December 10, 2024 | By Gavin Susantio YDS ‘25

Much like chado, moving from one city on the equator to another city in the northeast takes many considerations and is quite the work. Going from living in one place without seasons—to another with many seasons—is living life by a completely different calendar. This idea of entering multiple calendars is seen as a given in one’s spiritual life. St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest theologians in Western history, maintains that there are two cities: the City of Man and the City of God. [2] Accordingly, both cities function under different calendars that involve distinctive seasons that color the world and guide our day-to-day life. Just as we have natural seasons, Christians have liturgical seasons.

December 10, 2024 | By David Woods TD ‘27

And, after a while, I began to wonder if these feelings were real, if God had truly made Himself known to me in a way that was undeniable, or if I was simply juxtaposing figments of my past with my time at Yale. That is, in much the same manner that I wasn’t fooled by the turf on Old Campus or the country music on Broadway, I began to wonder if I was fooling myself with God, if I was artificially making reasons to believe to augment some gilded sense of reassurance and connection with the ubiquity of religion in my rural upbringings and the longing I felt for some air of familiarity (psychologists might call this a confirmation bias). But, the more I dove into scripture, the more uncertain I became about the presence of God, specifically why He chooses to remain hidden from the masses in a way that leads to ambiguity over His existence.