… though ! Over the weekend his coat got caught in a taxi door in the Chicago area and he was dragged a bit suffering a skull fracture. (I’m sure he’s wondered since then if coats should be made of such strong stuff!) He’s critical-but-stable in a Lutheran hospital’s surgical ICU.
His fiction as well as nonfiction have helped me learn about my Irish and Catholic background(s) in ways my working-class status couldn’t otherwise afford — no bagpipes or jigging growing up no trips to The Old Country…. If anyone stood a chance of keeping me in the Catholic Church it would’ve been he. As I was returning to it in ‘98 after 7 years among the Quakers and Mennonites. I asked him in an email. “What if I don’t agree with everything the Pope says?” He responded. “Who does?”
Intriguingly in recent years the religious resurrection of formerly-Communist Eastern Europe and formed the backdrop of at least two of his novels —
which latter — meditatively — before the Nativity According to the Flesh of Our Lord. God and Savior Jesus Christ especially if you’re American. Irish and/or of Catholic background! Fr. Greeley’s information about Orthodoxy isn’t perfect but passable.
is not a murder mystery but one of the blossoming romance between a Chicagoan Irish Catholic college Russian Studies major and an artist and art history major from Russia a mystical young lady raised there without religion in the final years of Communist rule who embraced Orthodoxy as a teen ie just a few years prior. I imagine she’s a stand-in for her entire country / church though sadly an American Russian Studies major certainly isn’t for our country yet. Atypically for Greeley although the girl is “luminous,” the boy is not described as great-looking which he pointed out to me when I chided him once for making most of his good characters good-looking and his evil characters ugly. Also this novel contains almost no sexual material — just one mild and as always sincere, grope above the waistline. IIRC as well as evocative allusions to an alleged tradition of “Christmas love,” around which the novel turns. No violence but some US Irish Catholic family holiday conflict; as one character complains. “It’s too bad Christ had to be born at
IMHO a true Western-style spiritual classic though of a lay not clerical / Religious orientation … and an acceptable little dip into Russian / Orthodox faith too. The pair even visit a traveling exhibit of Alaskan and Siberian Orthodox artifacts complete with references to Saints Herman and Innocent of Alaska serenaded by a recording of the St. Vladimir’s Seminary choir: I believe is the coffee-table book based on the actual exhibition put together for the 200th anniversary of the 1794 Valaam Monastery (Russia) mission to Native Alaska that formally brought Orthodoxy to the Americas to stay.
(a Blackie Ryan mystery) my most memorable line comes from Bishop Blackie’s boss. Sean Cardinal Cronin of Chicago after attending the monk’s lengthy funeral liturgy (probably
O Holy Father heavenly Physician of our souls and bodies. Who hast sent Thine only-begotten Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ to heal all our ailments and deliver us from death do Thou visit and heal Thy servant. Father Andrew granting him release from pain and restoration to health and vigor that he may give thanks unto Thee and bless Thy holy Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. (From the service of the Orthodox Mystery of Anointing.)
I am not a priest monk or spiritual father. These postings are not intended to be your only source on Orthodoxy. You might want to consult a priest or spiritual father/mother about what you read here. Posts are also subject to my own progress in the Truth. God willing! Also you might find it interesting to read the blog from the very beginning since some of my posts are part of a continuing discussion around some things that have been very important to me at least in coming to Orthodoxy. Finally sometimes Comments lead to interesting 'tangents,' so you might want to check them out even if the main topic doesn't interest you. Hence the blog has some 'organic' or 'nonlinear' qualities you might want to be on the lookout for! And of course. I don't necessarily endorse everything on sites I link to nor in Comments I allow to stay here.
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Related article:
http://eorthodox.wordpress.com/2008/11/13/praying-for-fr-andrew-greeley/
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