So, my birthday is coming up on February 18th and I asked my parents if they would buy me the "Popular Patristics" library set from St. Vladimir's Press for $525.00 and--in the words of Ralphie--they looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears and laughed at me. They said that the most I am going to get for my birthday is $300--and that's the combined gift from both them, my siblings, grandparents and cutting out any plans to eat out. I'm still $200 short. Now, I could easily take the $200 from my secret laptop fund stash of $600--but I don't want to do that. I need a way to make $200 fast by February 18th. Any advice?
Should I tell everyone at Church and all my friends that my birthday is coming up--in hopes that they'll give me money, search the attic for any old valuable piece of junk that I could sell on craigslist, swallow my pride and take it from my laptop fund, rob a bank or something different altogether? Some advice would be helpful.
Dear to Christ James:
When I was around your age, I got a part-time (evenings) job dishwashing; Is part-time work of this sort an option for you?
Otherwise: I don't know how devoted a reader you are, but that does seem a rather formidable collection to obtain all at once.
I would consider purchasing a few of the more 'essential' works from the series (say, somewhere between 5 and 10) and spending some time reading and digesting them, and also discussing them with your priest and others in the church community and purchasing others only after you have exhausted these. Sometimes, as they say, a little goes a long way.
When I was first received in the Church in my mid-late 20's, the advice that I was given by a wiser old priest-monk, was to initially focus my readings- outside of the Gospel- primarily on the lives of saints, in order that the Church's theology not seem too abstract by also showing what theology looks like incarnate. So I also pass this advice on to you.
A decent collection of Gospel homilies, focused on the readings within the Church's liturgical cycle I have also found helpful and would recommend in addition to the aforementioned suggestions.
Here are a couple of ideas:
http://www.churchofthenativity.net/publications/the-gospel-commentary/and:http://www.thaborian.com/bookstore_090721_1.htmlAlso if there is a seminary or college/ university library in your area, you may be surprised at the resources available to you through them (if not within their collection, then through inter-library loan), so that you needn't spend so much money on books.
