Dear Ann, May I guess what the most common topic of conversation has been for you and your friends during the first two months of school?\u00a0 Is it, perhaps, guys?\u00a0 I imagine it is, and I imagine that it has not only been the preferred topic of your conversations, but also of your thoughts.\u00a0 Have you perhaps fallen once again into the exhausting and fruitless prowling game?\u00a0 How much time you do tend to waste worrying and fretting about being more attractive than the rest!\u00a0 My dear niece, return to your roots!\u00a0 Ah, how fondly I remember your mother\u2019s elegance.\u00a0 What an example she was for the other girls on campus, and what an inspiration for the young men!\u00a0 She always looked lovely, but respected herself too much to go out of her way to attract the guys\u2019 attention.\u00a0 She was classy, secure, confident, and consistent.\u00a0 Neat, clean, never careless, but never preoccupied; completely free to live college to the full, unhindered by obsessive concern about the \u201crelationship game.\u201d\u00a0 Of course, this was rooted in her faith, because she trusted that God would lead her down the right path, but she also took it upon herself to break free from the bonds of petty competition and dangerous immodesty.\u00a0 In fact, she reminds me a lot of today\u2019s saint. St Anthony was equally at home among Queens and Cardinals as he was among peasants and paupers.\u00a0 The son of a cloth-weaver in northern Spain, he entered the seminary when he was 22.\u00a0 After being ordained a priest six years later, he tried to enter some religious orders, but his health debarred him, and he lived the first ten years of his ministry giving missions and retreats to the faithful in his homeland.\u00a0 Other priests joined him, and the Claretian order was founded.\u00a0 His next task was to take on the Archbishopric in Cuba, a notoriously anti-Christian and decadent Spanish colony.\u00a0 Nevertheless, his humble simplicity and intelligent charity enabled him to implement effective reforms against heavy opposition.\u00a0 More than once attempts were made on his life.\u00a0 He received a nearly mortal wound at the hand of a would-be assassin trying to avenge the loss of his mistress, who had been won back to clean living by the holy archbishop.\u00a0 Only St Anthony\u2019s personal appeal saved the man from the death penalty.\u00a0 After seven years in Cuba, he was recalled to Spain to become court confessor to Queen Isabella.\u00a0 He combined his royal duties with a continuation of his local missionary work and a tireless promotion of Christian literature and higher learning. When the Queen was exiled after the revolution of 1868 her confessor was sent with her.\u00a0 He spent his last years in Rome, and died on his way back to his native country. Wherever St Anthony went, his simple elegance in appearance and speech opened hearts to receive the message of the Gospel.\u00a0 As you try to walk the narrow line between slavery to fashion and off-putting plainness, you will do well to follow his example, trying first and always to please God in everything you do \u2013 after, all, He\u2019s the most important \u201cguy\u201d around. Sincerely, Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Ann, May I guess what the most common topic of conversation has been for you and your friends during the first two months of school?\u00a0 Is it, perhaps, guys?\u00a0 […]<\/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-142266","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