The CatholiCity Message

Volume V, Number 2 – January 22, 2001

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

There's not always a point to these messages. Sometimes we follow our instincts and just write whatever happens to pop into our head. For example:

1. BRAINWASH YOURSELF
Building good habits, Catholic or otherwise, is frustrating for us. Whether it's going to daily Mass, praying the family Rosary, or fasting, we know we've had my struggles. Here's something that will help you. Just try it: Do something seventeen days in a row and it will become a habit. If you go to Mass seventeen days in a row, your brain-soul-body will expect you to go for seventeen years. You will be a Daily Mass-Goer, not a Daily Mass Skipper–just seventeen days from today. Mark your calendar seventeen days ahead, then start. Try adding one habit at a time: seventeen daily Rosaries before bed, then seventeen Acts of Contrition every morning, seventeen Examinations of Conscience before sleep, and so on. By the way, the Seventeen Rule will work for flossing.

2. TWO KINDS OF STICKERS
We needed to outfit a new kitchen last week so we made the required trek to Wal-Mart and bought pots, steak knives, a cheap coffee maker (Mr. Coffee 4-Cup, $14.99), a wooden fruit bowl, and so on. (As long as we're on the subject, never buy anything but the highest quality hand-crank can-opener you can afford. Swing-O-Matic.) We bought around sixty-thousand items with an average price of $1.97 each. When we got home, it took us longer to unpackage the stuff than it did to buy it. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Rubbermaid Corporation, because they use only the kind of stickers on their plastic food containers that come off with one pull, and don't leave any partial labels or glue on the item. It took ten minutes to scrape, peel, scour, and acid-wash the one-by-one inch sticker off the bottom of the wooden fruit bowl. Mr. Fruit Bowl Company Guy, note well: our time is valuable.

You may think we're nuts. You might leave the stickers on and five hundred years from now your authentic barcode-on-the-bottom fruit bowls will fetch more money at auction. Bully for you. As for us, we remain deeply committed, in principle, to taking off stickers; we peel the dealer stickers off the backs of cars we buy. It's our car now, not their billboard. Perhaps we have "an issue" with stickers. Now that we've shared this with you, we feel better.

3. MR. CLINTON AND MR. GORE
Let's continue to pray for these two men, all 23,000 of us. "Dear Lord, fill Bill Clinton and Al Gore with grace. Protect them. Guide them in Your Will for their new lives outside the White House. Let truth be their only enduring legacy. Immaculate Mary, take them under your mantle. Saint Joseph, intercede for them. Amen."

4. PRAYER TWO
We're writing this on the feastday of Saint Vincent, deacon and martyr. As the majority of priests in our country grow older in median age, and as this next Catholic generation in the U.S. and Canada "stands in the breech" while waiting for the tidal wave of religious vocations (you read it hear first) that will come from the great, silent, humble, and mostly unseen rebirth of Catholic families already underway, we see permanent deacons helping out more and more in our parishes. We admire these men. They could be watching football, but instead–almost all of them with families and full-time jobs–they serve us. Let's pray for them, too.

"Dear Jesus. Thank you for the deacons! Please, send more. Amen."

We're sure more than a few guys reading this just got a simple and plain sign from God to take the next step with an idea that has been nagging you lately...

6. THE TRUTH ABOUT
...the Mass is coming. Free. Yes, the next new recording from the Mary Foundation is going to be about the Mass. It'll cover the Real Presence, the fascinating untold History of the Mass, and a great walk-through of the Parts of the Mass–basically, everything they didn't teach us in school. The Mystery Speaker to be announced. We're shooting for a late February "realworld" release, but as always, you, the CatholiCity Message readers of CatholiCity will have the first crack at it....stay tuned.

"THE MASS EXPLAINED" IS NOW AVAILABLE:

http://www.maryfoundation.com/

SUGGESTION OF THE WEEK
Invite a priest over (or out) for dinner. (You don't have to do this seventeen days in a row–but how about once every two months for 34 months?)

PREDICTION OF THE WEEK
The Giants over the Ravens. (Since we haven't been able to follow the NFL with our usual ardor this year, our prediction is based on our belief that the Giants are one of those teams that find a way to win big games.)

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Why is humility important? No man can avoid the Three Evils–the world, the devil, and the flesh; the beginning of Christian maturity is the double realization that you must fight or resist all three until the day you die and that you can't conclusively win any of your battles against these three foes without the power and pure sacramental grace of God available through the Catholic Church."
G.K. MacBrien

See you soon. Thanks for reading to the end.

Yours in Christ,

Your Friends at CatholiCity