Life Together, Life Alone-Part 2

"Without the burden and labor of the day, prayer is not prayer; and without prayer, work is not work. . . . The unity of prayer and work, the unity of the day, is found because finding the You of God behind the It of the day's work is what Paul means by his admonition to 'pray without ceasing.' . . . Thus every word, every deed, every piece of work of the Christian becomes a prayer, not in the unreal sense of being constantly distracted from the task that must be done, but in the real breakthorough from the hard It to the gracious You."--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

This is a deeply monastic insight on Bonhoeffer's part. It recalls Brother Lawrence's "practicing the presence of God." Bonhoeffer was concerned that prayer, whether alone or together, bring one into reality and not away from it. Reality is in Christ, while unreality is that of our own narcisstic experience. This insight also shows the influence of Martin Buber's I and Thou. Work by its hardness creates a world where people and their actions are robbed of relationship, while prayer draws us into a personal relationship with God, including as he is experienced in the actions of daily vocation.

The tests of daily life reveal whether our prayers have been true or mere illusions of our own making. One reason he encouraged the discipline of confession of one's sins to another mature Christian was to test if our confessions were truly to God or simply to ourselves--we can most easily forgive ourselves. The same is true for intecessory prayer--we uphold another in Christ and not in ourselves. Such prayer is the opposite of our self-comfort and emotional indulgence.

Bonhoeffer very sensibly warns that every instance of Christian community will be tested by natural rivalries. We are always dividing ourselves and comparing ourselves to others: "No sooner are people together than they begin to observe, judge, and classify each other. Thus, even as Christian community is in the process of being formed, an invisible, often unknown, yet terrible life-and-death struggle commences" (93). The hallmark of Christian community should be service, service which takes us out of ourselves in order to serve another.