Missing Your Easter Eggs?
Volume XXIV, Number 9 – April 22, 2020
There is still time to submit your
30-Day Gregorian Mass intentions online!
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Hey hey hey. That's a-what I say. And then I say, hey ho, let's...go.
How to Submit Your Gregorian Mass IntentionsLast Message I mentioned that I arranged to have thirty straight days of Gregorian Masses offered for all CatholiCity Citizens beginning on Friday, May 1st, Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. There is still time to submit your intentions online, including for your departed loved ones. It only takes a minute. (Sorry, I should have mentioned this last week.)
Thousands of you enjoyed and shared my son Xavier's 4-minute How It's Made at CatholiCity video. Thanks! Cool. Glad you got the jokes and enjoyed learning about what goes into making our new Coronavirus Relic Prayer Medals.
Yet many of you missed the Easter Eggs!
"Easter Eggs" in television shows are purposely hidden references or clues ...so it's okay if you missed 'em. Here are hints if you haven't seen the video yet or missed your Easter Eggs on the first viewing:
-Pause at the address label and take a closer look
-Pause and read the sign on the wall at the end.
The word corona means crown; scientists were referencing its creepy round, spiky shape. By way of analogy, you could say that the Coronavirus wears the crown as the "king" of viruses, if not in fatality toll (which is going to be, thank God, as I informed you weeks ago, however tragic, a very small percentage of the original predictions), then because of the worst economic devastation worldwide since medieval times.
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Backlighting Immaculate Mary From a more elevated philosophical perspective, however, one could look at the Coronavirus as a kind of light that reveals truth. We are all familiar with the round, fiery "corona" revealed by an eclipse of the sun. By blocking out the central light of the sun, we can see something--the corona--that is otherwise hidden. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of the Americas, is "clothed in the sun." In this supernaturally produced image she is engulfed by the corona of her king and our king, Christ the King. |
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(It's the same light of the burning bush that transformed Moses' face.)
The Worst Co-MorbidityIn this sense, for example, the Coronavirus has revealed that the Communist Chinese dictatorship is utterly corrupt, or that some of our politicians, even if they were acting in good faith, have the instincts of petty tyrants. It has revealed much about the incompetence and political bias of our mainstream media. Or, that for a significant portion of people in our effectively atheistic first-world societies, there is nothing they fear more than bodily death, when, in fact, eternity in hell is worse than death.
The worst "co-morbidity" any of us can have is to die in a state of mortal sin, whether on a ventilator, in a car accident, or "peacefully" in our sleep at an advanced age.
Eclipse of the SacramentsFor individuals, Coronavirus reveals much. Our love for family and for our nation. The heroism of health care providers. Our financial vulnerabilities.
The loss of the sacraments, for most of us, is an "eclipse" which shines a light on our ardent desire for Christ, on the gift of the Holy Priesthood, and how, perhaps, some of us took for granted gathering daily or weekly to receive Him in the Holy Eucharist and our ease of going to Confession. The Coronavirus, for better and mostly worse, has revealed the actual theological priorities, the lack of imagination, and wimpy passivity of most of our bishops (pray for them!).
The Supernatural Fruit of Faith Is...For me, given your sacrifices to distribute countless thousands of Relic Prayer Cards to family, friends, and neighbors over the past few weeks, the Coronavirus has shone light on your desire to help souls during a time of palpable distress.
How has the Coronavirus shone light on what's important to you?
Quotations
"If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and have remained in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete."
-Jesus
"Tell the truth, or at least don't lie."
-Jordan Peterson
"I'll tell you what I'm grateful for: everything. Every breath, every bite, every thought, every pain, every friend, every act of love, every sublimely appropriate pleasure, every ocean sound or cornfield view, hungry or full, every stormy and sunny day, and every single thing that has every happened to me, good or bad, remembered or forgotten, in the faith-filled succor of belief, that God made me and has kept me alive to experience the certainties and mysteries of this amazing place, this awesome world, this sweet earth, seen and unseen, as a Catholic man."
-Joseph S. Wood
"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."
-Patches O'Houlihan
"Let nothing bother you. Let nothing disturb you. God alone suffices."
-Saint Teresa of Avila
"Whether shadow or sunlight or betrayal or beauty or prayer or peril, smile."
-G.K. MacBrien
"Law is an ordinance of reason for the common good made by him who has the care for the community."
-Saint Thomas Aquinas
Some Upcoming Feast Days
Tuesday, April 21, Saint Anselm
Wednesday, April 29, Saint Catherine of Siena
Thursday, April 30, Pope Saint Pius V
Friday, May 1st. Saint Joseph the Worker
I composed this prayer in 2008, during the last financial crisis. Please join me and tens of thousands of CatholiCity Citizens all over the world in praying for those suffering financially from the pandemic, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
Dear Father in Heaven,
and all the Saints who are known to help those in most need,
especially
Saint Joseph,
Saint Jude,
Saint Anthony,
Saint Therese,
and Saint Josemaria Escriva,
we humbly beg you to hear our cries for help to provide
work and income for those among us
who need just those very things;
patience and loving trust in your Divine Providence for those
who must wait for these things to come;
and, strength, creativity, inspiration, guidance, and energy for those
who must search and struggle to find these things.
We trust in your desire to answer our prayers as quickly as possible;
we believe in Your holy promise to provide daily bread,
and we ask you to respond mercifully to
so many prayers,
from so many of us,
on behalf of our brothers and sisters in need.
Thank you. We love you. Amen.
I am not funny, which is funny, because on those rare occasions when I am funny, it's kind of funny. Or something like that. Boy, I wish that was funny. It was seriously not funny. Oh honey, stop me from rhyming funny. Money. Sunny. Punny. Dummy.
"Stop!" you cry (and who could blame you?) in anguish, both hands shooting up to cup your ears (and who could blame you?).
Okay, then. I will. Stop.
Two quick notes. We have only 18 Holy Sepulchre rosaries and fewer than 12 Hematite Jerusalem Soil rosaries (which I carried personally to all the holy places in Israel and France) left. Order online below. They will never be made again.
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Yes, we're setting a Button record today. Look at all the pretty colors, Mom! Also, we could use a few more monthly donors to help pay the electric bill and the rent and what not...the Lord sees the sacrifice, not the amount. I remain yours, with Saint Joseph and... Mary, Help of Christians, Bud Macfarlane |
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