Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes About Prayer

Quotes about: Prayer

• Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart. It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Heart, Mean

• If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray. The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Heart, Important

• It is much easier for me to imagine a praying murderer, a praying prostitute, than a vain person praying. Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Vanity, Odds

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2008). “Barcelona, Berlin, New York, 1928-1931”

• The more deeply we grow into the psalms and the more often we pray them as our own, the more simple and rich will our prayer become.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Simple, Praying

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.35, SCM Press

• When our will wholeheartedly enters into the prayer of Christ, then we pray correctly.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Praying, Christ

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Eberhard Bethge (1974). “Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible”, p.11, Augsburg Books

• The child asks of the Father whom he knows. Thus, the essence of Christian prayer is not general adoration, but definite, concrete petition. The right way to approach God is to stretch out our hands and ask of One who we know has the heart of a Father.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Prayer, Children

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.111, SCM Press

• The richness of God’s Word ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Heart, Poverty

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1996). “Life Together: Prayerbook of the Bible”, Fortress Pr

• Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the community must enter every day.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Community, Baths

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Peter Frick (2010). “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Meditation and Prayer”, p.17, Liturgical Press

• But they all stood beneath the cross, enemies and believers, doubters and cowards, revilers and devoted followers. His prayer, in that hour, and his forgiveness, was meant for them all, and for all their sins. The mercy and love of God are at work even in the midst of his enemies. It is the same Jesus Christ, who of his grace calls us to follow him, and whose grace saves the murderer who mocks him on the cross in his last hour.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Jesus, Prayer, Grace

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.34, SCM Press

• It matters little what form of prayer we adopt or how many words we use. What matters is the faith which lays hold on God, knowing that He knows our needs before we even ask Him. That is what gives Christian prayer its boundless confidence and its joyous certainty.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Prayer, Knowing

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.110, SCM Press

• The entire day receives order and discipline when it acquires unity. This unity must be sought and found in morning prayer. The morning prayer determines the day.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Morning, Prayer, Order

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Eberhard Bethge (1974). “Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible”, p.64, Augsburg Books

• If we want to read and to pray the prayers of the Bible and especially the Psalms, therefore, we must not ask first what they have to do with us, but what they have to do with Jesus Christ...It does not depend, therefore, on whether the Psalms express adequately that which we feel at a given moment in our heart. If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Jesus, Prayer, Heart

• The right way to pray is to stretch out our hands and ask of One who we know has the heart of a Father.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Father, Heart

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.111, SCM Press

• Temptations which accompany the working day will be conquered on the basis of the morning breakthrough to God. Decisions, demanded by work, become easier and simpler where they are made not in the fear of men, but only in the sight of God. He wants to give us today the power which we need for our work.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Morning, Prayer, Work

• True prayer is done in secret, but this does not rule out the fellowship of prayer altogether, however clearly we may be aware of its dangers. In the last resort it is immaterial whether we pray in the open street or in the secrecy of our chambers, whether briefly or lenghtily, in the Litany of the Church, or with the sigh of one who knows not what he should pray for. True prayer does not depend either on the individual or the whole body of the faithful, but solely upon the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows our needs.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Father, Faithful

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.111, SCM Press

• Prayer is the supreme instance of the hidden character of the Christian life.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Prayer, Character

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.110, SCM Press

• The Psalter is the great school of prayer.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, School, Great Schools

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2007). “I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions”, p.54, Westminster John Knox Press

• A day without morning and evening prayers and personal intercessions is actually a day without meaning or importance.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Morning, Prayer, Evening

• I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, before taking off his prison garb, kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a prayer and then climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued in a few seconds. In the almost 50 years that I have worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Men, Doctors

• The Psalter is the prayer book of Jesus Christ in the truest sense of the word. He prayed the Psalter and now it has become his prayer for all time...we understand how the Psalter can be prayer to God and yet God's own Word, precisely because here we encounter the praying Christ...because those who pray the psalms are joining in with the prayer of Jesus Christ, their prayer reaches the ears of God. Christ has become their intercessor.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Jesus, Prayer, Book

• Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Vanity, Odds

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2008). “Barcelona, Berlin, New York, 1928-1931”

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