Dear Tom, Remember Achilles!\u00a0 You need to take care, my young nephew, that you remember the stuff of which you\u2019re made.\u00a0 You may be tall, strong, good-looking and an All-American athlete, but you will soon be gray-haired, wizened, and weak, unless you die before you get to that point.\u00a0 We are mortal beings, and if we forget it, thinking that we are invincible, God will have to remind us (and those reminders are not always comfortable).\u00a0 How the devil loves to turn into towering egoists those souls with which God has endowed health and vigor!\u00a0 Health and vigor are gifts from God, and they need to bear fruit for the Kingdom. Today\u2019s saint discovered the secret to keeping life in its proper perspective.\u00a0 Though he became archbishop of the wealthy and influential see of Valencia, Spain, he never gave in to temptations to luxury, and always put his power and income at the service of the poor.\u00a0 By the time he had reached his mid-twenties, he was named professor of philosophy in his native university town of Alcal\u00e1.\u00a0 Soon afterwards, he joined the Augustinian Friars there, taking the habit and vows (poverty, chastity, and obedience) of a religious.\u00a0 After being ordained a priest, he was put to work as teacher and superior among his brothers in religion, but his preaching and virtue shone so brightly that wherever he lived, lay students and citizens demanded permission to attend his lectures and sermons.\u00a0 During his years as religious superior, he gave special attention to those who were sick.\u00a0 He taught the young religious under his care that the infirmary was the burning bush of Moses, \u201cwhere he who devotes himself to the sick will assuredly find God among the thorns with which he is surrounded,\u201d as one biographer has put it.\u00a0 His frequent ecstasies and raptures occurred at the most inopportune times (once when he was delivering a sermon he held up a crucifix saying \u201cChristians, look here!\u201d whereupon he himself was uplifted to such a state of ravished contemplation that he could not continue speaking), which spread far and wide the knowledge of his holiness and spiritual leadership.\u00a0 Soon he was elevated to the Archbishopric of Valencia, and there he continued his tireless solicitude for every sector of his large and unruly flock, but especially the sick and the poor, whom he continued to serve with his own hands. Which is why I thought of him as I was reflecting on the temptations that you must be facing while you enter into your illustrious athletic prime.\u00a0 Would it not be wise to follow the example of St Thomas and spend some of your time visiting the sick and the elderly, to bring them encouragement and to learn from them the lessons of the cross?\u00a0 It\u2019s just a thought\u2026 In any case, congratulations on being an All-American; I hope it won\u2019t keep you from being a saint. God bless, Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Tom, Remember Achilles!\u00a0 You need to take care, my young nephew, that you remember the stuff of which you\u2019re made.\u00a0 You may be tall, strong, good-looking and an All-American […]<\/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-142234","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