Not My Words
Volume XXI, Number 9 – November 18, 2017
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
For the first time ever the bulk of today's message will consist primarily of Catholic Quotations from years past (yes, I'm that lazy). Of course we will end with a group cyber-prayer, yet begin with a strangely prophetic story from my otherwise ho-hum childhood.
How to Receive First Holy Communion Twice
I was born in 1962 and so spent my earliest years attending the Gregorian Latin Mass (which I love). In fact, my training and preparations for First Holy Communion focused on the hallowed old rite. However, by the time the Big Day arrived, the switch to the Novus Ordo had been implemented at Our Lady of the Lake in Verona, New Jersey.
These considerations meant little to my pine-cone-sized seven-year-old brain. It was a bigger deal to me to be outfitted in a spiffy navy blue suite and to make sure I was properly in my place (in the middle between tallest and shortest, boys on the right, girls on the left in their lovely white lacy dresses) during the long procession into the Mass.
As it turned out, the rascally Jimmy Duffy, my best friend since age 3, was right in front of me in the line. Back in the day, Holy Communion was received kneeling at our endlessly long marble railing surrounding the sanctuary. As it happened, I was the very last kid near the end next to the Candle Stand. We had been drilled repeatedly in how to form up, kneel down, and then return to our pews. I was more worried about screwing that up than receiving the sacrament. Like I said, I was seven. (I was so sweetly innocent I had to make up sins during my first Confession the week before--Sacky Boyle helped me come up with a few.)
The moment arrived. Father Morris and the towering fifth-grader with the bronze pan-catcher paten thingy was coming down his side of the railing. Jimmy Duffy received Jesus. My mind was blank. When Father got to me, well, I'm not sure who screwed up worse, but as I arched my neck back and opened my mouth...
Father Morris missed. The Sacred Host popped into the air...and I reflexively reached out my left hand and caught it. I was calm, not embarrassed or worried in the least. I handed it back with reverence. Father Morris, bless him, non-plussed, held up the Host, I opened my mouth, and received my First Holy Communion for the second time.
I went back to my pew and rested my head onto my forearms, eyes closed, and spoke to Jesus, my friend and savior. I remember that more than my unforgettable double-First Communion because that peaceful conversation is always the same, every time I receive, every day. Those first few peaceful minutes when He is inside me, I believe, are the most important moments of my life. I'm still seven years old and I never want to grow up. His Eucharistic Presence is what I am grateful for this Thanksgiving.
DOWN THROUGH THE YEARS
2003 CatholiCity Message
It is wisest to grieve most at the loss of time.
Dante
Next to grace, time is the most precious gift of God.
Cardinal Manning
2006 Catholicity Message
God only asks you to do your best.
Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson
Praying is singing half.
G.K. McBrien
2008 CatholiCity Message
There is no leisure about politicians, for they are ever seeking an end outside political science, for instance power and fame. Political life neither provides our final end nor contains the happiness we seek for ourselves or others.
Saint Thomas Aquinas
No man should govern but he who would willingly live in subjection.
Thomas a Kempis
1999 CatholiCity Message
We do the works, but God works in us the doing of the works.
Saint Augustine
The short words are best and the old words are best of all.
Winston Churchill (perfectly illustrating his own point)
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies–probably because they are generally the same people.
G.K. Chesterton
2014 CatholiCity Message
On their deathbeds, people regret working too much and all the other mistakes and bad things they ever did and any number of other things. No one ever regrets having had another child.
Tim Coyne
If angels could be jealous of men, they could be so for only one reason: Holy Communion.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe
2010 CatholiCity Message
Chastity shares the Supreme Court's definition of pornography: I know it when I see it.
Joseph Wood
After all what does a strict guard avail, as a lewd wife cannot be watched and a chaste one does not have to be?
John of Salisbury
2005 Scapular Bumper Stickers
The Brown Scapular: Don't Get Dressed Without It
The Brown Scapular: You Bet Your Eternal Life
The Brown Scapular: Plenty of Time to Itch in Heaven
The Brown Scapular: You're Better Off Dead
The Brown Scapular: A Wooly Sabbath
The Brown Scapular: Shirt as Shield Makes Evil Yield
The Brown Scapular: Make Me a Flannel of Your Peace
The Brown Scapular: Baby It's Warm Inside
Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.
G.K. Chesterton
His power is made perfect in our weakness.
Saint Paul, 2 Corinthians 12:9
2000 CatholiCity Message
Good child, say to Jesus many times each day:
I love you, I love you, I love you...
Blessed Escriva
A bad night at a bad hotel.
Saint Teresa of Jesus on this earthly life
The condition of the survival of America is to respect every human person, especially the weakest and most defenseless ones, those as yet unborn.
Pope Saint John Paul II the Great
Tens of Thousands Praying
Let's all of us, tens of thousands strong, open ourselves to grace while praying the following with childlike hearts, beginning in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for all the blessings you've bestowed upon us this year. For the warm homes, clean clothes, the sufficient food, our health–all the material gifts you give us.
Thank you for our parents, our spouses, our children, our brothers and sisters, our friends, and those who go to Mass with us: for the relationships that make life worth living.
Thank you for the saints, our angels, and your Son's mother, who all constantly help us and guide us, often despite ourselves. Thank you, Father, for the perfect father, Joseph, who loves us so serenely and respectfully.
Thank you for the Catholic Church, for the religious brothers and nuns of our lives; for our parishes, and for the honor of receiving Jesus at Mass, and for your healing absolution in Confession.
Thank you, especially, for our priests, who have sacrificed all, and given all, to vouchsafe our hope in heaven. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Amen.
Oh, before I forget, don't you forget to order your first copy (or more copies to convert others) of Marianne's jolting, amazing, bestselling, heartrending, uplifting, and powerful autobiography, Woman. Just click the green button below.
Next time I contact you will be the kickoff for our Annual Christmas Appeal, which literally keeps the doors open at the Mary Foundation, the parent organization of CatholiCity. Until then, thank you for being a part of our work and our lives, whether you've been with us for twenty days or twenty years. Our Lady sent you to us and none of us will ever be the same.
Just as when I received First Holy Communion, every day this week at Mass I will close my eyes and talk to Jesus about all your needs, and ask Him, like a seven-year-old asks, to send you miracles beyond your wildest dreams. Please pray for me.
With Saints Faustina and John Vianney,
Bud Macfarlane
Founder and President
