The CatholiCity Message
Volume X, Number 1 – April 11, 2006
"The world is redeemed by the patience of God;
it is destroyed by the impatience of man."
Pope Benedict XVI
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Holy Week and Easter greetings to one and all, especially to our many first-time readers. Employee health issues and internal projects caused us to take a brief hiatus, but we're back to stay. Got lots of good stuff for you today.
1. IF WE WERE A KID, WE WOULD BE IN FOURTH GRADE
This message marks the tenth anniversary of CatholiCity.com which went online in April of 1996. The CatholiCity Message is ten years old, too–the first email message of its kind–and lo these many years later, it pretty much remains the only one of its kind.
Email itself was a very exciting thing ten years ago. Remember when it was fun to open your in-box? Spam and scams soon made it a pain in the neck, at least for most of us. We suspect one of the reasons why most folks actually *read* our email is that it still feels "real."
And you can't fake real for ten years.
2. AND IF WE WERE A STORE, WE WOULD BE A...
We only vaguely comprehended in 1996 that offering surfers free Catholic stuff was a near-perfect Internet apostolate. Back then we thought the Internet, like email, would be a much bigger deal than it turned out to be. We read a recent study which showed that folks spend fifteen times more hours listening to the radio than surfing the Net. And rightly so.
Now there are countless thousands of Catholic websites but CatholiCity.com keeps on truckin' (and sometimes sprinting) along. We know what we are, and that hasn't changed at all. We're a human, Catholic oasis on a World Wide Web that can be just as cold and technical and untrustworthy and sometimes mean-spirited as it was back in 1996.
We also believe that Grace, along with your faithfulness and generosity, keeps us bright 'n fluffy like a good hotel towel.
We've never been the biggest or the slickest Catholic website. We don't have a daily gossip column–oops, we meant to say "blog." We have never had a single "banner ad" or those insulting pop-up ads. The giant websites must have their positive characteristics, but most of the big ones strike us as too commercial for our Catholic sensibilities.
We think most of you would agree that CatholiCity.com is more like a beloved diner–simple menu, great-tasting basic dishes at low prices, friendly service, and close to home. Like a favorite neighborhood restaurant, most folks "happen upon us" one way or the other, or, we suspect, found out about us because a trusted friend told you to check us out.
3. YET IF WE WERE A SAUCE, WE WOULD BE TOBASCO
Oh, there's one more thing. If you hang out in this "Catholic" City, read our free books and listen to our free materials, follow our daily commentary postings, sincerely pray along with your 60,000 fellow readers, and take the plunge and begin sharing our stuff with the people in your life, your life will change on earth as it changes in heaven.
Your life might change "big." Your life might change "small." That's what God does. He changes things. Leap. Jump. Enjoy. Change.
4. POINTED "PASSION" POST-IT
We've jotted a post-it note about this and placed it on our fridge: With all the preparations and distractions of Holy Week, don't forget to take the time to prayerfully watch "The Passion of the Christ" this week. Keep in mind the one copy at Blockbuster is likely already rented out. If you don't own it, you might want to buy a copy before the end-of-the-week rush.
And remember to say a prayer of thanks for Mel Gibson when the credits roll. This one courageous man sacrificed, suffered, and risked (and lost) so much to give the world–to give us–this enduring devotional gift. Hollywood will never forgive him. He deserves our love and respect.
5. DRUM ROLL PLEASE...
Yes, after an extensive Lenten taste-testing, we've categorically determined that Arby's offers the best fish sandwich. It's hot, it's huge, and it is truly high-quality fish. The following list does not include Sonic, Carl's Jr., or Jack-in-the-Box, for the plain reason that we don't live in California:
BEST TO WORST
Arby's
Hardees
Burger King
McDonalds
6. A THEOLOGY OF THE BODY
The movie The Passion of the Christ "works" spiritually because, among other reasons, it viscerally illustrates to us how Jesus literally took our sin into His body. He took pain into his flesh to the point of transforming His body into a corpse–into a lifeless, soul-less form of sinew and bone, limp in the arms of his mother.
Have you suffered in this past year in your own flesh? We can assure you, we have. We have felt daily pain in our muscles. We have endured the heavy yolk of addiction (one in our number successfully quit smoking). We've arisen from our beds, bone-tired, eyes-a-burn, to serve our childrens' needs. One among us endures incredible mental and physical pain due to complications from a pregnancy–suffering to bring new life into the world. Another has suffered the daily humiliation of metabolic obesity. Like some of you, we have felt the powerlessness of looking into a mirror and watching our own flesh deteriorate and decay as we enter our middle and later decades. By fasting, some of us have voluntarily ladled the renunciation of a worldly good upon our other sufferings in order to merit a spiritual reward, usually for the love of God or for the sake of a soul in need.
Have you too endured the numb, thrumming pain of a broken heart, for years, even decades, on end? Do you carry the cross of loneliness–of climbing into bed alone, but for the companionship of an unseen God who planted a real but intangible faith in your soul? In short, we all share the human condition–we suffer at some point, to some degree, on most days, on this mortal coil, seen through a veil of tears, as we plod a path, as the Psalmist wrote, in the valley of the shadow of death.
6. LENTEN PRAYER FOR THE FAITHFUL
So let us, all 60,000 of us, pray the ancient prayer below as one body, keeping in mind not only our own burdens, but the pain and suffering of all our brothers and sisters in Christ who will pray with us. Because we really do need the Son of Man–a Redeemer–to, well, save us, because the truths below, yes, these beautiful good simple truths, are Easter to our Ears...in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen."
QUOTES
"Fasting is better than prayer and almsgiving is better than both."
Saint Clement I
"In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often."
Cardinal Newman
"Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
Jesus, to His Twelve First Priests
Finally, we want to thank everyone who contributed to another successful Christmas appeal. We are truly grateful. See you in line at Confession–and on the other side of the Resurrection.
With Joseph and Mary,
Your Friends at CatholiCity
