Friday, January 6, 2023

Bonhoeffer’s final Christmas letter to fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer, December 19, 1944

Written while held in a Nazi concentration camp:

I have had the experience over and over again that the quieter it is around me, the clearer do I feel the connection to you.  It is as though in solitude the soul develops senses which we hardly know in everyday life.  Therefore I have not felt lonely or abandoned for one moment.  You, the parents, all of you, the friends and students of mine at the front, all are constantly present to me . . . Therefore you must not think me unhappy.  What is happiness and unhappiness?  It depends so little on the circumstances; it depends really only on that which happens inside a person. 


From God is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, Dietrich Bonhoeffer