Dear Jack,<\/p>\n
I have been praying for you daily.\u00a0 I am glad to hear that everything is set for your entry into the seminary \u2013 sometimes the Devil makes a last ditch effort to dissuade young men who have heard the call from following through on their decisions.\u00a0 It\u2019s nice to know that your courage has thus far frustrated his diabolical efforts.\u00a0 But watch out just the same; Satan is very subtle and very creative (he has a lot of experience).<\/p>\n
I think you are ready for seminary life, but I also think I owe you one small piece of avuncular advice: don\u2019t expect roses without thorns.\u00a0 You will find joy on the path of predilection that God has so graciously called you to follow, but your joy will not exclude the cross.\u00a0 Remember, you are following in Christ\u2019s footsteps, and they lead up a narrow and steep road.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s saint is a good example.\u00a0 John was an old man, and feeble, and worn out by the time he was elected the 53rd<\/sup> Pope.\u00a0 But he took up the responsibility with as much energy as he could muster.\u00a0 Unfortunately for him, the Arian heresy was rampant at the time.\u00a0 (Arians denied the divinity of Christ, among other things.)\u00a0 The heresy had caused a huge rift among Christians throughout the former Roman Empire.\u00a0 In fact, the ruler of Italy at the time, King Theodoric the Ostragoth, was an Arian himself.<\/p>\n At first Theodoric lived in peace with the good and holy Pope John.\u00a0 But later the King became a bit neurotic, and paranoid.\u00a0 He forced the Pope to lead a delegation to the Byzantine Emperor (Justin was his name) in Constantinople in order to demand more freedom for Arian churches back in Italy.\u00a0 Pope John was received with grandeur and joy by Emperor and people alike.\u00a0 He even participated in an elaborate and beautiful ceremony where he crowned the Emperor.\u00a0 It was a moment of deep communion between the Western and Eastern Churches.<\/p>\n Pope John was able to win some concessions from Justin, and so from Theodoric\u2019s perspective the delegation should have been considered a success.\u00a0 But it wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 The Ostrogothic King suspected John of conspiracy.\u00a0 He thought the Pope and the Byzantine Emperor were plotting a Byzantine take-over of Italy and of what was left of the Western Roman Empire.\u00a0 So Theodoric had Pope John arrested as soon as he returned from Constantinople and set foot on Italian soil.\u00a0 He threw him into a prison in the eastern Italian city of Ravenna (the paranoid King had earlier imprisoned and executed the Pope\u2019s confidant, St Boetius).\u00a0 There the aged and frail Pope was left to die a slow and painful death from neglect and hunger.<\/p>\n Please don\u2019t think my calling to mind this historical tidbit means I am wishing you a miserable time in the seminary and in the priesthood \u2013 not at all.\u00a0 I just want to make sure you don\u2019t start off on this adventure with the wrong expectations.\u00a0 Heaven, after all, is in heaven, not here on earth.<\/p>\n Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Jack, I have been praying for you daily.\u00a0 I am glad to hear that everything is set for your entry into the seminary \u2013 sometimes the Devil makes a 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