Dear Bobby,<\/p>\n
I share your chagrin.\u00a0 It is indeed shocking to see how little today\u2019s generation knows about Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We used to call misbehaving students \u201cpagan\u201d in a metaphorical sense; now, I\u2019m afraid (and your last note confirms it), we no longer need the metaphor.\u00a0 So I share your chagrin, but I don\u2019t share your discouragement.\u00a0 Do you think God has been alien to this turn of events?\u00a0 Do you think he hasn\u2019t been preparing great apostles to reclaim these souls for Christ, for true happiness, and for heaven?\u00a0 I know he hasn\u2019t abandoned college culture; he\u2019s just waiting for you to really roll up your sleeves and get to work.\u00a0 You may be encouraged by the example of today\u2019s saint.<\/p>\n
He was born on the eve of the French Revolution, and by the time he was a young man the violence had done its damage, so that almost an entire generation of children were lacking in the most basic formation, be it religious, human, or academic.\u00a0 He had to teach himself the most fundamental academic skills before he could join the seminary, which he had always wanted to do.\u00a0 Even as a seminarian (he studied in the same seminary as St John Vianney, the Cur\u00e8 d\u2019Ars) he felt that God had given him a special mission to educate that lost generation, as well as future generations, to give them a full, integral education, training their minds, their willpower, and their spirits.<\/p>\n
But his first assignment as a parish priest kept him busy, and it wasn\u2019t until he had a harrowing encounter with a dying 17-year-old boy who knew absolutely nothing about Jesus, heaven, sin, or hell, that he resolved to act on what God had been inspiring in his heart.\u00a0 He was 27 at the time, and with no money and only two disciples, he started the Institute of the Little Brothers of Mary, or the Marist Brothers (the Marist Brothers \u2013 not the Marist Fathers, they were founded by one of Marcellin\u2019s fellow seminarian, Jean-Claude Colin).\u00a0 He met opposition from every direction \u2013 no one understood his zeal and no one thought it appropriate that such a young priest was taking on a project so vast in its scope.\u00a0 But he persevered.<\/p>\n
Soon one school became two, two became three, and before he knew it his little congregation was bursting at the seams and the Pope was entrusting to his order the entire mission territory of Oceania.\u00a0 He worked so hard to reclaim the younger generation for Christ that he simply wore himself out, and at the young age of 51 he died, exhausted.<\/p>\n
Your experience of the spiritual desert all around you should spark in your heart the same zeal that it sparked in St Marcellin\u2019s.\u00a0 After all, as he never tired of repeating, \u201cWhen God is on your side, and you depend only on him, nothing is impossible!\u201d<\/p>\n
Your devoted uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Bobby, I share your chagrin.\u00a0 It is indeed shocking to see how little today\u2019s generation knows about Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We used to call misbehaving students \u201cpagan\u201d in a metaphorical […]<\/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-142486","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