Dear Jack,<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019s time to make a decision.\u00a0 You can\u2019t put it off any longer.\u00a0 College is behind, career is ahead; you\u2019re at a crossroads.\u00a0 You have kept your faith intact until now, which in my opinion is a miracle, considering the path college culture has taken in recent years.\u00a0 But now you will face more challenges, new ones.\u00a0 Are you ready?\u00a0 Have you made some solid decisions as to things you won\u2019t compromise on in life?\u00a0 You better make them now, because when you find yourself immersed in the fast-paced, glittery world of Wall Street in a few weeks, nobody will give you the time or leisure to reflect deeply before making decisions.<\/p>\n
I suggest you go on a retreat SOON, before you have to show up for your first day at the office, and use it to WRITE DOWN your personal mission statement, your highest values, the things you won\u2019t compromise on.\u00a0 I also suggest you make today\u2019s saint into your personal patron as you launch out into your professional life.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that John Francis Regis was a financial wizard, but he did have some other things in common with you.\u00a0 He came from a well-to-do family, received a good education, was tall, athletic, good-looking, and extremely personable.<\/p>\n
He felt called to serve God as a priest, however, not as a lay apostle, and he was received into the Jesuit novitiate when he was 18.\u00a0 Throughout his years of formation he studied hard and worked at various apostolic responsibilities \u2013 teaching, caring for the sick and the poor, giving catechism\u2026 When he was finally ordained he was assigned to tend the plague-stricken patients of a hospital in Toulouse, which he did with great delicacy, energy, and joy.\u00a0 But his preaching was so effective that his superiors decided to send him to the diocese of Montpellier, where he began ten years as a traveling preacher through northern France, single-handedly repairing the social and religious destruction wrought by the recently ended (and soon to begin again) religious wars.<\/p>\n
Many of the educated classes disdained him for speaking in plain, homey terms, but he paid them no heed.\u00a0 The poor flocked to him.\u00a0 In the summers he would preach, teach, and serve them in the cities, involving the wealthy in his work as well.\u00a0 In the winters, when the farmers had more time, he would travel from village to village.\u00a0 He slept only three hours a night, and ate little more than apples and bread, but his energy, his dynamism, his devotion to the confessional, his supernatural eloquence, his active charity \u2013 in short, his whole Christian, apostolic being flourished all the same.<\/p>\n
He had his share of problems too. \u00a0The lazy clergy of the zone resented his zeal and accused him repeatedly of various scandals.\u00a0 The dissolute men of the cities launched another series of calumnies at him because of his work to rescue fallen women from the throes of prostitution.\u00a0 But his bishop knew the treasure he had been given, and always came to his defense.<\/p>\n
John Francis Regis died at the young age of 43, during Christmas week, from pneumonia, which he had contracted due to his unrelenting work to bring Christ to those most in need.<\/p>\n
I imagine that the folks you\u2019ll be dealing with in your new career will be a lot like the fallen-away Catholics and angry Huguenots of 17th<\/sup>-century France whom St John had to face \u2013 his too was a post-Christian society in some ways.\u00a0 I hope that God will grant you the same focus and spiritual strength that he granted to St John.\u00a0 That way you\u2019ll build up a lasting portfolio that\u2019s truly out of this world.<\/p>\n Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Jack, Well, it\u2019s time to make a decision.\u00a0 You can\u2019t put it off any longer.\u00a0 College is behind, career is ahead; you\u2019re at a crossroads.\u00a0 You have kept your […]<\/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-142496","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