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 Alban
Dear Al, OK, OK, I get the picture. You’re making good money, but the company you have to put up with in the factory isn’t made up of moral giants. You can always quit, you know, and find a job elsewhere. But I think that should be a last recourse. ...
St Juliana Falconieri
Dear Julie, I can feel the joy pulsating through your last note. I am so glad that you are finally able to spend a summer doing what you’ve always wanted to do. I hope it goes well. As your faithful uncle, however, I have to remind you that theatre people ...
St Mark and St Marcellian
Dear Marsha, I am sorry to hear that things at home haven’t improved. But you know, God isn’t absent from all this. He’s the one who called you to the consecrated life, knowing all the while that your parents would resist it tooth and nail. Your suffering at their resistance ...
St Adam Chmielowski
Dear Jaime, I was glad to hear of your choice for a summer activity. Enrolling in the Parisian Drawing Course for two months should help you acquire the fundamental skills you so foolishly forfeited back in your high school days. I realize that most contemporary artists don’t bother with the ...
St John Francis Regis, S.J.
Dear Jack, Well, it’s time to make a decision. You can’t put it off any longer. College is behind, career is ahead; you’re at a crossroads. You have kept your faith intact until now, which in my opinion is a miracle, considering the path college culture has taken in recent ...
St Germaine of Pibrac
Dear Peggy, I don’t think you need to torture yourself so much. You had two excellent options for the summer: a plush internship downtown, or a rigorous camp head-counselorship in the boondocks. You chose the latter, for the right reasons, and you just need to stick with that, no matter ...
St Valerius and St Rufinus
Dear Valerie, Well now, congratulations on a VERY successful sophomore year. I can only hope and pray that your remaining years will be as fruitful. I have to admit, though, that I am not so much impressed by your academic and musical successes – I think you could achieve those ...
St Anthony of Padua
Dear Toni, I empathize with your frustration. Your fellow Compass members must be related to my guards – they too make absolutely no response to my many requests and entreaties. But maybe the problem isn’t with THEM; maybe it’s with US. Maybe nobody listens to our great ideas and eloquent ...
St Gaspar Bertoni
Dear Casper, You’re beginning to sound like Chicken Little. Every note you send me whines and bemoans the horrible condition of the church in your diocese and the rampant ignorance of your fellow Catholics and the benighted incompetence of your bishop… If I only had your letters to go by, ...
St Paula Frassinetti
Dear Paul, OK, fine, be that way. Complain, complain, complain – if it makes you feel better, go right ahead. But if you decide to live your life according to how you feel instead of according to what you believe, you’re headed for disaster. Just because your junior year didn’t ...
St Landry of Paris
Dear Lara, I don’t know why you insist on complicating things. It’s all well and good to put together a concrete plan for your evangelizing work on campus next year. As President of your Chapter this is the least you can do in order to be responsible. But I think ...
St Ephrem of Syria
Dear Sara, As you begin a summer of research and hard intellectual work (at least, I hope you do some hard work – I would hate to think that my bright young niece was using her NEH Fellowship as an excuse for having a lazy summer break), I would like ...
