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. Kateri Tekakwitha
Dear Kate, Sometimes I get so frustrated, being this far away from you and your cousins. How I wish I could be there with you, encouraging you, guiding you, teaching you the way of holiness! But God has decided I can be of more use here in this inhumanly drab ...
St Clelia Barbieri
Dear Barbie, Just one month until you begin a whole new chapter of your life. Right now the pages are blank; soon you will begin filling them with the tale of your college career. What will it tell? I hope it relates the story of a girl on fire with ...
St John Gualbert
Dear Al, I can’t tell you how delighted I was to receive your latest email. I was a little bit worried that working all summer for the Department of Forestry might prove a little wearisome, a little boring for you, considering your penchant for mental activity. I am glad that ...
St Benedict
Dear Ben, Your namesake would not be happy with you. Just because it’s “natural” to feel certain urges doesn’t mean it’s healthy to follow them. Please pause for a minute and think about it. Every sin begins with some kind of an urge – for pleasure, for recognition, for comfort, ...
St Rufina and Secunda
Dear Connie, You won’t believe this, maybe, but it’s true nonetheless: your sufferings make me suffer even more than yourself. I know that your fidelity is costing you a lot right now. Abandonment by those you love is perhaps the worst thing we can suffer in this life – as ...
St Pauline of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus
Dear Cora, It seems so long ago that you were on the fellowship in Europe and rediscovered Christ’s love, its power and its tenderness. I know. But it wasn’t that long ago, and you mustn’t forget it! God has given you a heavy cross: a family that doesn’t encourage your ...
The Martyrs of Shanxi
Dear Marty, Discerning your vocation is not a question of mapping out your entire life. That’s what the devil wants you to think it’s about. No one can map out their entire life, nor should we try (this would be to give in to the age-old temptation to “be like ...
St Maolruain
Dear Mary, You know that I don’t like to be harsh, but under the circumstances I feel obliged to tell you bluntly that you are wasting your time. Wasting, i.e. spending it uselessly. (I don’t think I need to go into details; in your conscience you know exactly what I’m ...
St Godeleva of Ghistelles
Dear Stella, Now you can see how your patience and virtue have been rewarded! You built up a true friendship with Bill, based on common values and constructed through engaging in worthwhile activities together. You delayed the romance until the friendship was strong, and your dating was directed towards courtship, ...
St Athanasius the Athonite
Dear Nathan, I think you are misinterpreting St Ignatius. True, he did compare perfect religious obedience with the obedience of a corpse to its undertaker, but every simile has its defects. First of all, he was writing for the members of his own religious community, who made a vow of ...
The Chideock Martyrs
Dear Jack, Frankly, the tone of your last email was disturbing. Look, DISCERNING a vocation is not supposed to mean TOYING with a vocation. If I were the devil (which I’m not), I would love to have you stay at home on your couch, reading lovely devotional treatises, wondering abstractedly ...
St Thomas the Apostle
Dear Tanya, I am delighted to see how much progress you’re making in the spiritual life. The complaint expressed in your last email was right on target. You are absolutely correct: if only we had more faith! You have advanced to the point where you really wish to do God’s ...
