Quote of the day, 13 June: St. Titus Brandsma

On June 12 [1942], Titus was told that, along with other prisoners, he would be leaving Kleve for Dachau the following day. The next morning forty prisoners were lined up in front of the prison, chained two by two, awaiting the order to march to the station and board the train that would take them to Dachau.

His eyes clouded by tears, the chaplain kept his eyes fixed on Titus, who appeared full of some inner fortitude and suffused with an inner light. As the Carmelite passed close to him, he heard him say, without looking at him directly, “Goodbye, my good friend. Nothing bad can happen to me, because the Lord is with me.”

The previous evening Fr. Deimel had brought Titus Holy Communion. Now Titus would imitate the great Patriarch of Carmel, the Prophet Elijah, who—persecuted for his defense of the true religion, exhausted and on the point of collapse—with the strength of bread provided by an angel, was able to walk forty days and forty nights to the Mountain of God (1 Kgs 19:7–8).

Titus, strengthened by the Eucharist, set out along the final stretch of his Way of the Cross.

Miguel Arribas, O.Carm.

Chapter XI, A break along the way

Arribas O.Carm., M 2021, The Price of Truth: Titus Brandsma, Carmelite, Carmelite Media, Darien, Illinois.

Featured image: Newsclip from the 26 February 1942 edition of the New York Daily News. Clipping courtesy of newspapers.com

Bridging The Rift Through Kumeyaay Territory + 2026 June 11th Call

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2026/06/07/bridging-the-rift-through-kumeyaay-territory-tijuana-and-san-diego/

Message from Political Prisoner Xinachtli

https://www.abcf.net/blog/message-from-political-prisoner-xinachtli/

#FreeXinachtli #PoliticalPrisoner #USA #Texas #Chicano

1/2 On Thursday it was #AlexeiNavalny's 50th birthday.

In Helsinki, #Finland a memorial bench was revealed to honor him.

And it was the officials of #Helsinki who suggested that the bench should be placed so, that it can be seen from the Russian Embassy <3!

https://yle.fi/a/74-20230007

#Navalny #Navalnyi #mistreatment #PoliticalPrisoner #assasination #poisoning #murder #memorial #MemorialBench #Russia #Venäjä #opposition #Putin #dictatorship #dictator #criminal #warcriminal

Суд огласил новый приговор против журналистки Марии Пономаренко

Рубцовский городской суд Алтайского края назначил журналистке Марии Пономаренко один год и десять месяцев лишения свободы по делу о «дезорганизации деятельности колонии» (ч. 2 ст. 321 УК РФ). С учётом неотбытой части заключения общее наказание составило два года и три месяца колонии общего режима, вердикт огласил судья Игорь Титаренко #politicalprisoner

June 11th Statement From Marius Mason

I am feeling some bittersweet feelings, having left prison after some 17 years. I met so many people, from so many communities and families, who found themselves incarcerated for a myriad of reasons. As we move into this time of contention, where there will be conflict between the state and the communities we know – there may be more of the people we love sharing that hidden world behind bars and kept apart. To recognize and remember them is important and it keeps those ties we have to them strong. Please help me this June 11th, to send some love, some hope and a promise to remember to all of our people who are living behind bars.

I am including a poem I wrote for my Yale poetry class in prison. At Danbury, we had a tradition of hugging a certain tree in the parking lot as we got ready to leave one of the three prisons there, the camp, the FSL or the FCI. I was able to hug this sycamore tree, and to tie a new crocheted wrap that a lot of people at the FSL had contributed, so many stitches, so many colors, so many lives maintaining hope for freedom and the embrace of our family and friends.

The Freedom Tree

It’s the sycamore tree that’s in the parking lot,

From two day’s warmth, has put out leaves.

The bleached bark, peeling and stark, is shot

Against the sky, arms lifted in a silent plea,

The “Freedom Tree”.

Willing time to move forward, we see it expand,

The days are in those fingertips.

Buds break to burgeon into hands

That sweep the sky, wide, now that wind no longer keens

And grass grows green.

There is a wild crocheted belt that encircles it,

Proof that one of us made it out,

And left behind a sign that’s spun

From everything we dreamed, while we longed to be

Touching this tree.

Bob Marley also sang of a sycamore tree that was part of his songs about freedom and history. I hope that you will participate in this event, helping me mark a day to remember all the friends I left behind, and all of the people we are missing from our movement, and our communities. Anything will do, as long as it is braided or crocheted or knitted to show how we are all part of a whole together, and stronger together than any one strand alone. There is no particular color combination, as many as you have to weave together. We are all different, but all of us belong together and free. Please help me mark this very first Freedom Tree event on June 11th.

Thank you so much for your act of solidarity.

Love and freedom, Marius Mason

source: ABCF

#Houston celebrates #Mumia’s 72nd birthday
https://www.workers.org/2026/05/92487/

#FreeMumia #FreeThemAll
#politicalprisoner