SAINT OF THE DAY
WITH UNCLE EDDY
Navigating today’s world is tough and all of us could use a nudge in the right direction. Figuring out the right path to take at work, college, or in social situations is not always easy. Looking to the lives of the saints can give us the insights we need.
Written by Fr. John Bartunek, LC, Uncle Eddy’s Saint of the Day is a fictional series of letters written by a man who has been imprisoned for the Catholic Faith. Using the saints of the day as examples, Uncle Eddy pens a daily letter with spiritual advice to his many nieces and nephews.
St Albert the Great
Dear Alice, I do so hope you are able to take a break from your grueling work in the lab and get a chance to read this before midnight; today is the feast day of your patron saint, my dear niece, and you ought to do something special in his honor. Don’t be confused; I know that you are not named after Albert the Great, but do you know that he is patron of all students of the natural sciences? And since your biochemistry fetish still qualifies as a natural science, he is your patron. There you have it. I ...
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St Agostina Pietrantoni
Dear Maggy, I know the weight of your studies is hard to bear; I know your schedule is overloaded; I know you want to pray more but can’t seem to find the time. So in the first place, stop worrying. God is already extremely pleased with your good desires, which ...
St Josaphat
Dear Joseph, Persecution comes in many forms. The difficulties you described in your last note, in my opinion, are a type of persecution. So the question becomes, how will you respond to them? As a leadership team member, your Compass chapter, though not extremely large, is depending on you. In ...
St Martin of Tours
Dear Terry, I am duly impressed by the quantity of your good works. Getting your fellow Compass members to take shifts at the rest home and the orphanage and the hospital and the shelter and the food bank and the soup kitchen is quite an accomplishment. I know chapters that ...
St Leo the Great
Dear Lisa, Letting “cafeteria” Catholics enrage you is almost as destructive as becoming one yourself. The devil loves division, and when faithful Catholics like yourself start angrily confronting less conscientious Catholics, it almost always increases division rather than healing it. So what to do? Be simple. Stay in synch with ...
The Dedication of the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior
Dear Jack, Some day, I am sure, you will have a chance to go to Rome. And when you do, you will have the further chance of visiting the mother of all churches, the Basilica of St John Lateran, Cathedral of Rome. Today the entire Catholic world recalls the dedication ...
St Willihad
Dear Willy, I know, of course, that you are “only doing your duty” by spending time sending cover letters and résumés to the “top 121” management consulting firms. Certainly it would be presumptuous for you not to look for a job – senior year won’t last for ever. But I ...
St Engelbert of Cologne
Dear Giselle, I wish I could describe how sad your last note made me. But in all honesty, it’s nothing compared with how MAD it made me. It’s a good thing I’m locked up here, or I might find myself doing regrettable things to your persecutors. Your patience and courage ...
St Leonard of Noblac
Dear Lenny, I have to be selfish today, and ask you to make a special visit to the chapel to implore today’s saint’s intercession on my behalf. He is patron saints of prisoners and POWs, and I consider myself both, although the “war” in which I was (and still am) ...
St Elizabeth and St Zachary
Dear Zach, I’m glad you’re having such a good year on the gridiron. You can’t imagine how much I would love to see you play. Unfortunately, college football isn’t such a priority for the guards here. I’ll have to depend on your highlights to keep me posted. One little avuncular ...
St Charles Borromeo
Dear Chuck, Be humble: you have been gifted with extraordinary intellectual and social talents and opportunities. Accept it, and make good use of them. The Church is hoping you will. But watch out for the trap that so many like you have fallen into: the illusion of self-sufficiency. Super talented ...
St Guinevere
Dear Ginny, You said in your last note that “It’s getting harder and harder to do what I know I ought to do as a Christian; I’m worn out with being good.” Hmmm… My dearest of nieces, I am immensely grateful that you told me that. Hidden in those simple, ...
All Souls’ Day
Dear Sally, I write filled with an odd kind of dreariness today. I’ve been so long in prison that I thought I had lost the capacity to feel dreary, or at least to distinguish the feeling – when you live in darkness, you get to thinking that darkness isn’t dark ...
