""They gave books and pencils and everything to the common prisoners, to the thieves, but not to the intellectuals, to political prisoners. For all my eleven years in prison, I didn't see a pencil! I didn't see a piece of paper! They wanted us to become beasts, to become animals. They were very naïve. This was, in fact, a failure for them, because we became ourselves without books.
Outside prison you don't have time to be yourself, because we are reading so many books. We are so busy that we don't have time to say, "Who am I?" or to sit down and to ask, "Why has God created me?" We are always gathering knowledge and notions and depositing them in our heads like a bank. But we don't take time to find ourselves.
In solitary confinement you have to go somewhere! There is no horizon outside of yourself, so you have to go inside. And then you discover who you are! And that was the revolution that happened with us in prison. Many times they have laughed at me when I said, "God bless the Communists!"—because they put the intellectuals in prison. And those who were truly intellectuals—who believed in God—discovered for themselves that true freedom is inside, it's not outside. In solitary confinement I discovered communion with God, with Christ, in the interior, in prayer and conversation with God; true freedom. The Communists could not control that!"
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I just want to thank you for sharing all of these words by Fr. Roman. I've really appreciated reading them. Thank you for taking the time.
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