From his prison cell in Tegel at Christmas in 1943 Bonhoeffer wrote his parents:
"From the Christian point of view there is no special problem about Chistmas in a prison cell. For many people in this building it will probably be a more sincere and genuine occasion than in places where nothing but the name is kept. That misery, suffering, poverty, loneliness, helplessness, and guilt mean something quite different in the eyes of God from what they mean in the judgement of man, that God will approach where men turn away, that Christ was born in a stable because there was no room for him in the inn – these are things that a prisoner can understand better than other people; for him they really are glad tidings, and that faith gives him a part in the communion of saints, a Christian fellowship breaking the bounds of time and space and reducing the months of confinement here to insignificance." (Letters & Papers from Prison).
The centennial year of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is now drawing to a close.
Merry Christmas to all readers! / Frohe Weihnachten an alle!
