Polish-American Jesuit Priest, Walter Ciszek headed towards the Iron Curtain during WWII as a missionary and found himself arrested and thrown in the Soviet Gulag system for 23 years as a "Vatican spy." A man of faith, Father Ciszek writes of his unique spiritual journey and reflections in this book, while his external account, "With God in Russia" covers the same ground on a surface, event-driven level.

“What can ultimately trouble the soul that accepts every moment of every day as a gift from the hands of God and strives always to do his will?” he profoundly questions the Christian core and his faith, while musing on God's divine will and providence. This amazing and courageous priest struggled with doubts, self-reliance, and prayer. What he learned, and how he learned it, sustained him through the worst of hardships, isolation, loneliness, and suffering.

Ciszek tells how prayer gave him enough courage to ease his loneliness, pain, anguish, fears, and despair. For, as he explains, the solace of spiritual contemplation gave him an inner serenity he could draw on amid the "arrogance of evil" surrounding him. He had to learn to accept the inhuman toil demanded in the infamous Siberian gulags as something pleasing to God. This profound believer was able to turn his adverse circumstances into something of positive value and a way to achieve an intimate embrace of his unfailing and compassionate Heavenly Father.

For the reader, there are many lessons and much inspiration in this book. "He Leadeth Me" teaches how to better discern God's will and overcome doubts to trust totally on God's providence (generally and in one's personal life), even, if not especially, in the midst of Hell on Earth.

Highly recommended