St Donnan and Companions

Dear Don,

Glad to hear that your “business” is doing so well, you’re a chip off the old entrepreneurial block.  Being able to pay your own way through school will free up some of your parents’ funds to help offset the educational costs of your less business-minded siblings.  One caveat, though (“caveat” means “a warning against certain acts or practices,” in case you were wondering – you may be good at making money, but your SAT scores were shameful): don’t keep all your money to yourself.  Greed is a powerful but sly operator, and the best way to defend against it is to discipline your own spending (by having a budget, for example – that just means deciding ahead of time how much money you will let yourself spend for all your different needs/wants) and to set aside an uncomfortable amount to support the works of the Church and those who are in greater need than yourself.  I say “uncomfortable” for a reason. If you let yourself get “comfortable” in your wealth, you will most likely end up disobeying your conscience in order to preserve or increase it. Just ask St Donnan and his fifty-two missionary companions. They founded a monastery on an island off the coast of Scotland (Donnan himself was an Irishman). They were all slaughtered by a band of robbers who corralled them into the dining hall and burned them alive, cutting down any would-be escapees with their swords.  They say that a wealthy woman who had previously used the island to pasture her plentiful flock of sheep put the robbers up to the evil task; she resented her economic loss caused by the monks. So use your newfound wealth wisely, lest it end up depleting your “treasure in heaven.” (Luke 12:33)

With my prayers, your poor Uncle Eddy