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 Laurence O’Toole
Dear Larry, Do I detect an air of surprise in your last note? But why are you surprised? Are you the first to be spoken badly of by the very people you are trying to help? Hardly. If they are trying to brand you “arch conservative” and “homophobic” and “misogynist” and “hypocritical” simply because you are doing what you can to get the Church’s teaching aired in that relativism-infested atmosphere on campus, that’s par for the course. “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you on my account…” (Matthew 5:11), ...
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Our Lady of the Rosary
Dear Rose, You are not the first of my nieces to be struggling hard at the start of this year. It seems as if efforts for evangelization are being thwarted left and right. Never fear, in the end, you will be victorious. And that victory will come sooner if you ...
St Faith and Companions
Dear Phyllis, I am glad you took the time to write. Nothing pleases the devil more than Christians who try to struggle all alone. I wish I was there with you so we could talk over your difficulties in person, but email is better than nothing, I guess. To ...
St Faustina Kowalska
Dear Faustus, Would you mind my telling you what I really think about your last note? I think you’re falling for a big, fat, juicy worm on the devil’s jagged hook. A mere month into your sophomore year, with the profound missionary experience from last summer already losing its resonance ...
St Francis of Assisi
Dear Frank, It’s nice to hear that things are going well for you. But I detected a worrying tone in your last note. It has to do with your comments about the interviews you’ve been having with potential employers. It seems you are comparing them superficially, looking at the amount ...
Bl Columba Marmion
Dear Collin, Not having heard from you in a while, I can’t help wondering how your transition to college life is going. Let me guess. You are amazed at the freedom, overwhelmed by the beautiful coeds (that’s what you get for spending the last four years at a boys prep ...
Feast of the Guardian Angels
Dear Dan, Your problem sets are going to your head. Too much science, my dear nephew, is not always a good thing. Remember, before being a scientist, you are a Christian, and before being a Christian, you are a human being. Human beings need BALANCE in their lives, and Christians ...
St Theresa of the Child Jesus
Dear Theodore, You have caught the biggest spiritual malaise of today’s world: wimpiness. But that’s OK. It’s like chicken pox; once you get it and get over it, you can’t get it again, and you can then tend the poor souls who do get it. So you’ve got it. So ...
St Jerome
Dear Jolene, Your last note brings little comfort to your imprisoned uncle. Your study of theology ought to deepen your knowledge of the Bible, not poison it. If you professors are treating the Bible just like any other book, as you say they are, they are doing wrong. The Bible ...
St Michael, St Gabriel, St Raphael
Dear Angelo, I empathize with you. It is indeed maddening when someone like your roommate, so intelligent and well-balanced, simply can’t see the clear light of reason when it comes to religious issues. It’s rather mysterious, in fact. It seems like such a contradiction. Is it so difficult to look ...
St Luigi Versiglia
Dear Lu, If you waffle, you lose. Happiness, I mean. Waffling in your commitments enervates the soul. It drains the spiritual vigor you need to experience the happiness God intends for you. If you stay faithful, on the other hand – to your commitments, to your relationships, to your duties ...
St Vincent de Paul
Dear Paolo, You have begun to live. Until now you have inhabited a false world, but those recent events have brought you into the real world. Yes, my sad nephew, the real world involves suffering. The betrayal of friends, the loss of a good reputation, the hardships of injustice – ...
St Marie Victoire Therese Courderc
Dear Mary, You are looking in the wrong place for peace of mind. You can’t design it yourself, like you can design your own major. Your heart is too big for that. Only God can satisfy you, only his design for your life will give you the peace you thirst ...
