The CatholiCity Message
Volume XIX, Number 3 – March 13, 2015
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
I will be relatively brief and return next week with my usual longer message. We begin with encouraging suggestions for Lent in an article by our longtime CatholiCity friend, Fr. John McCloskey, which relies on the wisdom of Pope Benedict and includes a common sense list of things you should consider doing this Lent.
God Is Not a Bureaucrat
As I always say, God is not a bureaucrat, so He won't mind if you get started late. In fact, this year I added an extra day of fasting on Wednesdays late in the game myself for all the moms and future moms who receive this CatholiCity Message. Any of you guys want to join me for just three more Wednesdays? Here is Fr. John's article.
Never Too Late
Years ago I read a biography of Saint Pio, who occasionally was given the gift of knowing the fate of deceased souls. Therein was recounted the true story of a woman who came to him terrified that her late husband was sent to hell after he committed suicide by jumping off a bridge over a river. Padre Pio advised her to keep praying for her husband's soul because the man was in purgatory, having repented and asked for God's Mercy just before he hit the water!
So there is hope for even the most wayward soul, including many of our relatives, and we can almost never discern on this earth how our prayers, reparations, and evangelical efforts will impact the graces received—perhaps many years from now during the final moments before death—on the people we love and people we do not even know personally.
Ordering in Time for Easter
My heartfelt thanks to the record number of you who have ordered Mary Foundation CDs, booklets, and novels to give away in your parishes during Lent. Easter Sunday is only twenty-two days from now, and if you want to get in on the action (or reload), we'll ship your materials (including free displays) immediately for ridiculously tiny donation amounts. Order here.
P.S. And if you donate $50 or more between now and 11pm PST on Monday, March 16, regardless of whether you order materials or not, I'll send you a free, personalized autographed copy of my third novel, House of Gold, which is packed with almost unbearable suffering (but in an edifying, can't-stop-reading way). It's my gift to you: the Cross.
The Fourth Station of the Cross
Let us, tens of thousands of us together, imagine our bloodied brother, Jesus, as He meets Mary during his long climb to Golgotha Hill, as we pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:
We adore you, O Christ and we praise you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Please, Jesus, let us carry our own crosses with love and determination and hope like you did, and please give us the gift of meeting your mother along the way to console us. Amen.
As always, feel fit to hit reply and let me know what's on your mind. Thank you for begin a part of our work, and thank you for letting us be a part of your Lent 2015.
With Saint Joseph,
Bud Macfarlane
