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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St John Chrysostom
Dear Chris, I have only one word for you: courage. You need courage. It seems that the whole campus is against you as you strive to be faithful to Christ, and to your most noble goal of spreading his Kingdom. So you need to remember two things. First, the whole ...
St Ailbhe
Dear Al, I don’t have much time to write – today’s special work duty starts in a couple minutes, probably more nonsense work like breaking down boxes and putting them back together again; you’d think that here in the third millennium they’d be able to come up with some more ...
St John Gabriel Perboyre
Dear Percival, Saints grow like grapes, in bunches. Vocations are like that too. Don’t think that just because your two sisters and one of your brothers have heard God calling them to the consecrated like, he doesn’t have a plan for you too; he most certainly does. Actually, your family ...
St Nicholas of Tolentino
Dear Nick, It doesn’t shock me that you are so shocked. Did you really think that college culture was a bastion of holiness and virtue? Come now, even you can’t have been so naïve, though you come from such a healthy family and small-town parish. But I guess that’s irrelevant ...
St Melchiorre Grodziecki, St Stefan Pongracz, St Marek Krizevcanin, SJ, Martyrs of Kosice (Slovakia)
Dear Sally, I wouldn’t worry too much about the friction you’re having with some of the other Christian (and non-Catholic) groups on campus. You can work through that, I am sure, and make the most out of it. After all, when it comes to moral and cultural issues, non-Catholic Christians ...
Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Dear Bliss, I am glad you wrote me about your latest struggles. Being a convert to the Catholic faith has its own particular challenges, the one you mentioned is a common one. Don’t be ashamed of the reticence you feel at honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary. It’s understandable. It’s ...
St Bega
Dear Bee, You’re dead wrong. I’m sorry to be blunt, but it sounds like nobody else is giving you solid advice, so I am bound to do my duty. Your dating habits matter a lot. It is not indifferent what you do with the gift of your sexuality. If you ...
St Bertinus
Dear Bertha, Your enthusiasm is contagious. I just read your most recent note, and I was delighted to see how conscientiously and energetically you are beginning your college career. You’ve chosen your classes carefully, signed up for the right amount of extracurriculars, made yourself a demanding but flexible weekly schedule, ...
St Ida of Herzfeld
Dear Herbie, I can almost see you licking your lips as you look through the folders of job opportunities at the campus Career Planning and Placement Center. Living your senior year as God would have you is less a priority, or so it seems from your notes, then getting a ...
St Gregory the Great
Dear Greg, I commend you on your Chapter Plan. It’s realistic, incisive, focused, and healthily ambitious. If every college had a Compass Chapter with such vision and determination, that country would turn around in just a few years. But as you launch into your conquest of college culture this ...
St William of Roskilde
Dear Bill, It’s no mystery, my precocious nephew. You’re always stressed out because you have tunnel vision. You’re always thinking of yourself and your projects and your likes and your problems, to the exclusion of the bigger picture. This is immaturity, pure and simple. Forgive me for being so blunt, ...
St Giles
Dear Jill, Well, there’s no use complaining. You hurt your knee, you had the operation, and now you’ve got to recuperate. It’s going to take time. It will be painful, probably. And most likely you’ll miss the whole volleyball season. Those are the facts, my dear niece, and there’s no ...
