Free Letters and Papers From Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Page A

the lovely lines ‘Thou art a Spirit of joy’ and ‘Grant us joyfulness and strength’, and besides that, the words ‘If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small’ (Prov.24), and ‘God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control’ (II Tim. 1). I have also been considering again the strange story of the gift of tongues. That the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, as a result of which people can no longer understand each other, because everyone speaks a different language, should at last be brought to an end and overcome by the language of God, which everyone understands and through which alone people can understand each other again, and that the church should be the place where that happens - these are great momentous thoughts. Leibniz grappled all his life with the idea of a universal script consisting, not of words, but of self-evident signs representing every possible idea. It was an expression of his wish to heal the world, which was then so torn to pieces, a philosophical reflection on the Pentecost story.
    Once again all is silent here; one hears nothing but the tramp of the prisoners pacing up and down in their cells. How many comfortless and un-Whitsun-like thoughts there must be in their minds! If I were prison chaplain here, I should spend the whole time from morning till night on days like this, going through the cells; a good deal would happen.
    Once again, many thanks for the letters from you, Karl-Friedrich and Ursel. You’re all waiting, just as I am, and I must admit that in some part or other of my subconscious mind I hadbeen hoping to be out of here by Whitsuntide, although I’m always deliberately telling myself not to envisage any particular date. It will be ten weeks tomorrow; as mere laymen we did not imagine that ‘temporary’ confinement would amount to this. But after all, it is a mistake to be as unsuspecting in legal matters as I am; it brings home to one what a different atmosphere the lawyer must live in from the theologian; but that is instructive too, and everything has its proper place. All we can do is to wait as patiently as may be, without getting bitter, and to trust that everyone is doing his best to clear things up as quickly as possible. Fritz Reuter puts it very well: ‘No one’s life flows on such an even course that it does not sometimes come up against a dam and whirl round and round, or that people never throw stones into the clear water. Something happens to everyone, and he must take care that the water stays clear, and that heaven and earth are reflected in it’ - when you’ve said that, you’ve really said everything.
    It was really an enormous delight that you were both below here the day before yesterday to deliver the Whitsun parcel. It’s remarkable how knowing that you were near once again brought everything very close, home and all your life. Sometimes it seems so unreal and distant. Thank you very much, and also for the parcel, which again was extremely welcome. I was particularly pleased with the yellow food; it keeps so well.
    Again I’ve had a marvellous letter from Maria. The poor girl has to keep on writing without getting a direct response from me. That must be hard, but I delight in every word about her and every small detail interests me because it makes it easier to share in what she is doing. I’m so grateful to her. In my bolder dreams I sometimes picture our future home. My study on ‘The feeling of time’ is practically finished; now I’m going to let it lie for a while and see what it looks like later.
    It’s Whit Monday, and I was just sitting down to a dinner of turnips and potatoes when your parcel that Renate brought as a Whitsuntide present arrived quite unexpectedly. I really cannot tell you what happiness such things give one. However certain I am of the spiritual bond between all of you and myself, the spirit always seems to want some visible token of this union