The CatholiCity Message

Volume XVII, Number 10 – November 13, 2013

NEW BOOKLETS UPDATE

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

Your response to our all-new line of Catholic booklets has been terrific. We've shipped over 35,000 booklets in a matter of days! Yesterday the UPS truck was noticeably sagging with hundreds of pounds of packages as it pulled away from our shipping center. Thank you!

Even so, many of you missed my original email, so I thought you might like to hear about our new Confession booklet in this final announcement. For only 10 cents apiece, you can now influence hundreds or even thousands of souls in nearby parishes and schools.

DESCRIPTIONS OF ALL FOUR NEW BOOKLETS:
http://www.catholicity.com/booklets/

ORDER ONLINE:
https://secure.catholicity.com/

ORDER BY MAIL:
U.S. residents can print out a mail-in order form here:
http://www.catholicity.com/orderform.pdf

PROVIDING PEOPLE A REALISTIC CHANCE TO RETURN TO CONFESSION
I truly believe our new "Going Back to Confession" booklet will help more people return to the Sacrament of Reconciliation than any other initiative in the history of the Church in America.

Here is the situation. Nationwide, 80% of baptized Catholics no longer regularly attend Mass on Sunday. Of the remaining 20%, just about everyone goes up to receive Communion. Yet it is obvious from Saturday Confession lines that most have not been to Confession in years and often decades. Tragically, most don't even know that they need to go to Confession and are unaware that they may be receiving the Eucharist unworthily.

The good news is that most people are quite willing to return to this profoundly life-changing sacrament; they only need to be asked. This booklet is designed to do only one thing: in a matter of minutes, give every reader the opportunity to make a decision about returning to Confession, especially those who have been away for a long time.

I was originally inspired to write "Going Back to Confession" by a question my friend Fr. John McCloskey has used to bring numerous people back to the Faith: "When was the last time you went to Confession?" By making our new booklet available in nearby parishes, you are essentially asking Fr. John's simple but powerful question in a loving and psychologically sound way on a very large scale.

And let's be realistic. In virtually every case this might be the *only* opportunity any particular person will have to return to Confession because no one close to them will ever ask them. Each booklet the Holy Spirit guides a person to read is crucial, but this can only happen if someone like you makes sure a booklet is within their grasp.

WHY IT WORKS: AN EMPHASIS ON ABSOLUTION
After months of prayer, I became convicted this booklet should not emphasize sin (just about everybody already knows why they need repentance on some deep level, including an epidemic of men who have picked up a pornography compulsion in recent years due to the digital revolution). Instead, "Going Back to Confession" is strongly focused on the supernatural event that takes place during Confession: namely, absolution--the transformation of the soul to its baptismal state of unity with God. Even many devout Catholics have received little catechesis on this important aspect of the sacrament.

"Going Back to Confession" then provides detailed, practical aspects on *how* to get back to Confession, the spiritual warfare involved, what to expect from the priest, and even basic advice on how specific one needs to be when confessing after a long time.

Of course, it received an Imprimatur from the Bishop of Cleveland so you can distribute it in parishes with confidence. See the cover and learn more about "Going Back to Confession" here:

http://www.catholicity.com/booklets/confession.html

There is one thing all our new booklets have in common: they are so affordable that they take money out of the evangelization equation. Just today the principal of my son's Catholic grammar school agreed to let me supply all 410 students with a copy of our new Powerful Prayers booklet. How much? Only 41 bucks! Before last week, giving four hundred kids a prayer booklet would have cost over a thousand dollars.

Yet what we're relying on here is your love for souls, even people you have never met. Most of the fallen-away Catholics I know are good-hearted. For a variety of reasons and through little fault of their own, they are simply unaware of the healing encounter with Our Savior, and ultimately, the eternal salvation awaiting them in the Confessional. If you blanket your local parishes and schools with "Going Back to Confession," the first time you will likely meet the people it helps most will be in heaven.

God ardently desires for every Catholic in your area to receive the Eucharist worthily. But first they have to go back to Confession. With our new booklet, you can help make that happen.

We're looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you being such a faithful part of our work. As always, I pray for you, your loved ones, and your intentions every day at Mass.

With Immaculate Mary,

Bud Macfarlane
Founder