{"id":142840,"date":"2026-05-22T05:00:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T09:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=142840"},"modified":"2026-03-24T10:24:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:24:33","slug":"st-castus-and-st-aemilius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-castus-and-st-aemilius\/","title":{"rendered":"St Castus and St Aemilius"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dear Emily,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are you really surprised by your inability to overcome those stubborn bad habits? \u00a0May I ask why? Do you think yourself so strong as to be able to free yourself from sin forever? \u00a0My dear niece, be very careful. We can respond in two ways when we fall: one of them is dangerous; the other is glorious. \u00a0The dangerous way comes from spiritual pride; it consists of anger (\u201cArgh! I can\u2019t believe I did it again!\u201d), frustration (\u201cThis stinks! \u00a0No matter how hard I try, I can\u2019t make any progress. What\u2019s wrong with me?! Why can\u2019t I get over this?!), or discouragement (\u201cThat\u2019s it. Forget it. \u00a0It\u2019s just not worth it. I stink. I can\u2019t improve. I give up.\u201d). Of course, the unspoken presupposition to each of these reactions is: \u201cI ought to be able to make myself perfect,\u201d which reveals an overblown sense of personal excellence (i.e. pride). \u00a0That\u2019s a very dangerous way, because when we depend solely on our own efforts in the pursuit of spiritual perfection, we are bound to fail. <\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The glorious way to react to our constant failings and sins springs from humility. \u00a0Like a weak but trusting child, every time we fall we turn with unlimited confidence to the God who loves us and gave his only Son for our salvation, we ask him for forgiveness, we promise to keep trying, and we remind him (and ourselves) of how much we need his grace if we are going to follow his steep and narrow path: \u201cWithout me you can do nothing\u201d (John 15:5). \u00a0We can never exhaust God\u2019s love and mercy \u2013 but we need to seek it out with humble trust.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take today\u2019s saints, for instance. \u00a0Castus and Aemilius were prominent Christians in northern Africa at the time of the Roman Emperor Decius\u2019s vile persecution of the whole Church. \u00a0Under the pain of horrible tortures, they renounced their faith and agreed to worship the pagan gods. They fell; they denied their Savior in order to save their skins. \u00a0They chose their own will over fidelity to God and his love. They followed in the footsteps of Judas. They did what all of us do when we sin gravely: give up friendship with God for a taste of the forbidden fruit. \u00a0But when the moment came for them to actually offer up the incense, they remembered God\u2019s love and re-ignited their own: they refused to make an offering to a pagan God. It was not too late for them! They had given in, but they didn\u2019t give up; they regrouped their faith and trust and renewed their friendship with Christ, sure that he would take them back with open arms. \u00a0And he did. He strengthened them to face death by fire for the glory of his name and welcomed them into his eternal embrace.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So should we all react to our falls? \u00a0God knows that we are weak (why else would he have instituted the sacrament of confession?); and if we bring our weakness to him \u2013 over and over again \u2013 he will gladly, little by little, become our strength. \u00a0<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Love, Uncle Eddy<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Emily, Are you really surprised by your inability to overcome those stubborn bad habits? \u00a0May I ask why? Do you think yourself so strong as to be able to [&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":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","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-142840","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) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>St Castus and St Aemilius - Regnum Christi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-castus-and-st-aemilius\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"St Castus and St Aemilius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Emily, Are you really surprised by your inability to overcome those stubborn bad habits? \u00a0May I ask why? 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John Bartunek, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. John Bartunek, LC"},"description":"Fr. John Bartunek, LC, S.Th.D, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college, he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and baseball coach. He then spent a year as a professional actor in Chicago before entering the religious Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1993. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. He provided spiritual support on the set of Mel Gibson\u2019s\u00a0The Passion of the Christ\u00a0while researching the 2005 Catholic best seller,\u00a0Inside the Passion, the only authorized, behind-the-scenes explanation of the film. Fr. John has contributed news commentary regarding religious issues on NBC, CNN, Fox, and the BBC. He also served as the English-language press liaison for the Vatican\u2019s 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. His most widely known books are The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer and 60 Days to Becoming a Missionary Disciple. His most recent book is\u00a0Spiritual But Not Religious: The Search for Meaning in a Material World. Fr. John resides in Atlanta and serves as Territorial Vicar for the Legionaries of Christ. See all books, Regnum Christi Essays, Retreat Guides, posts, and online classes from Fr. John Bartunek, LC.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/jbartunek\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142840"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=142840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}