Lament, Faith and Hope

Excerpt from Steven Dilla post:  Prayer and Hope in Suffering

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Though Bonhoeffer would not taste freedom in this world again (he would later be transferred to a concentration camp and hanged), his words of lament, faith, and hope stretch through all his correspondence. Never more-so than his prayer from Christmas, 1943:

 

O God, early in the morning do I cry unto you. Help me to pray, and to think only of you.

 

In me there is darkness, but there is light in you. I am lonely, but you do not leave me. I am feeble in heart, but you do not leave me. I am restless, but there is peace with you. In me there is bitterness, but there is patience with you; your ways are beyond understanding, you know the way for me.

 

O Holy Spirit, grant me the faith that will protect me from despair: deliver me from the lusts of the flesh. Pour into my heart such love for thee and for men, that all hatred and bitterness may be blotted out. Grant me the hope that will deliver me from fear and timidity.

 

Chiefly do I remember all my loved ones, my fellow-prisoners, and all who in this house perform their hard service.

 

Lord have mercy. Restore me to liberty and enable me so to live now, that I may answer before you and before the world. Lord, whatever this day may bring, your Name be praised. Amen.

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