The CatholiCity Message

Volume XVIII, Number 1 – January 17, 2014

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

Welcome to the record-setting eighteenth year of the CatholiCity Message. I promise to write solidly Catholic stuff in 2014 you won't read anywhere else.

Yikes!
The Post Office inexplicably delivered my real-world 2013 Christmas Appeal letter a full three weeks after we dropped it off at their processing center! As a result the letter got lost in the Christmas scramble and many of you never received it. Did you even get my letter? The bizarre postal screw-up hammered us financially compared to past years, but we can still catch up!

Tens of thousands receive this message: will you consider being one of the 1,000 heroes we need to keep this apostolate alive for the sake of the lives we'll change in 2014 and beyond? Donating online takes only a moment and so far everybody loves the beautiful Jesus Crucified lapel pin and art-house print we'll send you as tokens of our gratitude.

http://www.catholicity.com/support/donation.html

Be a Monthly Hero
If you prefer, you can also set up an automatic monthly credit card donation in less than a few minutes (you can drop out any time for any reason):

http://www.catholicity.com/support/monthly.html

How to Hurt a Scotsman
I forgot to mention in my emails that once again I am personally matching every gift this year with one dollar, so please, hurt this Scot where it counts.

Who is Ticked Off When People Convert?
Despite pop culture jokes to the contrary, the Postal Service has been very reliable over the years, and my sense is the weird delay was in some part due to "interference" from old sparky. He cannot be pleased with the next item, for example, and would relish taking out a faithful Catholic apostolate that reaches large numbers of lost souls. I will not go into details, but we endured similar spiritual warfare in 2013 as we fought and scraped to make our new line of booklets available.

Department of Angels Rejoicing in Heaven
You have already distributed well over 200,000 new booklets since the release in November, including around 50,000 Going Back to Confession After Years or Decades. That means thousands of real people have and will avail themselves of this most beautiful sacrament and nearly all of them probably would not have done so otherwise. If you distributed copies, prayed with us, or supported our work financially, then pat yourself on the back, because Our Lady surely will do the same when you get to heaven!

The Forgotten Mortal Sin
Were you struck by the large drop-off of attendance (compared to Sunday Mass) on January 1, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God? It fell on a Wednesday and was a Holy Day of Obligation. Obviously, a great number of Catholics, even those who regularly attend Sunday Mass, do not realize that deliberately skipping weekly Mass or a Holy Day of Obligation without a serious reason is a grave sin.

I understand how a poorly catechized Catholic can rationalize this as a minor transgression, but it is, in fact, a very big deal. On the most fundamental level "Keeping the Sabbath Holy" is a non-negotiable Commandment. There are 168 hours in a week and God and the Church only ask for one. Furthermore, Christ is the head of the Catholic Church, and to willfully disobey her few precepts, and by extension, Jesus, is a grave matter.

On the other hand, I would wager that you, like me, cannot recall hearing this fundamental teaching during a homily. Which is why I brought it up, and without judgment, but with love, and in the warmest possible way, I invite you to go to Confession if this is an area where you have been weak or misinformed.

Notable Feastdays in January and Early February

• Tuesday, January 21. Saint Agnes of Rome, Fourth Century Virgin and Martyr.
• Wednesday, January 22, Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children (U.S.). 40th annual 2014 March for Life in Washington D.C.
• Tuesday, January 28. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Smartest Guy Ever. He composed the prayer we'll pray below.
• Friday, January 31. Saint John Bosco. A modern saint for education and children. Did you know his Salesians comprise the largest religious congregation in the world?
• Monday, February 3. Saint Blaise. Yes, the Sore Throat Candle guy, so don't forget to go to daily Mass.
• Tuesday, February 11. Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Whence in 1858 Our Lady told Saint Bernadette Soubirous, "I am the Immaculate Conception." The still-powerful movie, Song of Bernadette, is available on Netflix DVD service.

Quotes

The Reformation is always described as a protest against the power of the pope. I should rather describe it as a protest against the impotence of the pope. It came at the end of a long trail of tragic-comedy and bathos, in which the central power, so far from being too central, had been hopelessly decentralized and divided. It was not until people had had the absurd experience of having three popes that they completed the absurdity of having three or four religions.
G.K. Chesterton

If the faith is in imminent peril, prelates ought to be accused by their subjects, even in public.
Saint Thomas Aquinas

Alcohol lengthens the tongue and narrows the mind.
My grandfather, Bill Macfarlane

With socialism the powerful become rich and the rich become powerful.
Rush Limbaugh

Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.
Pope Francis

From Christ's fullness grace is outpoured on us. The Son of God was made Man that men might be made gods and become the children of God.
Saint Thomas Aquinas

Reason, as born on the wings of Thomas, can scarcely rise higher.
Pope Leo XIII on Saint Thomas Aquinas

Praying with Tens of Thousands
What follows is one of my favorite prayers for work or study, which I pray every day, and is featured in our new Powerful Prayers Every Catholic Should Know booklet. Composed by the master, Thomas Aquinas, it illustrates that for which it asks, so please join me and many thousands of CatholiCity Citizens around the world...in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...

"Ineffable Creator, pour forth the ray of your light into the darkened place of my mind and banish from my soul the twofold darkness of sin and ignorance into which I was born. You who make eloquent the tongues of infants, refine my speech and pour upon my lips the goodness of your blessing. Grant me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret, and eloquence in speech. May you guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress, and bring it to completion, Amen."

Thank you for praying and reading (or skimming!). Next time, I have positive thoughts on Pope Francis, tool boxes, Fr. McCloskey on how to convert anybody, the Feds persecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and a prayer by Saint Ignatius that is so profound and powerful that, oddly, you may have a difficult time praying it with all your heart. CatholiCity Citizens are the best!

With Saint Joseph,

Bud Macfarlane