Dear Paul,<\/p>\n
OK, fine, be that way.\u00a0 Complain, complain, complain \u2013 if it makes you feel better, go right ahead.\u00a0 But if you decide to live your life according to how you feel instead of according to what you believe, you\u2019re headed for disaster.\u00a0 Just because your junior year didn\u2019t work out the way you had planned doesn\u2019t mean that God has abandoned you.\u00a0 What, do you think he forgot about you or something?\u00a0 Don\u2019t be ridiculous.\u00a0 Exercise a bit of mature Christian reasoning: trust in God\u2019s Providence, and stop pouting.\u00a0 I think you could use a good scolding from today\u2019s saint.<\/p>\n
Paula didn\u2019t have the ideal childhood.\u00a0 Her parents were pious, but they were also poor.\u00a0 Poor enough, in fact, that when her mother died (she was nine at the time) Paula had to take up the household chores while her father worked and her four brothers went to school (they all ended up becoming priests).<\/p>\n
She was a little young for such detail, however, and an aunt moved in to help.\u00a0 But soon the aunt died as well, and at the age of 12 Paula became the official homemaker.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t have the chance to go to school, but her brothers would share their lessons with her in the evenings, and her father would help fill in the gaps, so in the end she received a decent education and developed a good pedagogical instinct.\u00a0 She went to Mass each morning and spent her days taking care of the home \u2013 accompanied only by prayer and by her adopted mother, i.e. the Blessed Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n
When she was 20 she fell ill and was forced to move in with one of her brothers who served a parish in northern Italy.\u00a0 It was doubtful whether she would survive, let alone recover, but in the end her health returned.\u00a0 When it did, she and her brother decided to start up a school for poor girls, in which Paula would be the teacher and headmistress.\u00a0 Soon other like-minded young women joined her, and she founded the Sisters of St Dorothy, dedicated to extending that same mission in other needy areas.\u00a0 Before long they had foundations throughout Italy, as well as in Portugal and Brazil.<\/p>\n
From poor housemaid to bedridden invalid, to schoolteacher, to Foundress, to canonized saint\u2026 It\u2019s not a bad itinerary.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it would have been so happily completed, however, had Paula given in to the kind of self-pity that is threatening to conquer your spirits \u2013 even though, frankly, I think she would have had a lot more reasons than you to do so.<\/p>\n
Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Paul, OK, fine, be that way.\u00a0 Complain, complain, complain \u2013 if it makes you feel better, go right ahead.\u00a0 But if you decide to live your life according to […]<\/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-142491","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