Dear Pete,<\/p>\n
Discouragement, my disheartened young nephew, never comes from God.\u00a0 It\u2019s always a product of our own overblown self-image.\u00a0 The humble person never gives in to discouragement, because he accepts his limits, gets back in the saddle, and trusts that God will eventually make his efforts fruitful.\u00a0 The closing of your Coalition of Catholic Students after only 9 months of existence, therefore, should not cause you to pack up your apostolic bags.\u00a0 Rather, you should see in it an opportunity to show your love for Christ by finding another way to build his Kingdom on campus.\u00a0 I think you may want to make today\u2019s saint the patron of that effort \u2013 he faced a similar situation.<\/p>\n
In the sixth century, as you remember, St Benedict founded the great monastery of Monte Cassino, just south of Rome.\u00a0 There began monasticism in Western Europe, a monasticism that saved and advanced Civilization for centuries, and is still pumping out saints today.\u00a0 But the history of that famous monastery has tough chapters as well as glorious ones.<\/p>\n
About a generation after Monte Cassino had been founded, the Lombards invaded Italy, and ransacked Rome and the surrounding areas \u2013 including the hill-top monastery founded by St Benedict.\u00a0 The chaos caused by the invasions lasted for a century.\u00a0 By the early 700s, Monte Cassino was a pile of ruins inhabited by a few hermits.\u00a0 At that point Pope Gregory II undertook the noble task of rebuilding the monastery.\u00a0 He recognized its spiritual, practical, and symbolic importance in those troubled times.\u00a0 To spearhead the daunting task, the Pontiff chose Petronax, a holy abbot from Brescia, a city in the very Lombardy that had spawned the ransackers.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t easy going for the holy Abbott.\u00a0 He had to raise money for reconstructing the buildings; he had to oversee the reconstruction; he had to repopulate the monastery; he had to reestablish the tradition of monastic discipline; he had to teach the monks to pray\u2026 In one sense, it was probably more difficult than actually starting from scratch, because inauthentic traditions had crept in since the invasions, and these had to be dismantled before the authentic ones could be reinstituted.<\/p>\n
But in the end, with the support of the Pope and of some powerful, devoted noblemen, Petronax was able to get Monte Cassino back on its feet.\u00a0 And for the last 1300 years, it has continued to shine like a spiritual lighthouse in the midst of the many storms of history that Europe has had to weather.<\/p>\n
So don\u2019t get discouraged, just get back to work, somehow (being humble and respectful, and obedient).\u00a0 God will take care of the rest.<\/p>\n
Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Pete, Discouragement, my disheartened young nephew, never comes from God.\u00a0 It\u2019s always a product of our own overblown self-image.\u00a0 The humble person never gives in to discouragement, because he […]<\/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-142456","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