The CatholiCity Message
Volume XV, Number 7 – July 29, 2011
"Freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts."
Definition of the word: simplicity
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Here are four goals of this message. First, we strive to keep things simple. Second, we attempt to tell you things that you either do not know, or more often, remind you about things that you already know but are glad to call to mind for consideration from a new perspective. Third, we try to relate ideas and suggestions that will support your own decisions to change your life. Finally, we cheerfully share our mutual love for the Catholic Church, Jesus, Mary, its teachings, believing the combination of God' grace and your free will is the only path to holy contentment in this life and eternal happiness in heaven in the next.
SOMETHING TO PRAY FOR...
If you have unmarried children, even very little ones, or even hope to have children when you marry someday, it is never too soon to develop the habit of praying every day "for the spiritual and temporal needs, the conversion, sanctification, healing, perfect health, and long life" of your child or children's future spouses. Your author does this every day, after receiving Holy Communion, not only for his four unmarried sons, but also for the future spouses of your children, using the formulation quoted above. In other words, your five-year-old daughter's future husband is likely already born, and he needs your prayers, and the prayer of every parent is always stamped "urgent" in Our Lord's In-Box.
HEY, WHERE DO THE QUOTES COME FROM?
Yes, we have numerous secret non-Internet sources for finding the quotations that our extensive marketing research (actually, we conduct virtually no marketing research and have no marketing department) shows us are favored by 92.4% of CatholiCity Citizens. Additionally, there is an art to selecting quotes. Here is an example of a profound-sounding but utterly stupid quote on "simplicity" (this month's theme) that we would never put in our message:
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."
Albert Einstein
Now old Albert is often quoted, and usually sounds insightful (and he is on a lot of posters in college dorm rooms, perhaps because he sported such a psychotic haircut) but if you think about the quote above, it just does not make any sense because something that is as simple as possible cannot be made simpler. We still like Albert as a physicist.
Here is another quote, although not about simplicity, that evokes simplicity in its construction and thrust, and might even be true, although we distrust the speaker as a philosopher:
"In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate."
Rene Descartes
What is going on here? Well, in our modern society with its digital-info-saturated, overtly liberal secular public education system and mainstream media that largely ignore the central reality of life (that is, that God exists), we Christians have learned to distrust "education" per se. It is a given for most of us that "learning" has been cheapened or deformed, and that contemplation is a better, even if likely more difficult, pathway to the actual goal of learning, which is wisdom. Those of us with a few decades under our belts have screwed up enough to understand that it sometimes takes months or years to truly grasp important principles, truths, and ideas. Descartes is on to something, and even if he is not, his quote is worth contemplating, and thus also oddly self-sustaining if it improves our minds in its contemplation. Additionally, as Catholics, our Church enjoins us to contemplate the passion of Jesus, as a worldwide group, for several weeks every year. Contemplation is our thing. In Lent We Trust would be on every Catholic coin.
In general, ancient Roman or Greek guys are reliable for quotes, and your author's guess is that a quote probably has to contain some truth if a pagan came up with it and it is still around a couple of thousand years later.
"Everything is ideal to its parent."
Sophocles (Greek Dude)
This describes how I feel whenever I watch one of my boys play sports.
"Time heals what reason cannot."
Seneca (Roman Dude)
Catholic guys (and gals) provide the best quotes. This is in great part because the foundational ideas of Catholicism are true, based as they are in some degree on truths revealed by a perfect God, and despite the laughable secular stereotype that Catholics are superstitious morons, we have a couple thousand years of incredibly rigorous intellectual discipline applied to those foundational truths. In short, your run-of-mill smarter Catholic quotation guy is cooking with gas and carving the ultra-prime cut of beef with the sharpiest sharp-sharp blade of reason before jump. It has been proven as fact (by me, using a calculator watch) that 86.9% of all the dumbest, stupidest, and most illogical things to say were shoved into green bags and dragged out to the street for pick-up by Thomas Aquinas all by himself almost eight hundred years ago.
Let us move right on to the masters:
"The only simplicity that matters is the simplicity of the heart. If that be gone, it can be brought back ...only by tears and terror and fires that are not quenched."
