Week Three Readings

Living Faith

Deitrich Bonhoeffer: "The View From Below"

"Every white American knows, sings and loves these songs. It is barley understandable that great Negro singers can sing these songs before packed audiences of whites, to tumultuous applause, while at the same time these same men and women are still denied access to the white community through social discrimination."

"The Church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering of society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community."

"I have made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period of our national history with the Christian people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people..."

 

How Can I Help?

Suffering

“Nobody teaches us to face suffering in this society. We never talk about it until we get hit in the face.”

“It’s as if our vicarious involvement with the trials and tribulations of others engages us in the life process in a way that we seem to need but also want to be able to control. We want to watch it, but be able to turn it off at will.” It is through witnessing or experiencing suffering that you see incredible beauty and unbearable pain. And you have to figure out how to be with both. I don’t know what it is about suffering but it awakens you to your true self and is when you feel most alive in this world.

“…because you see that you can be, we all can be, in the presence of great pain, but still appreciate life, even in its last moments. Especially then.” <<<Reminds me of when my grandmother passed away, through that tragedy and that pain I learned so much about life.

“But I have seen much service born of suffering. And I see that our little suffering is not for ourselves. It can have impact throughout the world, that’s how much our lives can mean, that’s how much is possible.”