The CatholiCity Message

Volume XIV, Number 5 – June 28, 2010

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

We are typing it Old School this month, bringing you stuff that most of you assuredly have never heard before, plus, a Basic Principle for Changing Your Life (the last quote at the end, so do not miss it!). But first,

FUNNY THINGS TO SAY AT SOCCER AND BASEBALL GAMES
After decades of extensive trial and error, the following completely original small-talk one-liners will bring a smile (and if your timing is good, a laugh) on the sidelines or in the stands of your child's next sports game:

"It really is amazing--this entire game is in high definition. Seriously, it looks completely real."

"There are two kinds of people in this world...and you're not one of them."

A POWERFUL WORD FOR EVANGELIZATION
Just about anybody can hold out an item for just about anybody else and say the following word: "Here." The other person will take it, especially if you add a winning smile. To wit...

IN TIME FOR THE FOURTH
...if you order our free Catholic CDs and novels right now, they should arrive in time for you to give to your friends and relatives during your Fourth of July gatherings. Fortified by your prayers (and our own), you might just help Uncle Ned or Cousin Sally return to the joys of being a practicing Catholic. Click here:

http://www.catholicity.com/gifts/

EXCELLENT PRAYER FOR AFTER RECEIVING COMMUNION
In addition to being just about the smartest Catholic (and, perhaps, person) ever, not to mention a humble, mystical saint, Saint Thomas Aquinas had a gift for composing prayers and hymns. For example, just about every benediction features his sublime love song to the Eucharist, Humbly Let Us Voice Our Homage (in Latin: Tantum Ergo)--which he wrote at the request of Pope Urban IV in the 1260s to help celebrate the newly inaugurated Feast of Corpus Christi. What follows is Thomas's greatest hit for just after receiving Communion. Print it out and bring it to the next Mass you attend. Take time to memorize it. In the meantime, we invite you to pray it along with tens of thousands of your fellow CatholiCity Citizens, bearing in mind the last time we received the Eucharist:

"Lord, Father all-powerful and ever-living God, I thank you, for even though I am a sinner, your unprofitable servant, not because of my worth but in the kindness of your mercy, you have fed me with the precious Body and Blood of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that this Holy Communion may not bring me condemnation and punishment but forgiveness and salvation. May it be a helmet of faith and a shield of good will. May it purify me from evil ways and put an end to my evil passions. May it bring me charity and patience, humility and obedience, and growth in the power to do good. May it be my strong defense against all my enemies, visible and invisible, and the perfect calming of all my evil impulses, bodily and spiritual. May it unite me more closely to you, the one true God, and lead me safely through death to everlasting happiness with you. And I pray that you will lead me, a sinner, to the banquet where you, with your Son and Holy Spirit, are true and perfect light, total fulfillment, everlasting joy, gladness without end, and perfect happiness to your saints. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen."

ONLY ONE MIRACLE
One of the parishes nearby us has a wonderful priest who has a knack for explaining Church teaching in interesting ways. During his homily on the Feast of Corpus Christi, he pointed out that two miracles occur at every Mass. First, there is the miracle of transubstantiation whereby the bread and wine becomes Jesus--body, blood, soul and divinity. The second miracle, he explained, is that Eucharist retains the appearance of bread and wine despite being something else. Further, after referring to famous Eucharistic "miracles" in history where the consecrated host actually turned into human flesh, he pointed out that in those cases, only the first miracle occurred, and that the two miracles we normally experience at Mass is therefore much more astounding.

YOU MATTER: AN OVERVIEW
One could say we have failed to convert everyone on earth to Catholicism over the centuries because Catholics have not been, in general, holy enough. To narrow our scope, we have not converted America to Catholicism because the majority (over sixty percent in most dioceses) of baptized Catholics do not practice their faith in any meaningful way. Additionally, the vast majority of the minority who do attend Mass on Sunday either do not know the teachings of the Church or reject poorly presented versions of those teachings. As a litmus test, well over ninety percent of married Catholics reject Our Lord's teachings on openness to life by using contraception.

Additionally, we have suffered through almost three generations of bishops who apparently were either liberal in belief, were luke warm in fervor, or were reckless in preventing homosexuality and sexual abuse to flourish under their watch (although most were seemingly decent men or able administrators). We were once told in private by the head of an international religious congregation that the situation with American bishops was so dire that a majority would have voted for schism in the 1980s. As go the bishops, so went the priests. Many of our most faithful young men were driven out of the liberal seminaries. The long reign of Pope John Paul II, under whom most of the worst bishops either retired or were replaced, apparently brought us back from the edge of de facto schism.

The result, in 2010, is that less than five percent of baptized Catholics in the U.S. and Canada believe and practice what the Church teaches as the Church herself magisterially defines those teachings.

If you are reading this, you are part of the minority of the minority. Only true believers actually care about the souls of the people in their circle of influence, and thus, only true believers evangelize. Therefore, your actions are extraordinarily important for the salvation of souls of others. Yes, only God's grace saves souls. Jesus started with two people: His mom and dad. Later, twelve apostles. Now, He has you. You matter.

Just so you know, for nearly two decades now, we have prayed for you and all Mary Foundation benefactors after receiving Holy Communion at daily Mass. We pray for your "spiritual and temporal needs," for all our benefactors--past, present, and future. We will keep that up until we stop breathing. And now, what would a CatholiCity Message be without...

QUOTATIONS

"The virtue of a man ought to be measured not by his extraordinary exertions but by his everyday conduct."
Blaise Pascal

"It is better to advise than upbraid, for the one corrects the erring while the other only convicts them."
Epictetus

"I regard no man as poor who has a godly mother."
Abraham Lincoln

"The more you talk, the more trouble you get into. Until you are in trouble--then, the more you talk, the more trouble you get out of."
Matthew Shelter

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
Albert Einstein

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
Winston Churchill

"Secret study, silent thought, is, after all, the mightiest agent in human affairs."
William Ellery Channing

"Wise men, though all laws were abolished, would lead the same life."
Aristophanes

"Philosophy is the meditation on death. This definition is better suited to Christians, who, trampling on worldly ambition, live in the intercourse of discipline, after the likeness of their future country."
Saint Isidore

"For true religion is that by which the soul is united to God so that it binds itself again by reconciliation to Him from Whom it had broken off, as it were, by sin."
Saint Augustine

"The greatest general misconception regarding how to improve our habits or destroy our vices is that one must approach such tasks by use of small, gradual steps. This is invariably ineffective, despite our shared lifetimes of failure using such means. To effect lasting change for an individual soul requires dramatic, large, and even drastic alterations to our actual behavior. Not one of the famous Twelve Steps for alcoholics is minor in scope. Spirituality is no different. Decide to go to Mass every single day for the rest of your life, and now you are on to something. Consider fasting, which is ridiculously difficult, especially for the novice, yet our sinless, perfect Lord fasted often and assiduously. So if you want to change, change BIG. God will help. Big changes to us are small matters for Him to support."
G.K. McBrien

Thanks. Hope this helped. Until next month, we remain yours...

With Christ Jesus, King of Kings,

Your Friends at CatholiCity