 |
Children
|
|
The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
Christianity
|
|
|
It is the fellowship of the Cross to experience the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship he belongs to is not Christian. If any member refuses to bear that burden, he denies the law of Christ.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
|
|
Decisions
|
|
|
It is the characteristic excellence of the strong man that he can bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them. The weak are always forced to decide between alternatives they have not chosen themselves.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
God
|
|
|
A god who let us prove his existence would be an idol.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
Gratitude
|
|
|
In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
Obedience
|
|
|
Only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
Optimism
|
|
|
The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
Prayer
|
|
|
O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray and gather my thoughts to you, I cannot do it alone.
In me it is dark, but with you there is light;
I am lonely, but you do not desert me;
My courage fails me, but with you there is help;
I am restless, but with you there is peace;
in me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me.
Father in Heaven praise and thanks be to you for the night
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A prayer written in Tegel prison, Berlin
|
|
Questions
|
|
|
It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
Responsibility
|
|
|
Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
Reverence
|
|
|
Each morning is a new beginning of our life. Each day is a finished whole. The present day marks the boundary of our cares and concerns. It is long enough to find God or loose Him, to keep faith or fall into disgrace.
God created day and night for us so we need not wander without boundaries, but may be able to see in every morning the goal of the evening ahead.
Just as the ancient sun rises anew everyday, so the eternal mercy of God is new every morning.
Every morning God gives us the gift of comprehending anew His faithfulness of old; thus in the midst of our life with God, we may daily begin a new life with Him.
In the first moments of the new day are for God's liberating grace, God's sanctifying presence. Before the heart unlocks itself for the world, God wants to open it for Himself; before the ear takes in the countless voices of the day, it should hear in the early hours the voice of the Creator and Redeemer.
God prepared the stillness of the first morning for Himself. It should remain His.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
Silence
|
|
|
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
Solitude
|
|
|
The mark of solitude is silence, as speech is the mark of community. Silence and speech have the same inner correspondence and difference as do solitude and community. One does not exist without the other. Right speech comes out of silence, and right silence comes out of speech.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
|
|
Suffering
|
|
|
There is a very real danger of our drifting into an attitude of contempt for humanity. We know quite well that we have no right to do so, and that it would lead us into the most sterile relation to our fellow-men. The following thoughts may keep us from such a temptation. It means that we at once fall into the worst blunders of our opponents. The man who despises another will never be able to make anything of him. Nothing that we despise in the other man is entirely absent from ourselves. Why have we hitherto thought so intemperately about man and his frailty and temptability? We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer. The only profitable relationship to others -- and especially to our weaker brethren -- is one of love, and that means the will to hold fellowship with them. God himself did not despise humanity, but became man for men's sake.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison
|
Books by and about Dietrich Bonhoeffer