Dear Chuck, The distress in your last note caught my attention.\u00a0 You say you are tempted to simply \u201cgive up\u201d your non-academic commitments in order to be able to study sufficiently, not having enough time for both.\u00a0 Hogwash.\u00a0 You are feeling the pressure of midterms and suffering from the misuse of time.\u00a0 If you examine how you organize your week you will see that you study inefficiently and give in to whims instead of following a self-disciplined schedule.\u00a0 Be humble; don\u2019t panic.\u00a0 Go over exactly what you have to do in each class and in each one of your other commitments in order to achieve your goals in each (and if you have no goals, the first step is to make some).\u00a0 Then plug all those things into your calendar for the coming month.\u00a0 Then stick to it \u2013 and you and I both know that\u2019s the hardest point.\u00a0 Maybe today\u2019s saint can be an inspiration for you. St Charles is one of those giants of the Church.\u00a0 Born and raised in the area around Milan, he came from a wealthy and noble family, in an age when nobility and wealth made their presence known.\u00a0 He spent his early years getting the best Renaissance education a man could get, and when his uncle became Pope Paul IV, he moved to Rome and became a member of the Papal court, being named a \u201cCardinal-Deacon.\u201d\u00a0 That meant that the Pope heaped responsibilities upon him, but he was not yet ordained to the priesthood.\u00a0 And so, by the time he was 23 years old, his to-do list contained duties related to the following \u201cnon-academic commitments,\u201d to use your term: Papal Legate of Bologna, Romagna, and the March of Ancona, and Papal Protector of Portugal, the Netherlands, the Catholic cantons of Switzerland, and the orders of St Francis, the Carmelites, the Knights of Malta, and others.\u00a0 Additionally, he was given charge over the archdiocese of Milan (though the Pope forbade him from leaving Rome to tend to it personally), he had to govern his family affairs (no small task for Italian nobility), he patronized learning and the arts in Rome, and he kept up a healthy schedule of recreational and social activities (which was expected of every worthy Cardinal-Deacon).\u00a0 That\u2019s how he spent his early twenties.\u00a0 Have you cause to complain, my dear nephew, in light of such an example?\u00a0 Rather, I would say you ought to learn from him how to do more in less time, and do it better.\u00a0 His \u201csecret\u201d was hardly secret.\u00a0 It consisted of planning ahead, never rushing, practicing willful concentration on the task at hand (\u201cdo what you\u2019re doing\u201d as the old Latin saying goes: \u201cage quod agis\u201d), and just plain working hard.\u00a0 Through it all, he kept his prayer life first: going to confession and celebrating Mass early every morning before taking on the tasks of the day. These simple habits served him well for the rest of his life, enabling him to infuse new vigor into the entire Catholic Church through his tireless efforts to conclude the Council of Trent and subsequently reform (in accordance with the Council\u2019s indications) the Archdiocese of Milan (and the surrounding areas) from the clergy on down \u2013 a reform which has served as a model for conscientious pastors ever since.\u00a0 It was never easy (he survived at least two attempted assassinations), but it filled him with energy, and filled the world with the light of Christ in an especially dark moment of Christendom\u2019s trek. So, my young nephew, don\u2019t be lazy, and don\u2019t complain; rather, be disciplined, and keep first things first, remember the purpose of it all: seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these other things will be given you as well (cf. Matthew 6:33). Promptly yours, Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Chuck, The distress in your last note caught my attention.\u00a0 You say you are tempted to simply \u201cgive up\u201d your non-academic commitments in order to be able to study […]<\/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-142277","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