Dear Gilbert,<\/p>\n
Just because this year\u2019s evangelizing efforts didn\u2019t produce as many visible results as last year\u2019s is no reason to pout.\u00a0 Progress from God\u2019s point of view is often not the same as progress from our point of view.\u00a0 Do you trust in God?\u00a0 Then be objective in your analysis: if you can improve your strategy or tactics in your program for next year, do so, and leave the fruits of this year in the hands of Providence.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s not so easy to do.\u00a0 You really wanted to increase attendance at Mass and at your mid-week Catholic Study Circle, and you didn\u2019t.\u00a0 You are disappointed.\u00a0 That\u2019s fine.\u00a0 I would expect you to be.\u00a0 But don\u2019t let it knock you off course.\u00a0 Maybe the example of today\u2019s saint will help keep things in perspective.<\/p>\n
Germanus showed a lively interest in the spiritual life as a youth (he grew up in central France, near Autun), and discerned his vocation to the priesthood, which he pursued with eager dedication.\u00a0 His was soon made abbot of a nearby monastery, an office he fulfilled prodigiously.<\/p>\n
A few years into it, he dreamt one night that an old man put into his hands the keys to the city of Paris, admonishing him to take care of the people of that city.\u00a0 He thought nothing of it at the time.\u00a0 But sometime later he found himself in that all-important French city, precisely when its bishop died.\u00a0 He was appointed successor, in spite of his tearful entreaties to the contrary.<\/p>\n
Throughout the next 32 years he filled Paris (and all of France) with the light of authentic sanctity.\u00a0 His residence swarmed with the poor and destitute, whom he always served \u2013 even at this own table (and he would feed their souls as well as their stomachs, having a good spiritual book read aloud during meals).\u00a0 And his preaching moved countless sinners to repentance, turning the dissolute urban environment into a truly Christian culture.\u00a0 In fact, St Germanus was God\u2019s primary instrument in the moral reform of King Childebert I, one of the four royal sons of Clovis.<\/p>\n
Germanus turned the lascivious Childebert into a model Christian ruler, who endowed France with many of the monasteries and churches that steadily churned out saints for the next few hundred years.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, however, Childebert didn\u2019t live too long (even though Germanus miraculously cured him from a mysterious illness).\u00a0 His successor, his brother Clothair, gave a rather cold welcome to the holy bishop, until he too was miraculously cured by Germanus\u2019s intercession.\u00a0 From then on, Clothair too ruled as a Christian king ought to (he also reunited France under one monarch).<\/p>\n
But Germanus outlived him as well, and Clothair\u2019s four sons once more divided the Kingdom.\u00a0 Thus ensued one of the more shameful chapters of French history, in which the envy, greed, and lust that characterized these brothers and their wives wreaked moral havoc on the burgeoning Frankish people.\u00a0 And nothing Germanus did could stop it.\u00a0 Even his miracles couldn\u2019t penetrate their moral destitution.\u00a0 By the time the saint died, Paris had returned to its licentious ways.<\/p>\n
If even such a remarkable saint only batted around .500, why do you expect to bat 1.000?\u00a0 You are just one soldier on the great battlefield of history.\u00a0 Do your best to defend and extend your parcel of the Kingdom, and leave the overall results up to the Commander-in-Chief.<\/p>\n
Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Gilbert, Just because this year\u2019s evangelizing efforts didn\u2019t produce as many visible results as last year\u2019s is no reason to pout.\u00a0 Progress from God\u2019s point of view is often […]<\/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-142478","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