The CatholiCity Message
Volume V, Number 8 – April 20, 2001
(HERE IS A SAMPLE AND EXPLANATION OF THE CATHOLICITY MESSAGE)
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
We extend a heartfelt welcome to the thousand or so freshly-minted CatholiCity Citizens. Rather than the usual "items," we're going to give you a madcap recap of what exactly this "CatholiCity Message" is all about to help our new friends. For our old friends and new, we'll have our "group prayer" and a quote, and a word about the newest member of the Catholicity family, Chesterton Puller.
1. BACK IN THE OLD DAYS
First of all, the CatholiCity Message used to be a weekly. Now it's a lazy monthly.
When we started writing it in 1996, we did write it every week, but that just didn't "feel" right to most people, including us. Back in '96, less than 3,000 families (whom we refer to as "CatholiCity Citizens") received it, and it's grown by word-of-mouth (like everything we do here) to over 60,000 families around the world.
Some people pronounce it "Catholic City," others as "catholicity." Either way is fine with us. We're not bureaucrats.
2. CLOSE YOUR EYES AND WAIT FOR A BIG...
As our long-time readers know well, our goal has never been to "sell" anything, or even to keep you informed of things particular to CatholiCity, though we do leverage your enormous influence of having tens of thousands of readers to arrange some spectacular offers from other apostolates–once a year, usually–and we do occasionally make "big announcements" that have to do with the website. Our goal is something else. It's...
3. ALFRED HITCHCOCK
Our simple goal as your word-server is to make sure you're never quite sure what we're going to write about. Alfred Hitchcock said the key to making a good film is to surprise the moviegoer.
Lawrence Olivier said his secret to acting was that he always tried to surprise the audience (watch any movie of his with this in mind and you'll quickly see what we mean). We eat this stuff up (with a spoon).
4. CONSTANT FAILURE
We constantly fail at this goal, but hey, who's keeping track? Expect jokes. Expect thoughts on the difficulties of getting those sticky labels off Tupperware dishes. Expect quotes that whack you upside the soul. Expect to read our Rules of Etiquette for Email (one of our most popular messages in 1996, somehow lost in the ether between webmasters...but we'll do it again someday). Expect Cheese Dreams (huh?). Expect, as we did in November of 2000, to come along with us on a last minute trip to Florida during a contested presidential election to bring a relic of the True Cross into a pressroom during the key moment. Expect a really corny joke, or a quote from a saint or a baseball player (or both).
5. EXPECT TO PRAY WITH 60,000 CITIZENS
One time, without planning it, we "threw in" a group prayer,
a Hail Mary, and the next thing we know, we're flooded with hundreds of messages from our Citizens, saying, in effect, "Cool!
Do that again!" So we did it again. There's something delightful and world-changing about opening your email knowing that tens of thousands of people are going to be praying with you.
At least it seems delightful to us.
And expect to hear about Our Lady. We love Mary. We wish but for every person in the world to love her. She has our heart, and we hope she gets ahold of yours, too, if she hasn't already. She's the best. Jesus' Mom. We love her.
And expect us to end the recap here. And now for the collie.
6. LOW THRESHOLD FOR HAPPINESS
Beneath our high school yearbook picture, where our New Jersey-bred classmates listed their future plans as "Electrical Engineering" and "Traveling to Europe," we listed "writing, and owning a collie." Earlier this week,
Chesterton "Chesty" Puller arrived on a plane from Austin,
Texas.
Basically, our only ambition in life has just been fulfilled.
Chesty, a very rare all-white (except for his face, which is black and brown) pure-bred, is sitting at our feet right now. He's a cute little bugger. Most days, we are neither depressed nor exhilirated. That is, we are low-grade, steady-energy, satisfied-to-watch-tv types–and now you know why: we aim low.
Ambitions completed without struggle and ahead of schedule, we shall still continue to write the CatholiCity Message, at least this particular one. After we finish typing today, we may never write another one again (of course). Basically everything is gravy from here on in.
We have a collie now. We're done.
You Dog People know, and you Marines understand the middle name.
7. IN THE SOUL
This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday, as you well know, so why don't all of us oldtime CatholiCity Citizens inaugurate the new guys and gals with the simple prayer given directly by the Holy Trinity to Saint Faustina, destined to become the second most popular devotion in the Catholic Church after the Holy Rosary. Let's all 60,000 of us begin "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit..."
"Eternal Father, we offer you the body and blood, soul and divinity, of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins, and those of the whole world. For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us, and on the whole world. Amen."
Two final thoughts. First, the CatholiCity Message usually isn't this lengthy (surprise!), so thank you for sticking with it, and secondly, if you have no idea what the Divine Mercy Chaplet is, you can get a free recording of it (along with the Rosary) from the Mary Foundation here:
https://secure.catholicity.com/order.html
"Celebrate this Mass as if it was your first Mass; celebrate this Mass as if it were your only Mass; celebrate this Mass as if it were your last Mass."
On the Wall Leading to Chapel of the Sisters of Charity in Rome
Until next time, we remain yours...
With Christ,
Those Dog's Best Friends at CatholiCity
