bonhoeffer on suffering

"It is not a religious act that makes the Christian, but participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life. That is metanonia [repentance]: not in the first place thinking about one's own needs, problems, sins, and fears, but allowing oneself to be caught up in the way of Jesus Christ. ... Pain is a holy angel. ... Through him men have become greater than through all the joys of the world. ... The pain of longing, which often can be felt physically, must be there, and we shall not and need not talk it away. But it needs to be overcome every time, and that there is an even holier angel than the one of pain, that is the one of joy in God." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, p. 418

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