The CatholiCity Message
Volume XII, Number 2 – February 6, 2008
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
By the time you read this, most of you will have carried the ashes on your forehead to begin Lent. For our annual Lenten Message, we'll address four simple categories. One: a reflection to help you start Lent. Two: a way to help souls during Lent by performing a Spiritual Work of Mercy. Then we'll end with a quote and a prayer. Let us begin...
1. CLOSER THAN FRIENDS
One of the best ways to begin Lent is to focus on the end of Lent, which is essentially the brutal execution of Jesus of Nazareth on a cross between two criminals. We'll do that shortly, but first, it will be helpful to reflect on the nature of friendship.
It is often preached that we need to be friends with Jesus. This is true, no doubt, but it is also true that Jesus preferred some apostles over others. He was obviously closer to Saint John, for example, than to the others. It is simply a facet of His humanity that Jesus had a particular personality, and, like any of us, this resulted in his enjoying varying degrees of chemistry required for friendship with the people in His life. There is nothing wrong with accepting that Jesus was better friends with some rather than others--and not friends with some people at all. Perhaps if you were one of the people in His circle, He would have enjoyed hanging out with you based on the pure chemistry of friendship. Don't take this the wrong way, but it also could be that you and He would not have shared the chemistry needed for friendship.
Take heart, for we suspect that Lent is less about friendship with Christ than it is about the fraternity of suffering. There is no plainer way to explain the prayer, fasting, mortification, merciful works, and almsgiving which the Church invites us to participate in during Lent than to describe it as voluntarily climbing up on to the Cross to suffer with Jesus. Those who share suffering with each other become, in a mystical way, closer than friends. They become brothers and sisters in suffering. Company on the Cross is welcome company.
It is a plain fact that the first person to merit paradise on the very day of Christ's death was the "good thief". Still, the guy was a criminal, and he was a bad enough one to merit execution under Roman law. In different circumstances, the Good Thief very well may not have possessed the "chemistry" needed for friendship with Jesus. Yet, during those bloody, painful final hours of Jesus' life, it was such a man who entered into the very small, very intimate "circle" which otherwise comprised only of Mary and Saint John. The fraternity of suffering. From this perspective, Lent is where the rubber meets the road with your relationship with Jesus. Which kind of friend to Christ are you? Which kind of friend do you want to be?
Do you want to be close to Jesus? How close?
Lent is a good time to ask--and answer--these questions.
2. SOULS, SOULS, SOULS, SOULS, SOULS, SOULS
Our parent organization, the Mary Foundation, is unlike virtually every other charity because we here at "headquarters" don't do the actual "work" of the organization. Think about it: for most charities, you send in a donation which is subsequently used to finance the work of the charity. The charity then sends off its missionaries, administers a school, feeds the poor, shelters the homeless, and so forth. (This is a wonderful system, and we urge you to support your missionaries, schools, pro-life groups, parishes, and religious congregations.)
However, you are the ones who actually distribute the life-changing Mary Foundation CDs (along with Saint Jude Media novels) to the souls who need them (to the souls the Holy Spirit is right now planning for you to reach). We are merely the "factory" which provides you with tools for evangelization. It's simple. It's beautiful. It works. And it works because you love souls. It works because you take the time to order CDs and put in the effort required to get those CDs into the hands of your family, friends, and the people at your parish and workplace. We make it easier, but it still isn't easy. It is noble, selfless work. Sadly, many Catholics cannot be bothered to do such work.
Last year, for those of you who are willing to do such selfless spiritual works for mercy, we introduced a new "tool" to help you reach even more souls: a handsome, simple, and incredibly effective "table-top" CD display which is designed to hold as many as 50 CDs. It's free for anyone who orders at least 20 CDs. It's small enough to fit into a nook, table, or shelf at any church entrance.
It works in silence. It works for strangers. It works for anyone who sees it at the doorway of church or chapel.
We've already distributed *thousands* of these powerful displays.
As we do every year, we warmly encourage you to distribute Mary Foundation CDs during Lent, as part of your Lent, and we hope you will take advantage of these free displays to reach souls in your nearby parishes (and even at your workplace, if practical). We'll make sure they arrive at your door (no matter where you are in the world) as roaring fast as modern technology and transportation allows.
To see what the new display looks like or to get started, click here:
http://www.catholicity.com/cds/
3. PLENARY INDULGENCE FOR 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF LOURDES
Pope Benedict XVI has decreed that a Plenary Indulgence is available through February 11th (the 150th Anniversary and Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes). For more information, we've posted a complete explanation, prayers, and details here:
IF THE APOSTLES HAD BEEN RANCHERS...
...then we suppose that on Fridays during Lent we wouldn't be allowed to eat fish.
QUOTES FOR LENT
"Are you capable of risking your life for someone? Do it for Christ."
Pope John Paul II
"We all suffer for each other, and gain by each other's suffering; for man never stands alone here, though he will stand alone hereafter; but here is he is a social being, and goes forward to his long home as one of a large company."
Cardinal Newman
"Nothing, how little so ever it be, if it is suffered for God's sake, can pass without merit in the sight of God."
Thomas a Kempis
A PRAYER FOR LENT
Let us pray, all tens of thousands of us, together...
"O my God, we are heartfully sorry for having offended thee, and we detest all our sins because of Thy just punishment, but most of all because we have offended Thee our God, Who is all good and deserving of all our love. We firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more, and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen."
May you have the best Lent ever. Truly, may you grow closer to Christ.
With Christ,
Your Friends at CatholiCity
