Dear People of God,
Today we awaken to a difficult reality about who we are as a country, and what lay ahead for us, and for the world. Last Sunday, as we celebrated the Feast All Saints, we took inspiration from the lives of ordinary people who were called to extraordinary works of love and grace in their time. I offer you one today, with gratitude to the Rt. Rev. Chip Stokes for posting it (see below).
Grieve today. Tomorrow we begin the resistance in the model of Lichtenberg, Bonhoeffer, the "Righteous Gentiles," and so many others who came before us. My prayers are with you.
Mother Diana+
"There is not a designated commemoration on The Episcopal Church calendar for November 5, but it’s worth noting that Bernhard Lichtenberg (d.1943), Priest, Righteous Person, Nazi Resister died at the hands of the Nazis on this date in 1941.
The stories of the Saints continue to inspire and often make vital contact with our own times and lives. The courageous witness of Fr. Bernhard Lichtenberg is a powerful example -
“We know what happened yesterday, we do not know what lies in store for us tomorrow. But we have experienced what has happened today: Outside burns the temple. This is also a place of worship.” Fr. Bernhard Lichtenberg speaking out in Berlin after the burning of a synagogue on Kristallnacht.
According to Wikipedia:
“Bernhard Lichtenberg was a German Catholic priest who became known for repeatedly speaking out, after the rise of Adolf Hitler and during the Holocaust, against the persecution and deportation of the Jews. After serving a jail sentence, he died in the custody of the Gestapo on his way to Dachau concentration camp. Raul Hilberg wrote: ‘Thus a solitary figure had made his singular gesture. In the buzz of rumormongers and sensation seekers, Bernhard Lichtenberg fought almost alone.’
Lichtenberg was born in Ohlau (now Oława), Prussian Silesia, near Breslau (now Wrocław), the second of five children. He studied theology in Innsbruck, Austria-Hungary. He also studied in Breslau and was ordained in 1899. In 1932, the Bishop of Berlin appointed him as a canon of the Cathedral chapter of St. Hedwig.
Lichtenberg's encouragement of Catholics to view a screening of the film version of Erich Maria Remarques' anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front, prompted a vicious attack by Joseph Goebbels' paper Der Angriff. In 1933 the Secret State Police of Germany (Gestapo) had searched his house for the first time. Active in the Centre Party, in 1935 he went to Hermann Göring to protest against the cruelties of the Esterwegen concentration camp.
Named provost of the cathedral, in 1938, Lichtenberg was put in charge of the Relief Office of the Berlin episcopate, which assisted many Catholics of Jewish descent in emigrating from the Third Reich. After Kristallnacht, the first organized Nazi pogrom in Germany, Lichtenberg warned at the Berlin Church of Saint Hedwig: ‘The burning synagogue outside is also a house of God!’ Until his arrest in October 1941, Lichtenberg would pray publicly for the persecuted Jews at the daily Vespers service. Bishop Konrad von Preysing later entrusted him with the task of helping the Jewish community of the city.
He protested in person to Nazi officials against the arrest and killing of the sick and mentally ill, as well as the persecution of the Jews. At first, the Nazis dismissed the priest as a nuisance. Father Lichtenberg was warned that he was in danger of being arrested for his activities, but he continued nonetheless.
In 1941, Lichtenberg protested against the involuntary euthanasia programme by way of a letter to the chief physician of the Reich, Minister of Public Health Leonardo Conti (1900-1945):
‘I, as a human being, a Christian, a priest, and a German, demand of you, Chief Physician of the Reich, that you answer for the crimes that have been perpetrated at your bidding, and with your consent, and which will call forth the vengeance of the Lord on the heads of the German people.’ The euthanasia in the health institutions of Nazi Germany was purportedly stopped soon after the church protests against euthanasia headed by the bishops Clemens August Graf von Galen and Theophil Wurm. "Nazi leaders faced the prospect of either having to imprison prominent, highly admired clergymen and other protesters – a course with consequences in terms of adverse public reaction they greatly feared – or else end the programme".
Lichtenberg was arrested on 23 October 1941 and sentenced to two years in prison for violation of the Pulpit Law and the Treachery Act of 1934. He asked to accompany Jews to the East in order to provide comfort there. Because he was considered incorrigible, he was picked up in 1943 by the Gestapo to be taken to the Dachau concentration camp. He fell ill and died of pneumonia in hospital in Hof, Bavaria.”
“He was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1996 and recognized as Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2004.”
Prayer (Collect) for the Day
Prayer for Martyrs (adapted) from The Book of Common Prayer
Almighty God, who gave to your servant Bernhard Lichtenberg boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers and powers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Have questions about Lent? Want to know more about why our liturgy (the way we worship) gets changed around? For that matter, want to know why we do what we do in the service? “What’s the Passion?” “What’s Holy Week?”
