Pray for One Another

This is an excerpt from "Life Together". This is the best book I have read on "being the church" a common phrase in the simple church movement of today. It was written over 70 years ago by the Lutheran priest Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

"A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me... This is a happy discovery for the Christian who begins to pray for others. There is no dislike, no personal tension, no estrangement that cannot be overcome by intercession as far as our side is concerned...
Intercession means no more than to bring our brother into the presence of God, to see him under the Cross of Jesus as a poor human being and sinner in need of grace. Then everything in him that repels us falls away; we see him in all his destitution and need. His need and his sin become so heavy and oppresive that we feel them as our own, and we can do nothing else but pray...To make intercession means to grant our brother the same right that we have received, namely, to stand before Christ and share in his mercy.
He who denies his neighbor the service of praying for him denies him the service of a christian...we can no longer escape the realization that the ministry of intercession requires time of every Christian, but most of all the pastor...For the pastor it is an indispensable duty and his whole ministry will depend on it. Who can really be faithful in great things if he has not learned to be faithful in the things of daily life?"