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Bonhoeffer: A Spirituality for Lock-Down?

I've been searching for something spiritually nourishing during the Covid lock-down and alighted on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letter and Papers from Prison. B was famously involved (peripherally) in the plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler but was captured in April 1943 (finally executed just before the end of the war). He spent the intervening years in a prison cell. It seemed to me that the themes of trying to remain faithful and hopeful during captivity; of trying to keep hold of the bigger Kingdom picture; and the question of how to act from day to day seemed pertinent. I'll share passages as I come across them. Today the following struck me:

The great thing is to stick to what one still has and can do - there is still plenty left - and not be dominated by the thought of what one cannot do, and by feelings of resentment and discontent. I'm sure I never realized as clearly as I do here what the Bible and Luther mean by 'temptation'. Quite suddenly, and for no apparent reason, the peace and composure that were supporting one are jarred, and the heart becomes, in Jeremiah's expressive phrase, 'deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?' It feels like an invasion from outside, as if by evil powers trying to rob one of what is most vital. But no doubt these experiences are good and necessary, as they teach one to understand human life better. (From a letter to his parents, 15 May 1943)

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