Dear Hans,<\/p>\n
Your commitment to active evangelization is laudable.\u00a0 Clearly, your spring retreat has had a positive effect.\u00a0 Every moment invested in spreading and defending the faith is a deposit in the bank of eternity.\u00a0 And you seem to be accumulating quite a balance. \u00a0Nevertheless, I detect a disturbing trend in your latest notes.\u00a0 If I am not mistaken, as your zeal for action has increased, your zeal for study and prayer has decreased.\u00a0 That, my courageous young nephew, is a recipe for disaster.\u00a0 You need to put some order back in your life.\u00a0 Maybe a glance at today\u2019s saint can rescue you.<\/p>\n
Athanasius received the best education the ancient world had to offer.\u00a0 He grew up in the cosmopolitan center of Alexandria, Egypt, the New York City of the ancient Mesopotamian world.\u00a0 He mastered Greek literature and philosophy, rhetoric, jurisprudence and Christian doctrine, and though he didn\u2019t know it at the time, he was going to need every last bit of that education.<\/p>\n
He became secretary to the great bishop of Alexandria at the time of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the Church condemned the insidious errors of the Egyptian priest, Arius, who claimed that Christ was not truly God.\u00a0 Soon thereafter, but still before he turned thirty, Athanasius himself became bishop of that all-important See (\u201csee\u201d is another name for the seat of episcopal or papal authority).<\/p>\n
For many reasons, Arianism continued to grow and spread.\u00a0 It infected all of Christendom, in fact, and threatened to shatter the unity of the Church.\u00a0 St Athanasius was the staunchest opponent of the heretics and the sturdiest defender of the Catholic faith throughout the long battle.\u00a0 His enemies knew what a critical player he was, and therefore constantly schemed to have him eliminated.\u00a0 They slandered and calumniated him, put him on false trial, stirred up more than one emperor against him, cajoled him, threatened him\u2026 But in the end, Athanasius kept the faith intact, even though he was banished five separate times and spent over 17 years in exile.<\/p>\n
In one of the Church\u2019s most dire hours, Athanasius saved the day.\u00a0 How was he able to do it?\u00a0 Two reasons: first, God had given him the opportunity to receive a top-notch education and he had taken full advantage of it, i.e. he had formed himself well during his youth, and thus he was able to sift through the subtle half-truths argued by his enemies without being deceived or even confused.\u00a0 Second, he knew how to pray.\u00a0 Much of his exile was spent hiding with the monks in the Egyptian deserts, where he befriended St Anthony the Abbot, as well as other experts in prayer.<\/p>\n
Your apostolic action is important, but right now God also needs you to be responsible in your studies \u2013 that\u2019s an essential part of his will for a college student.\u00a0 And if you aren\u2019t united to the vine by prayer, all your activities will end up sterile \u2013 a branch cut off from the vine can\u2019t bear any fruit.\u00a0 If you can keep these things in order, I have no doubt that you too will do great things for the Kingdom, just like St Athanasius.<\/p>\n
Yours always,<\/p>\n
Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Hans, Your commitment to active evangelization is laudable.\u00a0 Clearly, your spring retreat has had a positive effect.\u00a0 Every moment invested in spreading and defending the faith is a deposit […]<\/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":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","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-142452","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