Life Together (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works)

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The presence of Christians to one another is a visible way in which Christ is enfleshed anew. Everyone

First, Christian community is not an ideal, but a divine reality; second, Christian community is a spiritual [pneumatisch] and not an emotional [psychisch] reality

Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.

Christian community is not an ideal we have to realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.

The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from everyday Christian life in community [Lebensgemeinschaft] may actually mean the exclusion of Christ; for in the poor sister or brother, Christ is knocking at the door.

Even if a verse or a psalm is not my own prayer, it is nevertheless the prayer of another member of the community; and it is quite certainly the prayer of the truly human Jesus Christ and his body on earth.

Offering intercessory prayer means granting other Christians the same right we have received, namely, the right to stand before Christ and to share in Christ’s mercy.