The CatholiCity Message

Volume XVI, Number 7 – August 22, 2012

August 22, 2012
Feast of the Queenship of Mary

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

Every day, as I walk through our wonderfully inexpensive operations center, I see boxes and packages filled with CDs, novels, and booklets ready for shipping to you and your fellow CatholiCity Citizens. I wonder how many real people, who, in response to God's pure grace and you taking the time to put them out in churches, offices, and grocery stores, will choose the narrow path to heaven because of the materials headed for your doorstep on this very day. Thank you.

Just last week, we put in an order for another 100,000 "Seven Daily Habits for Faithful Catholics" booklets. Just one booklet has the potential to encourage a single soul to bring thousands of prayers, Masses, rosaries, and other faithful spiritual works into our broken world.

YOUR BOX FOR SOULS
Here is practical advice: keep a cardboard box or plastic "evangelization" basket of CDs, novels, and booklets in your car at all times. The Holy Spirit will prompt you where they are needed most, especially to keep your local churches stocked up. I assure you the evil one and his minions will try to discourage you. They absolutely hate losing souls to these simple, inexpensive tools.

Sanctification is a matter of a lifetime, but conversion is a matter of a moment. God is depending on you for particular people in your area to have that glorious conversion moment using our materials. For most of the folks reading this, it is probably time to reload your box for souls:

https://secure.catholicity.com/

NEW BOOKLETS COMING SOON
Within weeks, we are going place orders for at least three all-new life-changing booklet titles to join "Daily Habits," including an exciting longer-format booklet. In fact, I am putting the final touches on them this week. We move forward, investing tens of thousands of dollars, with great confidence in your love for souls.

PARENTING ADVICE: ONE SHOE METHOD
Years ago, in a burst of inspiration a friend of mine took one shoe off of his misbehaving son and made him keep the other shoe on until he settled down. Worked. I tested this on my youngest. Worked.

BACK TO GRAMMAR SCHOOL TIPS
Decisions about how to raise children are the domain and responsibility of individual sets of parents, and with the utmost respect, we only offer advice to be helpful while noting that circumstances can vary dramatically for every family. What follows may not even apply:

If old enough and safe, consider having your children walk or bike to school, even in bad weather (especially in bad weather). This reinforces personal responsibility, gives time for daydreaming (underrated!) and physical fitness.

After school (or athletics directly after school), do homework before anything else. I encourage my sons to do it completely AND quickly. The habit of doing tasks well FAST is highly rewarded in the adult world.

If your children attend school outside the home, personally let teachers know that you expect to be contacted immediately about any behavioral or academic problem, warning sign, or trend immediately, not after bad habits are formed. Nowadays, most teachers post assignments and grades online, which helps.

I let my teachers know that the virtue of charity is my greatest concern. I tell my boys to "love everyone" before they head off for the day.

JOKES FROM A 1998 EMAIL
A mom was about to serve pancakes for little Johnny and Marty. They began to argue over who would get the biggest pancake. Discerning an opportunity to teach a spiritual lesson, the mother told them, "If Jesus were at this table, he would of say, I can wait, let my brother have the biggest pancake." Johnny turned to his brother and said, "Okay, Marty, you be Jesus."

Mary and her little brother Tommy were at Sunday Mass when Tommy began to sing and act up. Finally, Mary had had enough. "You're not supposed to talk out loud in church." Tommy replied, "Oh yeah, well who's going to stop me?" Mary pointed to the back of the church, and said, "See those two men in jackets standing by the door? They're hushers."

SOME FEAST DAYS COMING SOON
Today, August 22, Queenship of Mary
Monday, August 27, Saint Monica (Mother of Augustine)
Tuesday, August 28, Saint Augustine (Bishop and Doctor)
Monday, September 3, Pope Saint Gregory the Great
Friday, September 14, Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Friday, September 21, Saint Matthew
Saturday, September 29, Archangels Michael, Raphael, Gabriel

TENS OF THOUSANDS, PRAYING TOGETHER
No matter how you educate your children, at home or otherwise, the lazy days of summer draw nigh, and our children return to studies at colleges, high schools, and grammar schools (all three in my case). On the feast of Mary, Queen of Heaven, let us pray together, tens of thousands of us through the time-tripping ether of cyberspace, with the intention of the proper protection and formation of the souls and minds of our children, and do so in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...

"Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of mercy,
our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve:
to thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us,
and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Amen."

QUOTATIONS

"Because I helped to wind the clock, I come to hear it strike."
William Butler Yeats

"There are two kinds of people in this world, and you are not one of them."
G.K. McBrien

"If you cheerfully bear your cross, it will bear you."
Thomas a Kempis

"Be a lion in the pulpit, but a lamb in the confessional."
St. Alphonse Liguori

"There is no leisure in politics, for politicians are ever seeking an end outside political practice, for instance, power and fame. Political life neither provides our final end nor contains the happiness we seek for ourselves or others."
Saint Thomas Aquinas

"The purpose of temporal tranquility, which well-ordered policies establish and maintain, is to give opportunities for contemplating truth."
Saint Thomas Aquinas

"The hazards of politics come not from campaigns and elections, as might be supposed, but rather from the nature of the creature that engages in politics. Ambition, love, jealousy, hate and the many other emotions and reactions man is heir to frequently affect the course of nation and world more than principles or circumstances or events."
James Farley

Thanks for reading and for being a part of our work. As the election draws closer, let us pray for the successful and prudent decisions of all pro-life politicians during this crucial stretch. Your prayers bring them grace. We remain yours...

With Immaculate Mary,

Bud Macfarlane
Founder