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
...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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that our perceptions of good and evil may be misguided, and that divine insight reveals a higher truth.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's quote reflects on the struggle of human perception under pressure, particularly around the Christmas season. He suggests that during our darkest moments, we might misinterpret our circumstances, thinking of them as solely negative. Instead, he proposes that these challenges might stem from a deeper, divine purpose, transforming our understanding of what we classify as evil into something fundamentally good. This indicates a need for a shift in perspective, implying that our understanding is often limited and flawed.
Themes
PerceptionTruthLightDarknessFaithDivineUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a Christmas service to inspire hope and reflection on the nature of good and evil.
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
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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.
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The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
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