Northwoods Seelsorger

Some books simply pull you in and won't let you go until you finish.  This was one of those books. In The Abbey and Me   J. Patrick Rick (2011) shares a facinating story of a building and its history that can almost be described as simply tragic. At the heart of the story is the account of the takeover of the Alexian Brother's Novitia te in 1975.  However, beginning with the original construction of Jennie Peter's estate, begun in 1938 and finished in 1941 (built originally for her disabled daughter who died before construction was completed), Rick works though the years of the Peters family, through the brief history of the novitiate (1950-1968), during which the author was a novice himself for a short time, then into the takeover of the novitiate in 1975 by the Menominee Warrior Society, finishing with the history of the property to the present, which now only claims a gutted and aging edifice in a section of overgrown forest.  While reading the book I visited ...

Although I mentioned this in the previous post, I thought that I would single it out here as well.  Many people by now have both heard of and read the popular young adult fiction The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  Many more have also watched the movie.  John Green certainly did not write his book to promote a Christian or even a religious response to suffering and death, although he allows his characters to struggle with these in both religious and secular ways.  In an interview back in July with Issues, Etc. host Todd Wilken, I attempted to offer some theological assessment of Green's book.  Go here to find the archived interview, "The Will of God and 'The Fault in Our Stars'".

I took a break from this blog last year.  It impressed me that some people would actually enjoy and use what I wrote. It further surprised me that people stilll look at or read parts of this blog yet today, based on the "traffic report" I still receive from time to time. I created NS especially as an opportunity to write, since that is one of my passions and hobbies.  It was also a place to leave semi-archived information I might later need for reference. Since I last posted in September of 2013, a few things have occured in the Seelsorger's life: I received, deliberated and turned down a call to a larger parish to the west around November to serve as the senior/administrative pastor.  It was a congregation of over 1,000 with a school, a ministry I had known from my previous call in Michigan.  Amazingly (at least to me!) this was the only real call I had received in 13 years.  Fewer congregations are probably extending calls these days, due in part, I suspec...