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So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Age: 39 †
Born: 1906
Born: February 4
Died: 1945
Died: April 8
Pastor
Philosopher
Poet
Resistance Fighter
Theologian
Breslau
Bonhoeffer
Life
Seclusion
Foes
Commission
Foe
Belongs
Thick
Christian
Work
Cloistered

More quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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If you want my goodness to stay with you then serve your neighbour, for in him God comes to you himself such a man sees in his neighbour the material and spiritual need he is called to meet.
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Who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly? Whoever finally lays down all power, l honor, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger whoever remains lowly and lets God alone be high whoever looks at the child in the manger and sees the glory of God precisely in his lowliness.
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Every wedding must be an occasion of joy that human beings can do such great things, that they have been given such immense freedom and power to take the helm in their life's journey.
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The church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ himself who has taken form among people.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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We are so afraid of silence that we chase ourselves from one event to the next in order not to have to spend a moment alone with ourselves, in order not to have to look at ourselves in the mirror.
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The Church is the Church only when it exists for others...not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.
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We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts.
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Sometimes we just need a firm kick in the pants. An unsmiling expectation that if we mean all these wonderful things we talk about and sing about, then let’s see something to prove it.
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It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith.
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A pastor should never complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Nothing can fill the gap when we are away from those we love, and it would be wrong to try to find anything.....It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap he does not fill it, but keeps it empty so that our communion with another may be kept alive, even at the cost of pain.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected.... Hoarding is idolatry.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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God loves human beings. God loves the world. Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are not an ideal world, but the real world. What we find repulsive in their opposition to God, what we shrink back from with pain and hostility, namely, real human beings, the real world, this is for God the ground of unfathomable love.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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God has reserved to Himself the right to determine the end of life, because He alone knows the goal to which it is His will to lead it. It is for Him alone to justify a life or to cast it away.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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A person who loves community tends to destroy it. But a person who loves people creates community wherever he goes.
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Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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If any want to become my followers, Jesus says. Following him is not something that is self-evident, even among the disciples. No one can be forced, no one can be expected to follow him. ... If any want to follow me, they must deny themselves ... and take up their cross.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer