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A Life in Full
November 27, 2024
One of the commemorative pieces on Chauncey Stillman that I perused in collecting information on him was subtitled “Remembrances of a Life in Full.” This resonated with me as thematic for our issue, and very personally for my own life, as well. Our issue opens the liturgical season of Advent and our new year for the Church. The themes of Advent lead me to think of the life, and to the full, that Christ has promised to us. Our Advent Season leads us to the coming to fruition of His plans for that life, as He enters into our own life, born that sin may die, born to bring new life. The personal element that strikes me along with this theme is that Chauncey Stillman was the contributor of the scholarship funds that made possible my attendance at Portsmouth Abbey School, class of 1977. I was able to speak with him by phone in the late 1980’s, not long before his death in 1989, intending to thank him. The call did not go well. He did not approve of my studies in Leuven, Belgium, which he considered heterodox in its theological orientation. I tried to justify my interests, but he was having none of it. My hope is, despite all that, that my gratitude was expressed and understood. I would be happy to make the call again, and to only add that since that time, the bulk of my career, my “life in full” to this point, has largely been occupied with my engagement in the community here at Portsmouth Abbey, a community that has shaped my own faith, my own conversion story, and a relationship he was fundamental in making possible. It was an advent I have recognized only in retrospect, but with growing gratitude.Pax,
Blake Billings, ‘77
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About
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Blake Billings '77, Ph.D. is a graduate and current faculty member of Portsmouth Abbey School. He received his undergraduate education at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, then joining the Jesuit Volunteer Corps to assist in an inner-city parish in Oakland, California. From Oakland, he went to Leuven, Belgium, receiving degrees in theology and philosophy. He returned to the Abbey in 1987, teaching for three years before getting married and returning to Leuven to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy, which he was awarded in 1995. Having taught in higher education at various schools, including St. John's University, Fairfield University, and Sacred Heart University, he decided his calling was at the secondary level, gratefully returning to Portsmouth in 1996, where he has resided ever since. He became an oblate of the Portsmouth community ten years ago. His four children were all raised on campus and graduated from the school, the youngest in 2020.
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