet God face-to-face.
Fr. Delp’s writings remind believers that waiting is not passive, but active, hopeful, and alert to grace.
Advent of the Heart offers prayerful meditations for the Advent season, sermons rooted in courage and hope, and the authentic voice of a martyr who believed Advent reveals the shape of the whole Christian life.
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