Dear Odile,<\/p>\n
Two months have passed since your cousin died, and I am worried about you.\u00a0 You say that you haven\u2019t been able to get rid of the \u201cfunk\u201d of sadness that swept over you in the wake of his violent death.\u00a0 Hmm\u2026\u00a0 Well, my dear niece, I have always known that you are particularly sensitive.\u00a0 This is a great gift of God.\u00a0 It is no part of virtue to be like a stone in the face of life\u2019s tragedies (the Stoics thought it was, you know \u2013 one of the many differences between Christian virtue and pagan virtue).\u00a0 Yet, on the other hand, excessive grief certainly doesn\u2019t come from God.\u00a0 Maybe today\u2019s saint can stir up your faith and help you regain some perspective.<\/p>\n
Monegundis was an honorably married lady of Chartres (northern France, near Paris), who was blessed with two lovely, lively, and intelligent daughters, of whom she was duly proud.\u00a0 Unfortunately, before they were grown to adulthood, they both died.\u00a0 The cause of their deaths hasn\u2019t come down to us, but the consequence has: Monegundis was cast into a deep, turbulent depression that spread like a cloud over all her friends and relatives.\u00a0 It lasted for a long while \u2013 too long.\u00a0 Gradually, under the gentle guidance of God\u2019s grace, she realized that her grief was not completely healthy, that it involved a certain selfishness: she was indulging in too much self-pity, bemoaning her loneliness as if it were the loss of all that could make her happy.\u00a0 What an insult to God, who alone is the satisfaction of the soul and who had seen fit to take her daughters in accordance with the dictates of his inscrutable wisdom!<\/p>\n
She received this grace of God and repented.\u00a0 With her husband\u2019s permission she took up residence in a small cell near Chartres, where she lived in prayer and penance, dedicated solely to God and his goodness.\u00a0 After a few years, she moved to Tours, where she built another cell close to the tomb of St Martin.\u00a0 Soon her reputation for holiness attracted a few followers, then a few more, and before she knew it she had become spiritual mother to a convent that continued to spawn saints for centuries.<\/p>\n
If God has seen fit to take your cousin to his eternal reward, he certainly didn\u2019t intend the loss to paralyze your capacity for living deeply, joyfully and meaningfully.\u00a0 In fact, I am sure he had just the opposite in mind \u2013 as he did for St Monegundis.\u00a0 May you learn to follow him as she did, wherever he may lead.<\/p>\n
Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Odile, Two months have passed since your cousin died, and I am worried about you.\u00a0 You say that you haven\u2019t been able to get rid of the \u201cfunk\u201d of […]<\/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-142512","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