Explore "The Promised Land" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Berlin, Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday in Lent), March 13, 1932.
In the year following his ordination on November 13, 1931, Bonhoeffer had to fulfill various pastoral assignments before he could apply for a parish of his own. A particular challenge was preparing young teenage boys for confirmation in a working-class Berlin neighborhood. The unruly class of more than forty boys was the despair of their pastor, but Bonhoeffer had experience as a youth leader in Harlem, New York, and soon won them over. He even moved temporarily to a room near their church so the boys could take turns visiting him. He also took them on retreats and hikes in the countryside and even in the mountains, where they otherwise would never have a chance to go. When Bonhoeffer preached this sermon to the boys on the Sunday of their confirmation, they were wearing new suits made from a bolt of cloth that he had bought to spare their unemployed families the expense.