One of the Last Messages from Bonehoeffer from a Gestapo Prison...

Remembering those who have been counted worthy to follow in the footsteps of Christ to suffer martyrdom always inspirational. Here am I in America, and the worst I get is maybe some name calling, but never has my life been put on the line. (I pray that the Lord would empower me to stand if that day should come). So there is nothing but respect that I have for a Christian like Bonhoeffer, who  would not flee to America for his own life, but remain in Nazi Germany to lose his own life, for the sake of Christ, and expericne martyrdom. The following is one of the last messages he wrote from a Gestapo prison prior to his martyrdom:

New Year 1945


With every power for good to stay and guide me,
conforted and inspired beyond all fear,
I’ll live these days with you in thought beside me,
and pass, with you, into the coming year.

The old year still torments our hearts, unhastening;
the long days of our sorrow still endure.
Father, grant to the soul thou has been chastening
that thou hast promised - the healing and the cure.

Should it be ours to drain the cup of grieving
even to the dregs of pain, at thy command,
we will not falter, thankfully receiving
all that is given by thy loving hand.

But, should it be thy will once more to release us
to life’s enjoyment and its good sunshine,
that we’ve learned from sorrow shall increase us
and all our live dedicate as thine.

To-day, let candles shed their radiant greeting;
lo, on our darkness are they not thy light,
leading us haply to our longed-for meeting?
Thou canst illumine e’en our darkest night.

When now the silence deepens our harkening,
grant we may hear thy children’s voices raise
from all the unseen world around us darkening
their universal paean, in thy praise.

While all the powers of Good aid and attended us,
boldly we’ll face the future, be it what may.
At even, and at morn, God will befriend us,
And oh, most surely on each new year’s day!
 
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God Bless