The CatholiCity Message
Volume XIX, Number 12 – December 8, 2015
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
We need your help. I only ask once a year.
This year we need every person reading this message to participate in our annual Christmas Appeal or CatholiCity will cease to exist. That's okay by me; your decision to participate is the concrete way God shows us He wants us to keep going.
Please don't leave it up to "everybody else." You are everybody else. As always, I'm matching every gift with a dollar, so the Macfarlanes will be happily sacrificing along with your family. (So please go ahead and make it sting: it's my favorite charity!)
https://www.catholicity.com/support/donation.html
I promise you this: no apostolate in America reaches more fallen away Catholics per dollar. Except for my monthly Message, which I write for dedicated Catholics like you, everything we give away is designed to appeal to the lukewarm and fallen away.
In fact, together we reached nearly 30% more people over the last three years than ever before, which, combined with years of recession, is part of the reason why we're facing a big deficit. Your gift will go toward absolute necessities such as shipping packages, office rent, and manufacturing those powerful tools for evangelization.
I just prayed for you during a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament. I asked Jesus to open your heart for the sake of the millions of souls who will surf into CatholiCity.com and receive our free CDs, booklets, and novels in 2016 and beyond.
Exchange of Gifts – The Miraculous Medal
Our Christmas Appeal has always been a happy Exchange of Gifts, and our gift to you this year is the Miraculous Medal, the medal nicknamed after miracles (read the super-cool reasons why in my P.S. at the bottom).
As you can see below, it's quite beautiful, featuring an impossible-to-find Latin inscription. I want you to have the art-house print and medal in your home and on your person. They also make great Christmas gifts for someone you care about.
Can you take a few minutes to make an online donation today?
https://www.catholicity.com/support/donation.html
This year we are offering five wonderful gifts as heartfelt tokens of our gratitude:
Art-House Print with Your $30 Gift
You will receive an elegant one-of-a-kind 8x10 art-house print of the Miraculous Medal (pictured at bottom) when you make a donation of only $30 or more. Ready for framing with integrated double matting on premium-grade stock, I know there is a special place for this image in your home – perhaps in the room of someone who needs to return to the Sacraments?
Miraculous Medal with Your $60 Gift
With your donation of $60 or more, we'll also send you this truly unique Miraculous Medal. Blessed by a priest at the Cathedral where I pray for you every day at Mass, I have personally touched each one to my Relic of the True Cross and first class relics (yeah!!!) of Saints Joseph, Anthony, Jude, Therese, Maximilian, and Francis Xavier.
Magnet Collection and Two Medals with Your $100 Gift
In addition to the magnet, art-house print and two medals, we'll send a complete set of five Jesus-themed fridge magnets when you make a donation of $100 or more, also touched to the True Cross and saints relics.
Framed Print & Autographed Novels with Your $500 Gift
If you're able to make the sacrifice, we'll send you five medals, a wood-framed print, the magnet set, and personalized autographed copies of all three of my novels when you when you make a donation of $500 or more.
Fridge Magnet with Every Donation
Every donor, regardless of amount, will receive a beautiful 3x4 Miraculous Medal "fridge" magnet as a powerful daily reminder to pray every time your family members grab a snack or prepare a meal.
Make Your Tax-Deductible Christmas Gift Online or By Mail
https://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. Twice as many people (seven million) visited our website in 2013-2015 than in 2010-2012 and we expect a lot more in 2016. (They find us through excellent search-engine placement of over 18,000 individual webpages.)
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.
16 for '16: Becoming a Monthly Benefactor
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 efficiency, that is still only a fraction of what it costs other charities and even secular companies.
Can you sacrifice $16 or a multiple of $16 a month to form the "backbone" of our operation? Please consider becoming a monthly credit card donor:
https://www.catholicity.com/support/monthly.html
Should You Make a Donation and How Much?
Every year I ask: 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 believe some of you are called to make an especially large gift of hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Whether it's $500 or $5,000, whatever your individual situation is, I understand that giving a large gift will require a real sacrifice on your part. "The grace that saves souls never comes cheap," a holy nun once wrote to me. Every $100 lets us print 1,100 Returning to Confession booklets. Your gift will help a lot of real people come back to Confession next year.
So please pray and discuss it with your loved ones. In these four 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 $5, $10, or $25 will help us reach our goal.
If you cannot afford to help financially, I understand. I've been there. Please, pray one Rosary or make one Holy Hour 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 2016. All for Immaculate Mary!
With Saint Joseph,
Bud Macfarlane
Founder and Executive Director
P.S. Here's why the Miraculous Medal is so powerful:
The Medal Named After Miracles
In 1830 the Mother of God instructed Saint Catherine Laboure to make what was originally titled the Medal of the Immaculate Conception. Astounding miracles by the thousands–entire classrooms spared from deadly disease, spectacular conversions, and cures–quickly caused it to be nicknamed the Miraculous Medal. There is definitely a room in your home for this image of Mary.
Note the extremely rare Latin translation of "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." On the reverse side: for the first time in history we see the Sacred Heart of Jesus, burning beside the Immaculate Heart of Mary, her heart pierced by the sword of his crucifixion – so it's appropriate that I have personally touched each print, medal and magnet to my relic of the True Cross. The Sacred Heart image was given to St. Margaret by Jesus in 1673, who told her this devotion would save souls from hell "during these final centuries."