G.K. Chesterton
"The soul in contemplation will arrive at the most high and secret reward for the sake of which it has so labored, and in which are such joys, such a full enjoyment of the highest and truest Good, such a breath of serenity and eternity, as are indescribable."
Saint Augustine
Now here, from Auggie, is a quote into which you can sink your teeth. You can just tell he is testifying from his experience, and even for a reader who has barely prayed, Saint Augustine entices us with a promise of "reward" if we follow him in the "labor" of contemplation: "the highest and truest Good." He is not even preachy, equating Good with God. Gotta love, love, love this guy so so much.
Okay, enough blabbing about quotations. Your author likes them because, well, your author does not have enough of his own material to meet the goals of this message. In other words:
"I am smart enough to know how stupid I am, and the more I contemplate that, the more confused I become. So let's go with some quotes."
Me, Your Author
IT'S THE ECONOMY, SMART GUY
We have followed Gary Shilling, an economist known mostly via his writings for Forbes magazine, for a long, long time. He is the guy who predicted the 2008 housing collapse before it happened. In a recent message, we talked about how the skyrocketing costs of food, gasoline, education, and just about everything else is taking a big toll on Catholic families. Shilling is actually predicting deflation, or what he calls an age of global "de-leveraging." We do not bring up economics often, but having information on the big picture could help you plan for your family's future, and whether you agree or disagree with Shilling's conclusions, we feel the following link is not only a very good summary of facts and trends in recent years and decades, but it provides a digestible framework of seven different ways to understand inflation/deflation. This kind of thing is catnip for a minority of us; many of you will surely find it a bit dry. Please do not let that stop you from reading it carefully. A better grasp of the big picture could relieve some of the anxiety you are feeling, as well:
http://www.forbes.com/2011/07/14/shilling-seven-faces-of-deflation.html
PRAYING FOR INSIDECATHOLIC.COM
According to a reliable source, one of our favorite Catholic websites, InsideCatholic.com will be shutting down. It began as Crisis Magazine, and I remember holding the very first issue in my hands as an undergraduate student at Notre Dame. Most of you have benefited from articles by the dozens of super-talented writers which have graced their pages and pixels. If a final decision has not yet been made, they need supernatural help, a miracle, and why not ask God for one, all sixty thousand of us, together? Let's begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
"Dear Father in Heaven, for the sake of countless souls who will benefit from Inside Catholic staying in existence, please provide whatever supernatural means required, in heaven and on earth, to save it now and keep it going into the future for years to come with abundant prosperity. For the sake of souls we ask! We bring this to You with great faith in your infinite power, your holy will, and with the intercession of all of our relatives in heaven, including the intercession of all the guardian angels of all of our relatives in heaven going back throughout all of human history to the apostles, and with the intercession, at our behest, of the miracle workers Saint Anthony, Saint Jude, Saint Joseph, the Little Flower, Saint Escriva, and Saint Mary, Our Sweet Lady and Mother. Please, we humbly beg you, do not delay in answering our plea! Amen."
AUGUST SAINTS, IN STATURE AND CALENDAR
There are some great feast days for saints coming up in August. Saint Dominic on August 8. Saint Clare on August 11. Saint Maximilian Kolbe on August 14, Saint Steven of Hungary on August 16. Saint Bernard on August 20. Saint Monica on August 27. Plus we have the Transfiguration on August 6, the Assumption of Mary on August 15, and the Queenship of Mary on August 22. Where NOT to mark your calendar, eh?
54 DAY ROSARY NOVENAS
Join your author and CatholiCity Citizens everywhere in a 54 Day Rosary Novena beginning on August 15, Feast of the Assumption, and ending on October 7, Feast of the Holy Rosary. Never heard of this amazing and powerful novena? Find out more details here:
http://www.catholicity.com/prayer/novena.html
Need a free Rosary CD to help you along? Get it here:
http://www.catholicity.com/cds/rosary.html
Thanks for being such a faithful part of our work. In our next message, we hope to tackle Facebook. We remain yours...
With Immaculate Mary,
Your Friends at CatholiCity
