Dear Pete,<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no need to second-guess yourself.\u00a0 Sure, your friends who took jobs on Wall Street and Madison Avenue are busy buying power clothes and getting into the swing of Big City living, but the tinsel will soon tarnish.\u00a0 You chose teaching after a long period of prayerful discernment and reflection, and you chose it for the right reason.\u00a0 Being a six-figure lawyer has its perks, but do you really think the world needs another lawyer more than it needs more great teachers?\u00a0 Today\u2019s saint didn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n
He lived in Spain before and during the bloody Civil War that yielded so many martyrs (including himself) there during the 1930s.\u00a0 It was a Spain being infiltrated by communism and secularism, and as he began his work as a young priest he quickly realized that the Catholic laity was in no condition to resist the destructive ideological onslaught.\u00a0 He thought about what he could do to meet the urgent need.\u00a0 He prayed about it.\u00a0 And he felt God calling him to train teachers, to form institutes and centers that would give a whole new generation of teachers formation in the most modern and effective pedagogical systems while at the same time shoring up their superficial understanding of the Christian faith.\u00a0 Only well-formed, Christian teachers, he saw, would be able to stem the tide of corrosive philosophies that were spreading like cancer among the \u201ceducated\u201d classes.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what he did.<\/p>\n
A gifted teacher himself, he worked in his diocesan seminary while founding the Teresian Association, dedicated to teacher training.\u00a0 He started the first college residence for girls in Madrid.\u00a0 He wrote, he published, he spoke, he rallied other priests \u2013 he did everything he could think of to stir up the laity, to stimulate them to take responsibility for their living out and defending their faith.\u00a0 His motto, which I recommend you to adopt, was: \u201cTo believe firmly and to keep silent is not possible.\u201d\u00a0 How true it is!\u00a0 And it stays true even if it means winning the martyr\u2019s crown, which he did after answering the communist interrogators who were questioning his identity by telling them, \u201cI am a priest of Jesus Christ!\u201d\u00a0 That proclamation confirmed a quick appointment with a laconic firing squad.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s one of the Church\u2019s modern saints who saw the most urgent task of evangelization in the realm of education.\u00a0 You saw the same thing, which, if you will only remember, is the only reason you preferred Main Street to Wall Street.\u00a0 Stick to your guns, my courageous young nephew, and let the bullets fly where they will.<\/p>\n
Your devoted uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Pete, There\u2019s no need to second-guess yourself.\u00a0 Sure, your friends who took jobs on Wall Street and Madison Avenue are busy buying power clothes and getting into the swing […]<\/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-142539","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