Dear Mary,<\/p>\n
You know that I don\u2019t like to be harsh, but under the circumstances I feel obliged to tell you bluntly that you are wasting your time.\u00a0 Wasting, i.e. spending it uselessly.\u00a0 (I don\u2019t think I need to go into details; in your conscience you know exactly what I\u2019m talking about.)\u00a0 People in business have a saying: \u201cTime is money.\u201d\u00a0 It means that every minute can be spent productively, and every minute that isn\u2019t spent productively is a loss.\u00a0 Well, for Christians, time is even more valuable, because our business isn\u2019t about passing things that money can buy, but about eternal things, like souls.\u00a0 For a Christian, time is KINGDOM.\u00a0 Today\u2019s saint understood that.<\/p>\n
Maolruain was one of those brilliantly determined Irish monks who turned that Celtic backwash into the Land of Saints of Scholars.\u00a0 He founded a monastery at Tallaght (Wicklow County, just south of Dublin) and began (together with St Oengus) the Culdee movement, an attempt to codify and regularize the multiplying but unorganized monastic communities.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, their rules were a bit hard: all night vigils in freezing cold water, or with their arms spread like a cross, were frequent; total abstinence from alcohol; Sundays observed with positively Pharisaic limits on activity\u2026\u00a0 But he also emphasized practices that became fixtures in the Church and have benefited not only extreme monastery dwellers, but also regular lay men and women like you and your friends.\u00a0 Regular, individual confession was one, spiritual direction was another.\u00a0 And he wrote guides for taking full advantage of these disciplines.<\/p>\n
In the end, his foundation didn\u2019t last long, and his Culdee movement petered out for lack of economic support.\u00a0 But the Church has recognized his zeal and his wisdom as springing directly from the Holy Spirit, and so we venerate him as a saint till this day.\u00a0 (The local Irish devotees of St Maolruain venerated him with a rather interesting custom for about 1000 years: they would process house-to-house drinking and dancing jigs.\u00a0 The tradition seems to have degenerated, and it was suppressed by ecclesiastical authorities in 1856.)<\/p>\n
He had a saying that I think you should mull over: There are \u201cthree profitable things in the day: prayer, labor, and study, or it may be teaching or writing or sewing clothes or any profitable work that a monk may do, so that none may be idle.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s that last phrase I want to call your attention to: \u201cso that none may be idle.\u201d\u00a0 I think it\u2019s safe to say that idleness has been your primary occupation since exams finished.\u00a0 It really shouldn\u2019t be, you know.\u00a0 Please do something about it \u2013 before the devil does.<\/p>\n
Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Mary, You know that I don\u2019t like to be harsh, but under the circumstances I feel obliged to tell you bluntly that you are wasting your time.\u00a0 Wasting, i.e. […]<\/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-142518","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