An Exchange of Gifts
December 8, 2013
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
I only ask for your help once a year and here's why: CatholiCity typically runs a deficit by Advent because we give away free Catholic CDs, booklets, and novels to every person who comes to us.
Around 64% of our orders come with a donation lower than what we need to break even. The other 36% make up for some of the shortfall, but not all of it. This year that shortfall was over $120,000.
Without your generosity every Christmas, CatholiCity would have ceased to exist four years ago.
You care about helping the fallen away return to the Church, making converts, and actively helping people choose heaven over the other place. As I do every year, I just spent an hour before the Blessed Sacrament, this time with tears in my eyes, imploring Our Lord and Immaculate Mary to inspire you to respond generously to this year's appeal.
It takes less than two minutes to make an online donation:
http://www.catholicity.com/support/donation.html
Please imagine meeting the tremendous number of souls in heaven (along with their heirs) who were converted through free CDs, booklets, novels, or web content that you made possible!
This year we are offering four wonderful gifts as heartfelt tokens of our gratitude:
Jesus Crucified Magnet with Every Donation
Every donor, regardless of amount, will receive a beautiful Jesus Crucified "fridge" magnet as a powerful daily reminder to pray every time your family members grab a snack or prepare a meal.
Lapel Pin with Your $25 Gift
With your $25 gift, in addition to the magnet, you will receive a unique Jesus Crucified lapel pin. Manufactured exclusively for CatholiCity, each one has been blessed by a priest. I also touched them to my relic of the True Cross. A tasteful way to evangelize, this pin also makes a thoughtful gift for someone you love.
Art-House 8x10 Print with Your $50 Gift
Along with your lapel pin and magnet, you will receive an exquisite 8x10 Jesus Crucified art-house print when you make a donation of $50. Ready for framing with integrated double-matting on premium-grade stock, I know there is a special place for this image in your home.
Complete Set of Christmas Magnets with Your $100 Gift
For the first time ever, with your $100 gift I will also include a complete set of all of our past five Christmas magnets: the Shroud of Turin, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Christ Child, Jesus High-Priest Icon, and the Divine Mercy. You can see them here:
http://www.catholicity.com/support/donation.html
24 Hour Conversion Tool for Millions
CatholiCity is always there for you, your family, friends, and most importantly, for anyone searching online for the truth -- every minute of every day since 1996.
Over two million distinct individuals visited our website in 2013 and we expect three million more in 2014.
Your generosity will ensure that huge numbers of potential converts and fallen-away Catholics will continue to have the opportunity to receive our free life-changing CDs, novels, booklets, audio downloads, newsletter, commentary, links, resources, and online prayers.
Seventeen Cents Can Add Up Fast
Including overhead (such as rent for our shipping center) it costs around $2 to manufacture, process, package and ship a CD, book, or 10-pack of booklets. Because of our large volumes and unmatched operational innovations, that is still only a fraction of what it costs other charities and even secular companies.
Yet if we lose just 17 cents per item, that adds up to $170,000 for every million items, so you can see the fiscal tightrope we've been walking for over two decades.
More Free Stuff Planned for 2014
Last month we invested tens of thousands of dollars to release four all-new free Catholic booklets, including two I wrote specifically to persuade people to return to Confession after years or decades. Our new Prayer Booklet is a bonifide smash! Through your efforts, we've shipped an amazing 120,000 in just a few short weeks and I am confident we could distribute millions together in the coming years.
Just think: every one of next year's three million visitors will have a chance to get a free copy of those Confession booklets. Eventually tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, of real people will return to Confession--more than through any other initiative in the country.
If you come through again this Christmas we will launch a direct marketing campaign promoting our new booklets to the 18,000 parishes and religious houses in the United States. We are also hard at work on a "top-secret" free book about Jesus designed to appeal to the growing number of "Nones" (the 20% of the population who claim no religious affiliation). Nothing like it exists. I am also well into my fourth novel.
Make Your Tax-Deductible Christmas Gift Online or By Mail
http://www.catholicity.com/support/donation.html
Should You Make a Donation and How Much?
Does God even want you to make a donation? I certainly don't assume He does. I do know this: there is a tendency to assume that everybody else is making a donation. This is simply not true.
I also know some of you can make an especially large gift of hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Whether it's $500 or $5,000, whatever your particular situation is, I understand that giving a large gift will require a real sacrifice on your part. A holy nun once wrote me a letter that cut straight to my heart in this regard. "The grace that saves souls never comes cheap," she said. Sister was not referring to money, but to the Cross.
So please pray about giving as large gift as possible. Discuss it with your loved ones. In these days between the Feasts of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe, please ask Mary if she wants you to make a particularly generous donation to help bring souls to our beloved Catholic Faith.
Of course even a modest gift of $2, $10, or $25 when combined with thousands of others will help us reach our goal. Together we've distributed millions of free CDs, novels, and booklets over the past twenty-two years. With God's grace and your continued participation in our work, we will reach countless more souls in the next twenty-two. I say it all the time because it's true: CatholiCity Citizens are the best!
If you cannot afford to help financially, I understand. I've been there. Please pray one Rosary and offer Communion for the success of this year's appeal and for the spiritual and temporal needs of your fellow CatholiCity Citizens, every unique visitor to our website, and for the salvation of every person who hears or reads our materials. May you and your family have a blessed Advent, a holy Christmas, and a grace-filled 2014.
With Saint Joseph,
Bud Macfarlane
Founder and Executive Director
P.S. Here is my take on why the miraculous image of Jesus Crucified is so powerful:
Serenity Amidst Suffering
Take a moment to gaze at Our Lord's eyes in this utterly unique portrait. Look past the thorns, the blood, and even his mouth set in a line to endure violence, and you will sense a profound peacefulness. I have asked myself: What is on Jesus' mind?
I have known the award-winning artist (who wishes to remain anonymous and donated this work exclusively for our 2013 Christmas Appeal) for almost two decades. He painted this image in less than an hour when a work of this kind normally would have taken days. He cannot explain how this happened.
Take a second look. Why are his brow and eyelids so serene? Again, what is Our Lord thinking about, now so close to his death, having suffered for hour after hour since being taken by the Roman soldiers the night before? The answer came to me.
He is thinking about us. About you and about me. And he is at peace. This is a perfect work of religious art because it conveys and connects us to its divine subject. And it is our Christmas thank-you gift to you for being such a faithful and generous part of our work.
