"The enemy of my enemy..."

A friend has just brought to my attention a screed written by a Lutheran pastor criticizing Lutheran colleagues who convert to Orthodoxy. What I found both striking and amusing about it is that most of his criticisms—indeed all of the major ones—are often directed against Catholicism from various quarters. Some of his criticisms of Orthodoxy apply with as much (better: as little) justice to Catholicism; the rest are often made by Orthodox themselves against Catholicism. Nifty.

I become more and more convinced that ecumenism, as the work of the Holy Spirit, proceeds more in spite of us than because of us. Lest I be discouraged, I remind myself that that's true of salvation in general.