Dear Penny, I just got a panicky note from your twin sister, who is extremely anxious about the state of your soul. I realize that she tends to overreact, but some of the things she mentioned are worth going over a bit, even though I need to be quick about it (this new warden is determined to \u201cbreak down my defenses\u201d as he puts it, and another \u201cdialogue session\u201d starts in just a few minutes).\u00a0 The main point is your vanity.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be alarmed; I have long known how eagerly you seek recognition and praise from your peers.\u00a0 Some people are too proud to care about their popularity; you, on the other hand, tend to exert yourself too much to attract the crowds.\u00a0 The story of today\u2019s saint, though its historicity seems spurious, will be quite instructive for you.\u00a0 Here\u2019s it is in a nutshell. Pelagia was a Palestinian actress who lived the great ancient city of Antioch.\u00a0 She was \u201cequally celebrated for her beauty, her wealth, and her disorderly life\u201d as one biographer eloquently put it.\u00a0 It so happened that the Patriarch of that city had called a synod (kind of a board meeting) of his bishops.\u00a0 One day the bishops were gathered in the portico (kind of a front porch) of the great basilica, listening to the words of St Nonnus (bishop from Edessa), when Pelagia and her retinue of slaves and accomplices drove by.\u00a0 She spied the clerics and pulled up beside the portico, whereupon all the bishops lowered their eyes to avoid seeing her audacious glances and her provocative attire \u2013 all except St Nonnus, that is.\u00a0 She tarried only for a few moments, then laughed at them and moved on.\u00a0 St Nonnus kept looking at her until she was out of sight.\u00a0 Then, much to the astonishment of his fellow pastors, he queried, \u201cDid not that woman\u2019s beauty please you?\u201d\u00a0 The other bishops were nonplussed, and they didn\u2019t answer.\u00a0 St Nonnus continued, \u201cI was well pleased to see her, for it seems to me God sent her as a lesson to us.\u00a0 She goes to an infinity of trouble to keep herself beautiful and to perfect her dancing in order to please men, but we are considerably less zealous in the care of our dioceses and of our own souls.\u201d And that, my dear niece, is my point.\u00a0 If you tend to seek inordinately the approval of your peers, your teachers, and everybody else, it is a weakness, and the tendency will never completely disappear.\u00a0 But why not simply redirect that desire to please, so that you are equally (if not more) concerned about pleasing your Lord?\u00a0 In all things, occupy yourself with winning his approval and pleasing him, and you will be a saint before the semester is out, guaranteed!\u00a0 (Pelagia soon repented, by the way, and was baptized by St Nonnus).\u00a0 You will have much more peace (because our Lord is easier to please than your peers \u2013 though harder to satisfy), and you will be storing up great treasure in heaven. I have to go.\u00a0 Count on my prayers. God bless, Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Penny, I just got a panicky note from your twin sister, who is extremely anxious about the state of your soul. I realize that she tends to overreact, but […]<\/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-142250","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