{"id":142688,"date":"2024-12-26T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-12-26T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=142688"},"modified":"2024-12-26T06:00:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T11:00:33","slug":"st-stephen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-stephen-2\/","title":{"rendered":"St Stephen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dear Stephanie,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was sad to receive your note yesterday. \u00a0It must make your heart sore to see your dad stay at home when everyone else goes to Mass. \u00a0But you mustn\u2019t let it discourage your own pursuit of holiness. No heart is so hard that the fervent prayers and sincere sacrifices of a loving Christian won\u2019t soften it. \u00a0As you bear this heavy cross, stay close to today\u2019s saint. In fact, he could be an inspiring example to you, a good friend of your spirit. You remember his story, I am sure. \u00a0It is found right in the book of Acts, Chapter 7. He was that courageous deacon falsely accused by jealous leaders of the Jewish congregations in Jerusalem and brought before the Sanhedrin (the governing court of the Jewish people). \u00a0He gave a fiery and brilliant defense of the true faith, and witnessed boldly with the word, with his bearing, and, tragically but gloriously, with his very life, for his enemies were so enraged that they executed him as a blasphemer, hurling stones at him until he died. \u00a0During the execution, a young member of the Jewish elite, Saul, stood by guarding the cloaks of the murderers. He didn\u2019t join in throwing stones, but he watched and participated nonetheless, and so he heard Stephen beg forgiveness for the executioners with his dying breath. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saul didn\u2019t become Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, right away; it would take our Lord\u2019s appearance to him on the road to Damascus to make that happen. \u00a0But I can\u2019t imagine that St Stephen\u2019s sacrifice had nothing to do with Paul\u2019s conversion, and with his impact on the history of the Church and the world. Do you think Paul would have forgotten that experience? \u00a0I don\u2019t. And that\u2019s why I say that St Stephen can serve as a kind of model and patron for you as you bear the cross of your dad\u2019s anti-Church sentiment. Your own fidelity to Jesus in the midst of his denunciations is a kind of living martyrdom, and if you persevere, I am sure that our Lord will see fit to give your dad his own Damascus road experience. \u00a0Count on my prayers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your loving uncle, Eddy<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Stephanie, I was sad to receive your note yesterday. \u00a0It must make your heart sore to see your dad stay at home when everyone else goes to Mass. \u00a0But [&hellip;]<\/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-142688","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":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - 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