St. John the Wonderworker continues to intercede efficaciously for the Healy household. Through his prayers, God provided me with needed income through a summer ethics class and full-time status where I work, worked all the myriad financial details and timing about our car, and got our tax refund to us in record time. Add to that one more answered prayer: we didn't have to pay a fine on the citation we got for the car accident because the other party didn't show. This was heavy on my mind this morning as I prayed my morning prayers and brought my particular petitions to God and his saints. For some reason I have been bringing my financial concerns to St. John to pray for, and God has heard and answered our prayers. Praise the Lord. (Oh, and Anna was in and out of traffic court in record time. I think St. John threw that in just for fun!)
I'm currently reading two massive biographies simultaneously: Eberhard Bethge's biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (over 900 pages of text), and Hieromonk Damascene's revised biography of Blessed Seraphim (over 1000 pages of text). The contrasts and similarities are striking. Both men were intellectually brilliant, yet left academia to serve God: Dietrich in the pastorate and in training underground pastors of the confessing church; Seraphim in the monastery and in regional mission work. Both men wrote important books that had profound impact on Christians worldwide. And both men's reputations suffered postmortem as fellow Christians struggled to bring divergent aspects of their lives and ministries into a single whole: Dietrich for his part in the plot to kill Hitler and his writings on religionless Christianity; Father Seraphim for what some critics called his "academic" approach to monasticism, as well as his writings on the soul after death. Both men had conversion experiences that so shaped them it called for a radical break with their lives in academia and some of their most important early convictions.
But the differences are just as striking. Dietrich wanted to understand Christianity in this-worldly terms: where is Christ here and now in our present godless society? Seraphim wanted to understand Christianity in otherworldly terms: how can one find Christ over against the cacophany of the blasphemy-shouting world? Dietrich wanted to find a way toward real and tangible unity among all the world Churches. Father Seraphim saw ecumenism as a dangerous distortion of ecclesiology. Dietrich wanted to bring traditional forms of worship (the daily office) into his modern Protestant setting. Seraphim wanted to find authentic traditional forms of worship and monasticism on their own terms.
One could go on. I have a penchant for these ponderous biographies of God's saints. There's just something about poring over the accounts of the grace of God working in men's lives, a handful of pages each day for months on end. Very, very satisfying.
On unrelated matters: my summer ethics course is done. Thank God. No more fourteen hour days. I've got a ton of grading to do, and still some loose ends to tie up from my classes this spring, but it's all downhill from here.
I found out I could register for two consecutive semesters of doctoral studies. This will keep me enrolled, give me a chance to work on my dissertation proposal, yet not add to the the number of seminar papers I need to do.
Speaking of papers, I have five, count 'em, five, incompletes to finish up in the next month. Yikes. And I came to a standstill on my thesis for Seabury. That needs to get back on the front burner. Got a lot of writing to do. So . . . I blog.
Go figure.
Posted by Clifton at July 30, 2004 12:02 PM | TrackBackWow.
See, now, this is another great post. I am in love with Brother Dietrich. I will have to put that same Biography on my Christmas list. I wonder if I can put it on the registry. Mmmm?
I have R.E. Lee's biography to read at some point.
Posted by: AngloBaptist at July 30, 2004 02:16 PM