Return to the Eucharist

Volume XXIV, Number 11 – May 28, 2020

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

It's so good to be back! As Catholic churches are reopening all over America (and the world), I have a little advice, plus an oldie but a goodie, and our usual unusual stuff. Let us go!

You, Yes You

Because of your enthusiastic reaction to our Coronavirus Prayer Card with a Miraculous Medal touched to my relics and Lourdes water, we spent the past few weeks producing a truly wonderful line of Relic Prayer Medals.

These medals are a gentle way to help someone return to the faith through prayer that relies on the intercession of the most powerful saints (Joseph, Jude, Therese, Anthony, the Sacred Heart, Maximilian, Benedict, and the Archangel Michael).

From your reports, I know they are gifts which are always welcome.

Your favorite saint has just got to be there. (And don't forget to restock our CDs, booklets, and novels for your re-opening parish. We've reduced minimum donations, by the way, and if you click on the button, there are instructions for receiving free medals and other materials when you order by mail.)

Order Relic Prayer Medals

The Power of Habit

Now that our access to the sacraments is returning, it is helpful to review a basic Thomistic (and classical Aristotelian) understanding of the human person. We are body and soul. Within our soul resides a will--the power to choose one action over another. We have desires (appetites) that were screwed up by Original Sin. You know all this.

You also know what habits are. I am speaking only for myself (and hopefully not for you), but being forced to forego daily reception of the Holy Eucharist and having severely limited access to the Sacrament of Reconciliation has contributed to wearing down my good spiritual habits.

Bad habits from my past seemed to weasel their way back into my daily routine as the days turned into months. (And in multiple areas: eating habits, bad television habits, proper language and tone, treatment of others, slothfulness, and so on.)

It's mighty discouraging, isn't it?

I tried to avoid blaming the bishops for my failures, but they bear some responsibility. Yes, most bishops are weak and unimaginative bureaucrats, not actual leaders. Most of us have known this from decades of disappointment, having experienced from the front lines the lousy preaching, banal liturgies with even worse music, horrific scandal, and suppression of good priests.

And let us not overlook that denying our priests the opportunity to administer the sacraments has taken a toll on these amazing men.

While the Catholic Church is eroding all around our bishops, most of the growth has come from the Holy Spirit through lay apostolates (often with a decidedly Marian focus) that are typically ignored by the episcopate.

Here is a bracing video by a courageous priest, submitted by one of our benefactors. It is tragically based on the truth, on the very words of Jesus.

Additionally, is there not something diabolical about this worldwide plague that took advantage of many of our bishops' weaknesses?

Although I believe they were acting in good faith at the beginning, may God have mercy on them for prioritizing mere human health over eternal salvation for the first time since Christ ascended to heaven, especially for preventing priests from administering Last Rites in so many places for so many people in danger of spending eternity in hell.

Spiritually Vulnerable Elderly

The evil one, whose focus is harming the most innocent among us through abortion and the abortifacient pill, perhaps captured many souls forever around the world by this withholding of Last Rites from our most spiritually vulnerable elderly.

You know that I almost never hold myself up as an example, except as a bad one, because, well...because I am not a good example except as a bad example. I'm pretty much lost without the sacraments. I know from my dear friend Saint Thomas Aquinas that bad habits must be replaced with good habits by exercising our wills in cooperation with grace.

This means repetition. If the shoe fits you like it fits me, let's humble ourselves and begin again to re-form pious habits. I remember reading in an article once that it takes seventeen repetitions to memorize something. I wondered if something similar might be true for good habits. It goes like this: if you want to make your bed for the rest of your life, then begin by making it for seventeen consecutive days. Eventually, the water flows downhill.

What is difficult then gradually becomes easy.

When I brought up my 17 Days to a Good Habit theory to a friend, she mentioned that social science indicates it takes three to six months to form a habit. That's 90 to 180 days. If so, then seventeen days is a good place to begin. Lord, I, Bud Macfarlane, a sinner, pray that today might be day one for getting back into spiritual shape, beginning with receiving Your Holy Body again at daily Mass. Amen.

