The CatholiCity Message
Volume XVII, Number 7 – September 13, 2013
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Since I did not get enough sleep last night (for good reasons, of course), I'm bound to write anything today. I have been hoping for two long years to announce the first item, yet that absolutely pales against the *fourteen* years that many of you have been waiting for the second item. Oh, and you're gonna love the Quotes near the end.
1. COUNTLESS PEOPLE WILL RETURN TO CONFESSION
If you want to pile up treasure in heaven, keep your eye on your inbox, because my next message will almost certainly announce the release of four all-new, free, incredibly powerful booklets. There has never been anything like them. Two were specifically designed to help you persuade hundreds of thousands and eventually millions of our fallen-away and luke-warm brothers and sisters to return to Confession. The other two booklets are just as spectacular. With your help, I believe the Confession booklets will cause more people to return to the sacrament than any other apostolic initiative in the history of the United States and Canada (and other countries too!).
2. MY FOURTH NOVEL. REALLY.
My fourth novel is well underway. I sincerely believe you will love it. We hope to bring it out during the first half of 2014 (so be as generous as you can during the annual Christmas Appeal so we can afford to print 'em). If you are new to the CatholiCity Message and have no idea what this is about, well, somewhere in the neighborhood of two million readers can't all be wrong, and your fellow CatholiCity Citizens have been using the first three novels to evangelize family, friends, and fellow parishioners since 1995. Free copies of the first three are available here (and on Kindle for a minuscule donation):
http://www.catholicity.com/novels/
3. FILE UNDER: TALL BOYS
Tim, Michelle, Katherine, and everyone here is truly grateful those of you who took part in our recent High Shipping Costs are Smacking Us Upside the Head Appeal through regular postal mail. The challenge around here has never been lack of demand for our materials (because you guys really are the best). In case you missed my letter or even if you just want to see a PDF photo (on Page 2) of my extremely tall and barefoot sons, download here:
Back already? If you want to pitch in, you can make a donation online here:
http://www.catholicity.com/support/donation.html
4. SEXUAL MASS SUICIDE
From an August 2013 issue of Time Magazine: the birthrate in the U.S. is the lowest in American history. From 2007 to 2011, the most recent year for which there is data, the fertility rate declined 9%. Statistically, this is a mind-bendingly staggering decline. A 2010 Pew Research report showed that childlessness has risen across all racial and ethnic groups, adding up to about 1 in 5 American women who end their childbearing years without having children, compared with 1 in 10 in the 1970s.
5. THE STEREOTYPE IS WRONG
One thing that has always bothered me is the portrayal of nuns in movies and television as cruel or crazy or both. The nuns in my life, especially the ones who taught at my grammar school, even a few of the liberal bent, were patient, sacrificial, and loving. Holy virgins of God, we thank you. Please keep praying for us.
QUOTATIONS
"A friend is a person before whom I can think aloud."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
Albert Einstein
"Work usually follows will."
Louis Pasteur
"That the Mystical Body of Christ and the Catholic Church in communion with Rome are one and the same thing is a doctrine based on revealed truth."
Pope Pius XII
"To get to Confession, you only need to find one priest. Find him. There are over 41,000 priests in over 18,000 parishes and religious houses in the United States alone. Do not hesitate to knock on the door of a nearby church, even on this very day, and request to go to Confession right away. Like Jesus, the priest who will hear your Confession gave up marriage, material goods, and made a vow of obedience to be maximally available just for you."
From: Going Back to Confession After Years or Decades
New Booklet from Mary Foundation (Release Date: October 2013)
"He was the janitor, glorified, missing only one finger."
First line from Bud's fourth novel, tentatively entitled Today is the Wound
"If it is daily bread, why do you take it once a year, as the Greeks in the east are accustomed to do? Take daily what will profit you daily. So live that you may deserve to receive it daily. He who does not deserve to receive [Holy Communion] daily does not deserve to receive it once a year."
Saint Ambrose, On the Sacraments, Fourth Century
"Can anything be imagined more charitable, more tender?"
Blaise Pascal, On Confession
"It is practically a cliché that most people avoid dwelling on the fact of inevitable biological death and live as if they will not die despite all evidence to the contrary. Statistically, our chances of living past the age of one hundred are 1 in 30,000. Virtually every person reading this booklet will die before the age of eighty, no matter how perfectly you eat, how disciplined your exercise, how amazing your doctors, or spectacular the healing drugs. There is a profound truth underlying the seemingly irrational psychological denial of death we all share: we do, in fact, live forever."
From: For Adults Only, A Mature Conversation About Changing Your Life
New Booklet from Mary Foundation (Release Date: October 2013)
"We cannot help conforming ourselves to what we love."
Saint Francis de Sales
SELECTED FEASTDAYS IN YOUR NEAR FUTURE
September 30, Monday, Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church, translator of the still wonderful Latin Vulgate Bible, completed 405 A.D. after 33 years of work.
October 1, Tuesday. Saint Therese of Lisieux, and my birthday patron saint. What is a bud, after all, other than a little flower? You can start a nine day novena on Saturday, September 23. Ask for something big and miraculous! Here is my favorite prayer to her, (besides "Help!"):
"O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, please pick a rose for me from the heavenly garden and send it to me as a message of love. O Little Flower of Jesus, ask God today to grant the favors I now place with confidence in your hands (State Your Request). Saint Therese, help me to always believe as you did in God's great love for me so that I might imitate your Little Way each day, Amen."
October 2, Wednesday. Guardian Angels. Do you pray to yours every day?
October 4, Friday. Saint Francis of Assisi. Died in 1226. Pope named after him, 2013.
October 7, Monday. Our Lady of the Rosary. Do you know about its amazing history? Find out here:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=617
October 15, Tuesday, Saint Teresa of Avila. Doctor of the Church. Mystic. One of the most amazing women of all time or any time.
LET'S PRAY, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF US TOGETHER
We all have our ailments, challenges, financial struggles, employment issues, worries about our children or grandchildren, and relationship problems. Tens of thousands of people receive this message. There is amazing spiritual power in that. Let us pray for each other, with each other, in a prayer I composed and pray every day after receiving Communion, a similar version of which was just granted permission for publication from my local bishop. We begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
"Dear Jesus, we offer the graces merited via our Holy Communions for the spiritual and temporal needs, conversion and sanctification, healing, perfect health, and long life of all CatholiCity Citizens, their spouses, children and/or grandchildren and their future spouses, Amen."
And Amen. Thank you for being such a faithful part of our work. With much love, through and...
With Immaculate Mary,
Bud Macfarlane
Founder
