Dear Gus, So orientation week is over and classes have begun.\u00a0 Are you sober?\u00a0 Don\u2019t be shocked; I know how orientation weeks go, and I know you.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I\u2019m writing.\u00a0 You do not have an evil heart, my young nephew, but you do have a great love for pleasure, a special sensitivity to the beautiful things of the world.\u00a0 That is a gift from God (you would have made a great Epicurean poet). But, like every gift, you can use it well or you can abuse it.\u00a0 If you let it run away with you, it will lead you into sin, which tastes good in your mouth, but produces spiritual indigestion (not to mention how it offends the good God who made you).\u00a0 If you harness it to the truths of your faith, however, it will lead you, slowly but surely, to the most sublime heights of prayer and spiritual insight.\u00a0 Trust me when I tell you that there are no other alternatives, and that the first alternative is bad. St Augustine was the same way.\u00a0 He loved the fashionable heresies and trendy philosophical systems, because they let him continue his habits of lascivious indulgence (he always had a mistress).\u00a0 By the grace of God, his brilliant mind dismantled all those false ideologies rather quickly, and he could not long resist the call of truth (his mother\u2019s prayers and tears probably helped speed things up).\u00a0 When he was 31 he embraced the Catholic faith.\u00a0 Soon his extraordinary intellectual and spiritual gifts became apparent, and for the next forty years he poured out his passionate love on the Church through his preaching, his writing, and his dedicated pastoring.\u00a0 He defined an epoch, and laid the theological and philosophical groundwork for Western Christendom.\u00a0 But he was able to do all that only because he directed his zeal for life (which had previously degenerated into a zeal for pleasure) towards discovering and serving God.\u00a0 That set his soul free, coupling its natural qualities with supernatural grace \u2013 a potent combination that led to one of the Holy Spirit\u2019s greatest works of art. You will need his inspiration and intercession as you launch into your college career.\u00a0 Temptations abound (as you already know), and you are not strong enough to resist them on your own.\u00a0 Above all, I would advise you always to call a sin a sin \u2013 never let the pleasure of evil convince you that something wrong is right.\u00a0 Many people, when they look back on the excesses of their youth, smile and laugh; Augustine, who knew the heart of God more intimately than most, looked back on the excesses of his youth and wept.\u00a0 I pray that you will not have any such excesses to look back upon \u2013 that you will always be able to look forward. God bless, Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Gus, So orientation week is over and classes have begun.\u00a0 Are you sober?\u00a0 Don\u2019t be shocked; I know how orientation weeks go, and I know you.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why […]<\/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-142210","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