Introduction
Resilience is necessary in the field of ministerial work within any tradition
Resilience is a quality that is necessary for person to encounter the stresses and obstacles in the field of ministry. The humans are in a desperate search for gaining balance in physical, spiritual, mental, and social dimensions thus trying to learn the difference between the good and the bad. In religious terms, humans’ need for resilience is crucial, as it empowers a person with the patience and power to resist the stresses of the ministry. In that regard, Here, if you need me by Kate Braestrup reveals the author’s difficult experience in the minister after becoming an accidental chaplain. Her own prominent story embraces the lessons that teach people how to behave and be responsible for your deeds.
Stresses and adversities that necessary to overcome
The memoir what stresses and adversities is necessary to overcome in the field of ministry. Kate’s decision to become a minister was a “pretty plain and practical calling: I needed to do something” (Braestrup2007:51). This new job was also a calling to her grief of losing her beloved husband, the method to gain some sense in a life. After his husband death, she decided to pursue his dream to become a Unitarian minister thus starting working in the Maine Game Warden Service. While working there, Kate had to encounter very difficult rescue operations and the governmental search. The main adversity she had to give hope to people thus having no desire to live without her husband. Gradually, the author acknowledges that this work is rather rewarding, as it bring comfort and clarity in life; Baestrup realized that it is important to cope with stresses, especially when working with other people. Despite the fact that the memoir reveals a discouraging image of the Christian ministry, such as financial difficulties, the author’s tragedy transformed into desire to show to other people that should not surrender. Kate first inadequately accepted working with game wardens. Further, this job taught her that life is more important when you help at to someone and God decides what is important or not.
Resilience is the only way to encounter the difficulties in life
It should also stressed, that the hardships that Kate had to overcome in her life was a kind of testament of her husband. Her resilience helped to find the right way in her new life; it was the necessary step for her that serves as king of salvation from eternal sufferings.
Relying on this, The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day is also the narration about reassessment of the moral values in life that she dedicated to the good. This is also the testament to the resilience and humility as the main cardinal virtues. In her book, she disclosed the major problem in the church, and the role of religion for those who lost the hope and for those who cannot find it. In her pilgrimage to the universal truth, she gives a primary importance to the tradition that helps to understand the reasons of why people has to take burden of pain: “Tradition! We scarcely know the word any more. We are afraid to be either proud of our ancestors or ashamed of them We scorn nobility in name and in fact…These are attitudes the Irish, the Italian, the Lithuanian, the Slovak and all races begin to acquire in school” (Day 1996:16). The author’s statement explains why resilience is so important in the field of ministry irrespective of traditions.
The same verities are embraces in Bonhoeffer’s memoirs disclosing his courage and bravery in the fight for the civil rights and liberation theory. His brilliance and aspiration greatly influenced the Church and the ministry in the twentieth century. The book also proves the necessity of introducing the resilience as the honorable ground for people to train the good irrespective the evil that surrounds you. In particular, the book reveals the author’s attitude to Nazi as the main evil during the war. “Our crucial aspect of the struggle of the Confessing Church with the Reich Church and Nazi theologians was over the correct interpretation of Scripture…” (Bonhoeffer 1995:100). The Bonhoeffer perception of racial discrimination did not allowed him to condemn God’s will, as his strong belief was that God’ love that addresses the weak and the poor masses struggling with the evil. This understanding help the author to preserve the faith the salvation will grant him resurrection.
Ways to develop resilience to surpass the strains of the ministry
Getting back to Braestrup’s memoirs, the problem raised in the book shows that resilience opens the way to a new life full of sense and inspiration; it, thus, became the goal of Kate’s life, as it helped to remain human. Her memoirs are the way for people to abandon his fears and open their hearts to God and to religion. Her story shows that the power of love and devotedness could help to accept the death. When comforting people, who also experienced the losses, she gradually gained in-depth understanding that death is a compartment of the existence; it is something that must be accepted and religion serves as the method to remember those who died, it is a hope that makes people believe that death is a part of life.
Reference List
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. 1995, A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. HarperOne, US.
Braestrup, Kate 2007, Here, if you need me. Little, Brown and Company, US.
Day, Dorothy. 1996. The Long Lonliness: The Authobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist. HarperOne, US.