Dear Johnny, What a boon for my soul to read of your earnest desire to make this coming school year into a milestone of spiritual growth!\u00a0 I have always been of the opinion that we normally get what we really want, and most of us don\u2019t get seriously holy because we only want the comfort of mediocrity.\u00a0 I am glad you are not in that category.\u00a0 Of course, it is important to choose the proper means to achieve one\u2019s goals.\u00a0 Your goal for the year is noble, but how will you reach it?\u00a0 That book I gave you for Christmas three years ago should provide some practical guidelines.\u00a0 I would just like to point out one thing that should be at the center of any effort like the one you\u2019re beginning now: Mass.\u00a0 It is the perfect prayer, because it is Christ\u2019s own prayer, offered to the Father through the lips of the priest.\u00a0 And it is the perfect worship, because in it Christ\u2019s own self-offering is activated through the offering of the priest.\u00a0 And it is the perfect embrace between our heart and God\u2019s, because when we receive Holy Communion, we receive Christ himself.\u00a0 At college, your schedule is flexible enough that you can feasibly make it to Mass almost every day.\u00a0 If you learn to live the Mass deeply, it will be far and away the best thing you can do to speed along the road to holiness and happiness. Today\u2019s saint understood this.\u00a0 One of the greatest preachers of his age, St John Eudes was a model priest.\u00a0 He dedicated himself to tending the sick (plagues were pretty common in seventeenth-century France), caring spiritually for reformed women of ill repute, and reinvigorating the clergy.\u00a0 He drew his unlimited zeal and heartrending eloquence (one bishop complemented his preaching thus: \u201cI have heard all the best preachers in Italy and France, but I have never heard anyone who touches the heart so deeply as does this good father\u201d) from the Eucharist.\u00a0 There he drank in the ardent love of Christ and Mary.\u00a0 He wrote extensively about those loves, and even composed liturgies to celebrate the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.\u00a0 Above all, however, he loved the Mass.\u00a0 God had granted him an understanding of its beauty and power.\u00a0 He once remarked that to celebrate Mass properly would take three eternities: one to prepare for it, one to celebrate it, and one to give thanks for it. You may not have eternity at your disposal (not yet, anyway), but I bet you can find half an hour a day for Mass \u2013 if you really want to.\u00a0 And when you go, do pray for your Devoted uncle, Eddy Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Johnny, What a boon for my soul to read of your earnest desire to make this coming school year into a milestone of spiritual growth!\u00a0 I have always been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n