The CatholiCity Message

Volume VI, Number 4 – February 25, 2002

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

We've taken six trips since the beginning of the New Year, including an unscheduled trip for a family funeral, and it's been difficult to keep up with our regular workload, so please forgive us for taking so long between Messages. Just a few quick items for you today, including a little Truth at the end.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"Those who commit these types of scandals are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder by destroying other people's faith in God by their terrible example. But I'm here among you to prevent something far worse for you. While those who give scandal are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder, those who take scandal–who allow scandals to destroy their faith–are guilty of spiritual suicide."
Saint Frances de Sales
(On the scandal caused by so many of his brother priests.)

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy...in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."
President John Adams

JOKE OF THE WEEK
A man will pay $20 for a $10 item he wants. A woman will pay $10 for a $20 item on sale she doesn't want.

PRAYER OF THE WEEK For us the best prayer writer ever was Saint Thomas Aquinas. Perhaps it was his combination of brilliance and holiness; he had a way of engulfing the total reality of spiritual truth while using simple words. He's our model and hero. In the prayer below, for example, we have always loved the line about asking for "growth in the power to do good." Isn't that what we all need? Either way, this is the prayer he wrote called Thanksgiving after Communion. Almost every one of our 70,000+ readers received the Holy Eucharist this past Sunday (and many of you on weekdays and during Lent especially) so let us all join together with this beautiful prayer (and feel free to print it out for your wallet or purse so you have it for your next Mass, and forward this to your friends if you can). Let's begin...in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:

"Lord, Father all-powerful and ever-living God, I thank You, for even though I am a sinner, your unprofitable servant, not because of my worth, but in the kindness of your mercy, You have fed me with the body and blood of your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that this holy communion may not bring me condemnation and punishment but forgiveness and salvation. May it be a helmet of faith and a shield of good will. May it purify me from evil ways and put an end to my evil passions. May it bring me charity and patience, humility and obedience, and growth in the power to do good. May it be my strong defense against all my enemies, visible and invisible, and the perfect calming of all my evil impulses, bodily and spiritual. May it unite me more closely to You, the one true God and lead me safely through death to everlasting happiness with You. And I pray that You will lead me, a sinner, to the banquet where You and your Son and Holy Spirit are true and perfect light, total fulfillment, everlasting joy, gladness without end, and perfect happiness with your saints. Grant this through Christ, our lord. Amen."

TRUTH
If you choose to die in a state of mortal sin, you will go to hell forever. Jesus was a real man in history Who rose from the dead, and He is alive today, bodily. The only true church is the Catholic Church. After your death, you will be judged by Jesus–not the Buddha, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, or, for that matter, any pagan god. Using artificial means to prevent conception is a mortal sin, and is a cancer eating away at the Mystical Body of Christ in America and other western countries. Suffering can only find meaning in the suffering of Jesus. Mary was conceived without sin. Homosexual acts are an abomination before God. Abortion is the intentional killing of a human being, and is a scourge on our nation's soil. The pope is infallible when teaching about faith and morals. Right and wrong actions have a basis in absolute truth, and we can know it. We all have free will, and unless our consciences have been deadened, we know exactly when we are committing sin. We are all sinners, and we need God's divine mercy. Baptism changes our souls. Confession heals our souls. Marriage unites our souls. Holy Orders allow priests to save our souls as Other Christs. And children are a gift of God, the fruit of love in our marriages, a means to our growth in holiness, and we should always be open to having one more soul in procreative cooperation with the Father Almighty.

This is not a complete list. We wrote that for all of you who are weary of the scandals and mediocrity in our beloved but oftentimes beleaguered Church and haven't heard much substance in a homily for a while. It's just nice to see it in black and white. And oddly enough, we believe that things are much better now with the Church than they were just twenty years ago. As just one small example, there is this newsletter. Could 70,000 of us gotten together in 1982? We are not alone.

ONE MORE JOKE ABOUT MEN AND WOMEN
Any married man is justified in forgetting his shortcomings. There's no use in two people remembering the same thing.

Until next time.

With Christ,

Your Friends at CatholiCity