The CatholiCity Message

Volume XVIII, Number 6 – May 17, 2014

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

Only two items today, followed by quotations (including four by Pope Francis on the devil) and a cyber-prayer. Let's go!

Ask Yourself One Question
Over the years we could not help but notice some CatholiCity Citizens slow down after Easter in their parish evangelization efforts distributing our CDs, booklets, and novels. I understand. We all tend to ramp up during Lent and it's only natural to take a breather, plus summertime offers distractions, especially for those of us with school-aged children. I warmly suggest that you ask yourself this simple motivational question:

Does my parish have life- and eternity-changing Mary Foundation booklets and CDs on Confession, the Mass, and the Rosary available at the doorways and on the racks or tables?

No? If not you, then who is going to fill the breach? Wouldn't you like to be the one who helped Jesus bring a person back to Confession or begin praying the Rosary? A million years ago I went on a high school retreat and after the commencement Mass we were each given a cross with the words Jesus is Counting on You inscribed on the back. That was something to take seriously.

Jesus is counting on you. You are a few minutes away from having a bunch of free or ridiculously inexpensive, high-quality Catholic conversion materials and displays speeding to your front door. I just got an email this week about a woman who returned to the sacraments on her deathbed after decades away from the Church after a loving CatholiCity Citizen named Ginny sent her our new Going Back to Confession booklet.

https://secure.catholicity.com

Time out. Please forgive me. Sometimes in my thirst for souls I push a little hard. Other times I don't ask you at all. Often I screw up in how I ask. Please ignore the messenger and consider the message: Jesus is counting on you.

Five Powerful Friends in Heaven
Day by day, it seems, we are witnesses to the disintegration of our own society in terms of immorality, family, and religious ignorance or indifference. Our friends, relatives, and neighbors seem to live in a fog of what I term "functional atheism," that is: they live as if God doesn't exist and as if there are no eternal consequences for our individual moral choices. The devil surely tempts us believers to lose sight of the mind-blowingly supernatural quality of being a Catholic and how our baptisms have permanently tapped us into the superabundant power of God, who triumphed for all time on the Cross. His divine power is available to us through the Mystical Body of Christ, including via the intercession of the Church Triumphant--countless millions of Christians who now participate from heaven in the saving work of Jesus on earth.

Five saints among the members of the Church Triumphant have proven utterly reliable over the centuries. I encourage you to ask each of them for help, even on a daily basis. Perhaps some of you had a devotion when you were younger which has faded in recent years. Some may have no devotion because it simply was not passed on to you. You can do a lot of good for others with these saints:

• Saint Joseph
• Saint Anthony of Padua
• Saint Jude the Apostle
• Saint Therese of Lisieux
• Saint Josemaria Escriva

These guys and this wonderful gal have been answering my own prayers with amazing results for my entire adult life. There are novena prayers for the first four in our new Powerful Prayers booklet, which I use every day at Mass. (Make sure you get a copy when you stock up for you parish.)

Our group prayer below will feature a traditional prayer to one of the Top Five.

Catholic Quotations

When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil.
Pope Francis

The presence of the devil is on the first page of the Bible, and the Bible ends as well with the presence of the devil with the victory of God over the devil.
Pope Francis

Jesus fights the devil: first criterion. Second criterion: he who is not with Jesus is against Jesus. There are no attitudes in the middle. Third criterion: vigilance over our hearts because the devil is astute. He is never cast out forever. It will only be so on the last day.
Pope Francis

With the prince of this world (Satan) one cannot dialogue. Dialogue is necessary among us, it is necessary for peace, it is an attitude that we must have among ourselves in order to hear each other, to understand each other...it is born from charity, from love. But with that prince one cannot dialogue. One can only respond with the word of God that defends us.
Pope Francis

A sin that is not quickly blotted out by repentance is both a sin and a cause of sin.
Pope Saint Gregory

Stupidity is also a gift from God but one must not misuse it.
Pope Saint John Paul II

Love is never defeated, and I could add, the history of Ireland proves it.
Pope Saint John Paul II

The cemetery of victims of human cruelty in this century is extended to include another vast cemetery, that of the unborn.
Pope Saint John Paul II

Anybody can become pope. The proof of this is that I have become one.
Pope Saint John XXIII

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams.
Pope Saint John XXIII

Tens of Thousands of Us Praying Together

Let us begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit..

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.

Thank you for reading and for being such a faithful part of our work and our lives. Don't forget the Ascension, a holy day of obligation, is on Thursday, May 29 this year. We're praying for you every day at Mass...

With Immaculate Mary,

Bud Macfarlane