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 Joachim and St Anne
Dear Jack, One of the things that comforts me most in this prison of a cubicle is days like today, when we celebrate the memory of obscure saints. Maybe it’s because I am in an obscure position and would nevertheless like to become a saint. Maybe. But I think there’s ...
St James the Greater
Dear Jim, So the little urchins are getting on your nerves, eh? Then now is the perfect time to be like Christ. Your role as a camp counselor is to help those campers mature, grow, and become better human beings. And since it’s a Catholic camp, that includes helping them ...
St Kinga
Dear Connie, I am sorry to hear that you feel so alone among the aristocrats. It is a heavy cross to have to spend a summer, which should be a time of enthusiasm, in an atmosphere so stultifying. But may I make a suggestion? Just because you haven’t met any ...
St Phocas the Gardener
Dear Phil, I’m afraid I can’t take enough time to write you a proper email on your birthday today – I have just been notified that some special interrogations will be required of me… I only have a few minutes. (I’m actually looking forward to this session of questions – ...
St Mary Magdalene
Dear Madge, I think your dilemma may be less thorny than you suspect, for two reasons. First, even though your foresight is commendable, there’s no reason you have to make a final decision on career/vocation right now. Junior year went well, you’re looking forward to a productive senior year and ...
St Arbogast
Dear Stacy, Ah, you have touched on one of the great mysteries of the spiritual life. What to your mind (and my mind as well) appears to be a contradiction is in fact nothing of the sort. It’s just that our limited intelligence, so dependent on our even more limited ...
St Joseph Barsabas
Dear Seth, I knew this would happen. I told you from the start that this summer theological seminar looked suspicious (its location clued me in; why go to the Bahamas to do theology?). I won’t say “I told you so”, but I will say that I’m grateful you wrote to ...
St Macrina the Younger
Dear Yo, It’s nice to know that you are becoming an expert in modern Catholic literature. What pleases me most about this new passion of yours is its ability to keep you from wasting time. (I am convinced that this is one of the greatest sins of your generation; in ...
St Frederick of Utrecht
Dear Rick, Part of me feels sorry for you, but part of me doesn’t. C’mon, did you really expect your vacation Bible School to achieve perfection in its first year of existence? If you did, you were inexcusably naïve. If you didn’t, then what are you worried about? Maybe you’re ...
The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne
Dear Penny, Having news of you has truly warmed my heart. I have been praying for you in a special way, hoping that your first weeks in consecrated life would prove joyful and fruitful, in spite of your family’s opposition to your departure (don’t worry, I’m keeping them in my ...
St Fulrad of St Denis
Dear Rod, I’m glad to hear that your first foray into politics is “dizzyingly exciting and immensely promising”. I have been telling you and your cousins for years that one of the most courageous and charitable decisions a young Catholic can make these days is to go into politics, committed ...
St Bonaventure
Dear Vinnie, I won’t say your political ambitions are intrinsically unhealthy, but I will say that they are dangerous. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad to the tenth degree that you are having the “time of your life” interning for an up-and-coming senator there on Capitol Hill. And I ...
