Dear Lynn,<\/p>\n
Think about it objectively for just a minute.\u00a0 (I know that objective thinking is not your strong point; bold and rash action are more becoming of your adventurous spirit, but try it, please, just this once.)\u00a0 So your Chapter didn\u2019t achieve its goals for the year.\u00a0 You made progress, but not the progress you had programmed.\u00a0 So now you\u2019re frustrated and angry.\u00a0 Does that frustration and anger come from your burning love for Christ and for pleasing him?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t sound like it.\u00a0 It sounds rather like you were in love with your own plans of achievement, and when they didn\u2019t work out exactly as you envisioned, in spite of your sturdy and conscientious efforts, your self-love was (is) a bit wounded.<\/p>\n
That, my dear, dear niece, is a good thing; let your self-love get more and wounded, until it dies.\u00a0 As Christ told us, \u201cdeny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.\u201d\u00a0 Let go of your frustration; learn the proper reaction from today\u2019s saint.<\/p>\n
Her religious Institute had over 4000 members throughout the entire world at the time of her canonization a few years ago.\u00a0 Just think how many souls those 4000 are reaching.\u00a0 Just think how wonderfully Christ is being preached by those men and women who have vowed to follow him in poverty, chastity, and obedience.\u00a0 And do you know how it came about?\u00a0 Because St Magdalena let her own plans be purified in the burning zeal of God\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n
She was a daughter of a noble family residing in the palace of Canossa, near Verona, in northern Italy.\u00a0 She grew up with a fine education, all the social graces, and plenty of connections.\u00a0 She suffered from her father\u2019s death and her mother\u2019s remarriage (her stepfather really had it in for her), but she bore it gracefully.\u00a0 All through her youth she had nursed a deep desire to live only for Christ, and when she was 17 she tried to enter the convent of the Discalced Carmelites.\u00a0 But she wasn\u2019t accepted.\u00a0 So she tried again, but she wasn\u2019t accepted the second time either.<\/p>\n
If she had reacted to this setback the way you are reacting to yours, she probably would have organized an armed takeover of the convent.\u00a0 But she returned to the palace, took up the duties of her state in life, expanding her network of friends and acquaintances and taking care of the sizeable estate, all the while guarding her heart and finding there the sweet intimacy of Christ\u2019s love.<\/p>\n
As the years passed, she began to discover where God was calling her: to serve the poor in the Verona suburbs, which were reeling from the devastation that came in the wake of the Napoleonic wars.\u00a0 Little by little she started to find ways to help them, and then her love really caught fire.<\/p>\n
She left the palace, and gathering a group of like-minded followers from among her friends, she began her institute of the Daughters of Charity.\u00a0 Soon it spread to all the major cities of northern Italy, and she expanded her work to include spiritual attention to the upper classes \u2013 annual spiritual exercises that would put them in contact with Christ\u2019s love and move them to work for his Kingdom.\u00a0 Schools, catechesis, hospitals, teacher training \u2013 the scope of her zeal continued to expand.\u00a0 She added a men\u2019s branch to the institute, and collaborated with other zealous apostles of her time, many of whom have also been raised to the altars.<\/p>\n
But it all happened because she knew how to accept apparent failure and find God\u2019s guiding, providential hand in the midst of it.\u00a0 As you look over last year\u2019s plan, and make next year\u2019s, try to do the same.<\/p>\n
Your devoted uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Lynn, Think about it objectively for just a minute.\u00a0 (I know that objective thinking is not your strong point; bold and rash action are more becoming of your adventurous […]<\/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-142458","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