Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Josee's avatar

Praying for you always Nigeria! I have been praying for you for 3 years. Please persevere and the fellow Catholics commit to for their perseverance.

Expand full comment
Hans's avatar

In a sermon in July, 1941, while his diocese of Münster was was suffering under the increasing depredations of the Secret State Police (Geheim Staats Polizei), Blessed Bishop Clemens August von Galen made an analogy between the faithful Catholics in his diocese and the Gestapo on one hand and a blacksmith's anvil and hammer on the other. The anvil stands solid and silent as the hammer beats down on it, but the anvil will outlast many a hammer. His diocesans — the Catholics and Christians, he said, are the anvil. They will outlast all the blows; they must be firm, hard, and silent. It is an image that can help those suffering persecution and injustice. That doesn't absolve governments such as in Nigeria from their responsibility to fight against persecution and pursue justice, but it can help those so afflicted to overcome their hardship.

An extract :

„ Become hard! Remain firm! At this moment we are the anvil rather than the hammer. Other men, mostly strangers and renegades, are hammering us, seeking by violent means to bend our nation, ourselves and our young people aside from their straight relationship with God. We are the anvil and not the hammer. But ask the blacksmith and hear what he says: the object which is forged on the anvil receives its form not alone from the hammer but also from the anvil. The anvil cannot and need not strike back: it must only be firm, only hard! If it is sufficiently tough and firm and hard the anvil usually lasts longer than the hammer. However hard the hammer strikes, the anvil stands quietly and firmly in place and will long continue to shape the objects forged upon it. ”

https://www.hprweb.com/2021/06/the-anvil-of-god/

Expand full comment
Latest

No posts