Contemplative Haven

Aug 14 2007

Inscription of Hope

Published by gabrielle at 12:25 pm under Faith/Hope/Love, Music, War

While doing some reading on the Internet just prior to the feastday of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), I came across these lines, which were discovered shortly after World War II, written on a cellar wall in which Jews had been hiding: “I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining. And I believe in love, even when there’s no one there. And I believe in God, even when God is silent.”

This powerful message of hope and courage was used as the basis for the song, “Inscription of Hope”, which you can hear performed by the Northwest Girlchoir, on their CD by the same name. Three of the songs on the CD were also performed in the musical memorial, “I Never Saw Another Butterfly”, dedicated to the 15,000 children who passed through the town of Teresienstadt on their way to Auschwitz.

I believe in the sun
even when it is not shining.
And I believe in love
even when there’s no one there.
And I believe in God
even when God is silent.
I believe through any trial
there is always a way.
But sometimes in this suffering
and hopeless despair
My heart cries for shelter
to know someone’s there.
But a voice rises within me saying,
‘hold on my child
I’ll give you strength, I’ll give you hope
Just stay a little while.’
I believe in the sun
even when it is not shining.
And I believe in love
even when there’s no one there.
And I believe in God
even when God is silent.
I believe through any trial
there is always a way.
May there someday be sunshine,
May there someday be happiness,
May there someday be love,
May there someday be peace.

10 responses so far

10 Responses to “Inscription of Hope”

# AutumnRoseon 14 Aug 2007 at 5:59 pm

Hi Gabrielle, thanks for visiting my blog today!

Btw, it wasn’t your blog was referring to when I mentioned someone always changing templates!

I love to visit here, and should do so more often.

God bless xx
# gabrielleon 14 Aug 2007 at 7:45 pm

Oh, I didn’t think it was me, AutumnRose, it’s just that a while back, I was definitely the Queen of template-tryer-outers, because nothing seemed to work! It was good visiting you today; I wish I had time to read more though, but hopefully in September. Thanks for stopping in!
# kristinon 14 Aug 2007 at 8:59 pm

I am sitting in front of the computer, my eyes filled with tears, and my heart opening up…after a long, demanding and hectic day. I had not heard of this bit of WWII history, but plan to do some research of my own now. This is also worth sharing with friends and family…

How can I thank you enough, for sharing such an incredibly beautiful, moving and inspiring story (as well as the music)?

On the “challenging days”, this is one to read…and re-read…til it sinks into my spirit…and reminds me of where my priorities lie…what I have to be grateful for…and the miracles that are borne of hope.

Grace and Peace to you, Gabrielle….and to all who read of this incredible story….
# gabrielleon 15 Aug 2007 at 7:38 am

Kristin, I had a rather similar reaction as I was reading and thinking about this info and song, re priorities, gratitude, miracles…shall I even say shame, re my often pitiful responses to even life’s little problems. Perspective is a very good thing; unfortunately, sometimes I need to be hit over the head with it.
# marieon 17 Aug 2007 at 1:39 am

It is indeed a beautiful prayer and still very relevent to our day.

What a lovely and thought provoking blog you have. I hope you don’t mind if I add your blog to ours at ‘View from the Pews’.

Peace & blessings to you

Marie:)
# gabrielleon 17 Aug 2007 at 12:09 pm

Thanks, Marie, I don’t mind at all, and I will be adding yours as well. It’s nice to see you here, and I appreciate your comment.
# Marianneon 20 Jan 2008 at 9:55 pm

Dear Gabrielle,
Do you still have the podcast for the 13 episodes by Father Dubay. I can no longer find them anywhere and I would love to find them. Could you help me?

Peace & blessings to you.
# Anonymouson 21 Jan 2008 at 12:51 am

Pardon my barging in, Marianne, and this is not the actual page you requested — I remember it being a podcast page, right?, but this has some good stuff..
# Anonymouson 21 Jan 2008 at 12:53 am

Sorry — looks like you’ll have to type in “Thomas Dubay” in the search box. It offers 6 entire series for him.
# gabrielleon 21 Jan 2008 at 12:59 pm

Dear Marianne, as Anonymous says, the EWTN library has great audio archives if you just search under “Dubay”, or click the Dubay link in my sidebar to go directly to one of them. Thanks for your help, Anonymous!

But the contemplation podcast with 13 episodes was only available for a limited number of days, and now I don’t see it anywhere either, in the EWTN archives. I have it on my hard drive though, Marianne, and tried to email you the first episode, but hotmail won’t let me email an attachment that big. I tried to zip it and send it, but that didn’t work either. I’m going to ask someone I know to help me figure out how I can get the series to you. I’ll be in touch!