Dear Ethel,<\/p>\n
How adolescent of you to stop believing in miracles.\u00a0 Just because you are entering the ranks of the world\u2019s great scientists (though I do hope you remember that you are entering at the LOWER ranks, ahem\u2026) doesn\u2019t mean you have to embrace their embarrassing foibles.\u00a0 It is unreasonable to abandon your faith in the Creator as you enter into a greater understanding of his creation.\u00a0 Would a Michelangelo fan\u2019s love for art decrease the more he learned about how the great artist produced his works?\u00a0 You need a quick refresher about what\u2019s really going on in the world.\u00a0 Today\u2019s saint can help.<\/p>\n
Ethelbert was granted a deep faith from a very young age.\u00a0 He showed how deep it was by the choices he made.\u00a0 By temperament and personal preference, he would have picked the religious life \u2013 he had a penchant for prayer and contemplation.\u00a0 But he was next in line to take over the scepter of East Anglia (in England) from his father, Ethelred.\u00a0 For the good of the Kingdom and for peace in the family, therefore, he ascended the throne.\u00a0 He was to rule, justly and energetically, for 44 years.\u00a0 (By the way, the secret to his political greatness was a truly Christian motto that would serve today\u2019s leaders well: the higher someone\u2019s station in life, the humbler he should be.)<\/p>\n
Also by temperament and personal preference, he would have liked to stay celibate.\u00a0 But this was clearly going to cause strife after his death, so he agreed to take a wife.\u00a0 Hearing of the exemplary virtue and faith of the Mercian Princess Alfrida, he went to visit her father\u2019s court and ask for her hand.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Alfrida\u2019s mother, Quendreda, drunk with ambition, had him murdered during his stay, hoping that his crown would be taken over by her husband.\u00a0 Thus ended a righteous rule \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t the end of the story.<\/p>\n
To cover up the murder, they buried his body in the woods, like a piece of trash.\u00a0 But a supernatural light soon shone around it, and the people discovered what had happened.\u00a0 They moved the body, eventually, into the Hereford Cathedral.\u00a0 During the move, his head actually became separated from the corpse, fell off the cart, bounced onto the ground and touched a pedestrian who had been blind for eleven years.\u00a0 The blind man was miraculously cured.\u00a0 Further miracles were reported at Ethelbert\u2019s Hereford tomb (and at Westminster Cathedral, where his head was enshrined).<\/p>\n
I think there\u2019s a connection here between these remarkable (and remarkably well-attested) miracles and Ethelbert\u2019s motto.\u00a0 Humility means, among other things, admitting that you\u2019re not God, which in turn opens up the possibility that God can intervene in wonderful and extraordinary ways in his universe.\u00a0 That\u2019s an important lesson \u2013 not just for great kings, but also for great scientists.<\/p>\n
Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Ethel, How adolescent of you to stop believing in miracles.\u00a0 Just because you are entering the ranks of the world\u2019s great scientists (though I do hope you remember that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n