Dear Bart, Never get too comfortable. You are a baptized Christian, a confirmed member of the Catholic Church, armed to do constant battle on behalf of the Church militant until our Lord calls you to receive your reward.  Taking only 12 credits this trimester so you can have more time to sunbathe is hardly worthy of you (besides being a waste of tuition money). Following the comfortable route has led greater souls than you down treacherous paths.  Learn from the martyrdom of St Bademus, today’s saint. Another victim of the brutal persecution under King Sapor II of Persia, this saint died at the hands of a fellow Christian. He and his monks were apprehended for their refusal to worship the King Sapor’s patron, the sun god (especially popular in springtime).  So they were condemned to daily beatings, loaded with chains, and hurled into dungeons (dungeons, mind you, not sanitary prisons regularly inspected by the Department of Health and Human Services). Another Christian (Nersan was his name), who was actually a member of Sapor’s court, was apprehended at the same time and commanded to worship the sun.  At first, he held fast for Christ, but when he saw the miserable dungeons and painful torture that lay ahead of him, he gave in. The King wanted to make sure he wasn’t just faking, so he told him to kill St Bademus as a sign of his true adherence to the sun god, after which he would be reinstated in the court. Nersan agreed. (Ugh.) At the last second, as Nersan raised the sword above the saint’s head, Bademus tried to shake him out of his comfort zone by saying, “Nersan!  To what depths of wickedness you must have sunk when you cannot only deny God but can also kill his servants. Willingly do I give myself to be a martyr for Christ, but I could have wished that it might have been by some other hand than yours!” To no avail. The thought of that uncomfortable robe of chains and smelly dungeon prevailed, and an apostate axed a martyr. So, I repeat, never settle into your comfort zone; keep pushing yourself now, so someone else doesn’t push you later on.  God bless. Uncle Eddy.

Dear Willie, There is no rule that says every family has to have a “black sheep.”  Just because your sister is a nun, your brother is studying for the priesthood, and your dad is the most popular deacon in the diocese doesn’t mean that you have to be mediocre.  Of course, your path in life will be unique (everyone’s is, even if they appear identical from the outside), because your mission in life is unique. But if you keep hiding in the shadow of your saintly siblings, you won’t even get on the path to begin with.  Consider St Waldetrudis’s family. They were from Mons, Belgium (you know, not too far from the English Channel – on the continental side, of course). Her parents were St Walbert and St Bertilia, her sister was St Aldegundis, her husband was St Vincent Madelgar, and her four children were Sts. Landericus, Dentelinus, Aldertrudis, and Madelberta.  (Great names, eh?) So don’t get any wrong ideas, OK? Families are meant to be schools of love; they have long been called “domestic churches.” Yours is a good one (although why your folks let you attend that pagan institution of “higher learning” I’ll never understand) and you can make it better. Remember, don’t envy the good in others, emulate it.  And if God calls you to have a family of your own, make sure they all become saints too. Only saints have real fun… I’ve got to go. They’re coming for another interrogation session – as if I had anything to tell them! Count on prayers. Uncle Eddy.