The CatholiCity Message
Volume XVI, Number 2 – February 22, 2012
Ash Wednesday
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
We have lots of stuff, including a reposting, below my signature, of our most popular and inspiring Lenten message called, "Your Best Lent Ever." It even includes an long list of suggestions for stuff to give up. But first...
1. REGARDING THE OBAMACARE MANDATE
Most media references fail to note that the controversial Obamacare mandate includes providing free sterilization and "morning after" abortion drugs. We have seen no mainstream news article that relates that the contraception pill itself is an abortifacent designed to destroy just-conceived human beings in the first days of their lives in the event it fails to prevent ovulation. No employer, whether private citizen or religion-based institution, who has moral objections to providing such things, should be forced to do so or be required to implicitly participate in doing so by the government. Furthermore, our bishops have unanimously rejected the phony "accommodation." In the past few weeks, we have posted numerous articles on the issue, and all of them can be found here:
http://www.catholicity.com/news/
2. SECOND CLASS CITIZENS
We have often used the description "god-hating, baby-hating" to characterize the darker forces working in our society, and we cannot think of a better way to describe this attack on religious liberty. The mandate, regardless of the apparent short-term political goal of wooing female or libertine voters, specifically targets God's one true Church while making separation of the transmission of life from the sexual act free-of-charge. Unless overturned through the courts (never assured in a country where the courts have legalized unfettered abortion), or by installing elected representatives who will undo the damage (in no way a certainty), the "mandate" is now the law of the land. As faithful Catholics, we are now second-class citizens.
3. RAKING RICK OVER THE COALS
Rick Santorum has been sharply criticized, mostly from the left, but also from the right, for stating in an interview seven years ago that contraception can be "bad for women." In this bracing article posted on the National Review website, two experts back up Mr. Santorum:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/291514/pill-not-good-women-erika-bachiochi
4. PAN-FRIED WHITEFISH RECIPE FOR LENT
The following works with any skinless whitefish. You will need three spices: Old Bay seasoning, onion powder, and grated parmesan cheese. Heat a frying pan to just below the highest setting, using an equal combination of butter and olive oil. Lay the fillets onto the pan, and immediately sprinkle them evenly with a moderate amount of onion powder, Old Bay, and finally, grated parmesan. "Seal" the spice combination onto the fillet with a spray cooking oil. Add chopped onions and sliced red peppers (or fry separately). You can substitute green peppers or even jalopenos according to your preference. Pay attention, as fillets fry much more quickly than burgers. Flip the fillets, then lay on thin slices of mozzarella, Monteray jack, or provolone cheese on the now-cooked side. When the cheese melts, remove fillets and dump the onion and peppers onto the fish, then enjoy.
5. WAYS TO SAVE REAL MONEY IN HARD TIMES
Use multiple shopping lists so you can buy groceries at three or four different discount locales (wholesale clubs, discount food outlets such as ALDI, department stores, etc.), buying regular items only at the lowest price from whichever store applies.
Change the oil in your car yourself (This is simple but can be messy. Find instructions online). If under a mile, walk instead of driving, time and task permitting (and a good opportunity to pray a Rosary).
Instead of driving them, have your kids walk or ride bikes to school--if it is safe and they are mature enough, it is good for their health, their sense of independence and responsibility, and good for your wallet.
If your family uses three or fewer cell-phones, create your own cheap "bundle" by cancelling your land-line phone, getting a $20 DSL Internet-only service for your home (offered by ATT), and switching to a discount $15 to $30 monthly-billed cell-phone carrier.
IF THE APOSTLES HAD BEEN RANCHERS...
...then we suppose that on Fridays during Lent we would abstain from eating fish.
QUOTES FOR LENT
"We all suffer for each other, and gain by each other's suffering; for man never stands alone here, though he will stand alone hereafter; but here he is a social being, and goes forward to his long home as one of a large company."
Cardinal Newman
"Nothing, how little so ever it be, if it is suffered for God's sake, can pass without merit in the sight of God."
Thomas a Kempis
A PRAYER FOR LENT
Let us pray, all tens of thousands of us, together...
"O my God, we are heartfully sorry for having offended thee, and we detest all our sins because of Thy just punishment, but most of all because we have offended Thee our God, Who is all good and deserving of all our love. We firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more, and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen."
Below you will find the reposting of our 2009 Ash Wednesday message. May you have the Best Lent Ever.
With Saint Joseph,
Bud Macfarlane
Founder
REPOSTING: YOUR BEST LENT EVER
Our only purpose today is to help you begin your Lent well, so you can have Your Best Lent Ever. We saved a really, really, really good insight for last.
1. NOW FOR THE...CONCEIT
Let us begin with...a conceit. Huh? A what? What is a "conceit"? As some of us may recall from English class in the olden days, a conceit, according the fourth definition of the third meaning of the noun in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, is (drumroll):
"an organizing principle"
A Lent well-lived needs an organizing principle. May we suggest that your conceit for Lent this year--your organizing principle--be to:
Go. For. It.