When I go, I will be praying for you, as always.

Which One is Your Favorite?

Aren't those new Relic Prayer Medal cards beautiful? The prayers and images we chose were very personal to me. In fact, I pretty much wrote a "CatholiCity Message" for every medal, including stories from my own past, little-known reasons why particular saints are so powerful, and moving close-ups of the artwork.

Could you do me a favor? Please take a look and let me know which one is your favorite. Just hit reply to this email.

View Saint Cards and Medals

Worldwide Rosary Campaign

Lifesite, the world's leading prolife website, has been sponsoring a daily noontime Rosary in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. It's another reason why we love Lifesite.

Our Lady's Alarm Clock and Other Grout

Many years ago I wrote a little something I called the Catholic Grout List in response to a recent convert's befuddlement and confusion about all the "little things" cradle Catholics learn as children (or used to learn!).

Things such as Why make the Sign of the Cross when you pass by a Church? (My favorite was, Should you wear your scapular in the shower? The answer is no, but keep it close just in case you have a heart attack. A dear woman wrote to me after reading the Grout List to share that her husband died from heart failure while in the shower. Because he kept his scapular on the bathroom doorknob, she was able to rush in, place it around his neck, and pray with him during his final moments. I'm sure he's getting a chuckle out of this right now.)

I recently updated it to include a few of your suggestions, so whether you read it years ago, or have never read it, here it is. (Betcha never heard of a few of them.)

It's just the kind of fun (and oddly effective) tool for sharing the faith with your friends via email and social media we specialize in here at CatholiCity.

We Have No Memberships...

...because I don't want any. We have no "levels" of support, or account sign-ins (Oh how I despise those usernames and passwords!), or any of that kind of stuff because I believe that anyone who participates in our work in any way was sent by Mary, even if only to pray one prayer one time.

My Best Friend's Mother

As you know, I am a realist about the Coronavirus pandemic. As I type these words, my best friend's mother is fighting for her life on a ventilator in New Jersey. So let us pray together, tens of thousands of us all over our beleaguered little planet, for a miracle for Mrs. Comegno, and for all the families suffering from the pandemic in any way, including the financial and psychological suffering the lockdowns have caused...

Dear Jesus, please miraculously heal Mrs. Comegno,
through the intercession of Saint Anthony,
and provide grace and miraculous healing
for all those suffering from this diabolical pandemic.

Have mercy on us all while guiding our civil authorities
and our poor bishops!

I love you, Lord, beyond words.
Instead of these paltry words,
I beg you to hear my sinful heart,
where Your Love lives,
and replace my endless failings
with every aspect of your Sacred Heart,
whenever and wherever it pleases your Father.
Amen.

Quotations

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."
-Winston Churchill

"What can be hoped for which is not believed?"
-Saint Augustine

"We cannot command our final perseverance but must ask it from God."
-Saint Thomas Aquinas

"Though perseverance does not come from our power, yet it comes within our power."
-Saint Francis de Sales

"I am a failure. I would rather be failure who in every minute knows he is in need of God's mercy than a success who knows it not."
-Joseph Wood

"Do not hide unwanted things in the fog."
-Jordan B. Peterson

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."
-G.K. Chesterton

"The essence of virtue consists in doing what is good rather than what is difficult."
-Saint Thomas Aquinas

The Answer is Maybe

Can You Donate Stocks? I placed this at the end because it does not apply to most of you. Over the past three decades, we have received occasional donations of stocks and securities. In addition to the priceless spiritual benefits, you may receive valuable financial benefits.

We recently partnered with the wonderful non-profit charity Cocatalyst to make this way for helping us reach more souls fast, easy, and safe. Thus, today we introduce a new "Christmas Lights Button."

I am not asking you to donate stocks or securities, even if you have been blessed to own some and are in a place in your life that this kind of thing makes sense. I am asking you to pray about it. Bring it to Immaculate Mary.

I trust her and I trust you.

With the Miracle Worker of Padua,

William Noble Macfarlane II ("Bud")
Founder

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