A home is a kingdom of it's own in the midst of the world, a stronghold amid life's storms and stresses, a refuge, even a sanctuary.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of accepting divine mysteries without attempting to overly rationalize them with human language.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer suggests that there are profound spiritual experiences or occurrences, represented by 'great gaps,' that are beyond human understanding or expression. Instead of trying to fill these gaps with inadequate human interpretations or explanations, he advocates for a respectful silence, acknowledging that some divine truths might elude our comprehension and should remain in the realm of faith.
Themes
FaithSilenceMysteryDivineUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon about accepting life's uncertainties.
More from Dietrich Bonhoeffer
All quotes →In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.
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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 God's earth out of which man is taken. From it he has his body. His body belongs to his essential being. Man's body is not his prison, his shell his exterior, but man himself. Man does not "have" a body; he does not "have" a soul; rather he "is" body and soul. Man in the beginning is really his body. He is one. He is his body, as Christ is completely his body, as the Church is the body of Christ
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
...And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
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