GOING FOR IT
Go For It! We only have so many years on this earth, and to waste a Lent is just plain subpar for a believing Catholic. Challenge yourself this Lent. Choose extra-difficult mortifications. Give up your very favorite things. Fast more often than ever before in your life. Commit to prayer or Mass or Good Friday devotions like never before in your life. Do not fall for the sadly common temptation to slide into this worldwide season of extraordinary grace like a wet towel into a hamper. By the way, you know the pope is going to kick petard this Lent. This is the only time of year when it is, in fact, a good idea to be more Catholic than the pope. Pope Benedict XVI practically invented the Conceit. He was going for it over eighty years ago.
So plan today, right now, to look back on Easter Sunday with the wonderful sensation of knowing that you did your very, very best to grow closer to Jesus.
CRACKERJACK, SURPRISE-INSIDE SUGGESTIONS
Some of you are psyched. Some of you are groaning. Others are nodding (hopefully in agreement, not off into sleep). Many stopped reading after the word "conceit." Now, for some suggestions. Please forgive us for listing some of the "usual suspect" suggestions. Our goal below is to make you tremble in fear: "Oh no, not that! I can't give up that!"
Yeah, we (and you) are looking for the Perfect Oh No Not That to give up because this year, our conceit is Go For It. And remember, there is no prohibition from doubling up, or choosing three, five, or seven things this Lent (Your Best Lent Ever!). We know that many of you have been intending to get off your duffs and do several of the following for years (and even decades--you know who you are).
We can only offer this bold encouragement because we are weak, slothful, wimpy, selfish, lazy, prideful, ashamed, and cowardly, like everybody else. Here are some suggestions to get into the spirit of Go For It:
1. Pray the Rosary every day.
2. Receive Communion at Mass every day.
3. Go to Confession every Friday.
4. Pray the Family Rosary every day or once a week.
5. Pray in silence 20 minutes a day.
6. Make a Eucharistic visit every day.
7. Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet (at 3:00 PM) every day.
8. Fast on bread and water one to three times per week.
9. Read a spiritual book.
10. Give a painfully large donation to charity.
11. Give a donation to charity instead of buying something for you.
12. Pray "Jesus, I love you!" in the first waking seconds of the day.
13. Listen to Catholic CDs.
14. Do something major to improve your marriage.
15. Volunteer anywhere: at your kid's school, homeless shelter
16. Visit a home for the elderly
16. Give up something you absolutely love, crave, or spend time on, or that annoys the people you love, including:
-television or your favorite television show
-television before a certain hour
-television after a certain hour
-coffee
-diet soda
-donuts
-hamburgers
-chocolate, and anything with chocolate flavor
-all snacks or desserts
-movies, Netflix, movie rentals
-the Internet
-Facebook
-following your favorite sports team
-video games
-celebrity magazines
-golf (an objectively grave moral evil) (only kidding)
-booze
-watching golf on TV
-a destructive, irresistable "friendship"
-foul language
-picking your nose
-sports radio
-satellite radio
-music radio
-talk radio
-restaurants
-driving when you could walk
-sleeping in late on the weekends
-sleeping an "extra" ten minutes in the morning
-fast food drivethroughs
-not cooking breakfast for your kids
-shopping for clothes or food
-text messaging
-not stopping by your neighbors to say hello for weeks
-failing to visit or call your "not close by" relatives
-soap operas
-the beach (for those of you lucky enough to have one nearby)
-fishing, hunting, four-wheeling, skateboarding
-some of your "alone" time doing any hobby
-your absolute favorite, passionate hobby (aha, you just fainted!)
-nagging your husband (you know who you are)
-nagging your wife (she knows who you are)
-interrupting others
-not smiling when you arrive at the office
-knitting, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, sudoku
-knitting? (you addicts understand)
-cigarettes, cigars, gum, and phony "candy" breathmints
-cellphone calls in your car on the drive home
-bluetooth headset (harder than you think)
-fantasy football, basketball, or baseball
-eat your vegetables (even you adults)
-betting on March Madness
-gossiping at work--say something nice instead
-stealing "little stuff" from your employer, including time online
-relations with your spouse (on certain days or weeks)
-thinking about yourself when you wake up or go to sleep (pray instead)
-thinking about yourself when you drive (pray instead)
-buying anything you don't need
YOU ARE NOT DEAD: LENT VERSUS LINT
May we mildly suggest that you are not dead. You are not a corpse. You are alive. You are breathing. Put your index finger into your bellybutton. Dig. That's lint. This is Lent 2012 and it shall never come again, so that is why it is so important to have some courage on Ash Wednesday. Lent is about changing, in union with your baptized brothers and sister around the world, for forty days, how you live so you can grow closer to Jesus.
