Christ Is Calling You: A Course in Catacomb Pastorship

"The time has come, young man, for you to hear a voice which has been calling you..."

With these words, Fr. George Calciu began a series of seven weekly homilies to the youth of communist Romania in 1978. Hundreds of young people risked their lives to hear him, climbing over the walls when the authorities tried to keep them away.

Fr. George knew this would mean his imprisonment and probable death, but he was prepared. Already he had endured sixteen years in the anti-human communist prison system. He was a survivor of the scientific experiment of Pitesti: the most diabolical system of torture ever devised, which attempted to methodically dismantle the human personality. Having had the very foundation of his soul defiled, Fr. George found the inward strength to turn to Christ, from Whom he received not only restoration and healing, but even the superhuman power to love and forgive his torturers. On his release from prison, he gave his homilies out of his desire to! lay down his life for Christ and for young people lost in materialism. Purified in a crucible of suffering, his fiery soul cried out to them, awakening them to the purpose of existence and changing their lives forever. He was again incarcerated in 1979, and after his release in 1984 he was exiled to America. When he returned to Romania in 1989, ten thousand young people came to pray with him, despite concerted efforts by the authorities to stop this event.

Fr. Calciu's sermons and a recent interview are presented here, offering a glimpse into the heart and soul of a genuine pastor and a living confessor of Christ. His sermons render an urgency and set the tone for contemporary Christian pastors under impossible conditions, when no human logic can prevail, but only direct dependence on God.