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The right way to pray is to stretch out our hands and ask of One who we know has the heart of a Father.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Interpretation

What this quote means

True prayer involves seeking a personal connection with a divine being, akin to a child reaching out to a caring parent.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer emphasizes the importance of approaching prayer with the trust and openness of a child towards a loving parent. This quote highlights the relationship between the individual and God, suggesting that effective prayer is not simply about words but about the heartfelt connection that recognizes God's benevolence and care.

Themes

PrayerFatherSpiritualityConnectionTrust

In practice

Example use cases

In a sermon about the nature of prayer, I could include this quote to illustrate the importance of a personal relationship with God.

More from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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.
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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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...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.
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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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