I wanted to stop and take a moment to thank all of you. Sometimes it’s easy to forget, when the comment boxes get rowdy, and everyone is upset about what’s going on, that 1P5 doesn’t just have an audience.
We have a community that spans the world.
If you’re reading this, it means that most likely, you’re the kind of person who genuinely cares about what is good and decent and right, and no matter what the obstacles are, you want to see truth prevail.
The emails I get from some of you are amazing. The self-sacrifice is, too. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you I’m humbled by it. I literally find myself asking God how we have been blessed to be the recipients of such good-hearted generosity and support.
Since my fundraising appeal last night, we’ve doubled our progress toward our monthly goal from 27% to 64%. You’re moving the mountain! But while I am always blown away by the kindness of those who financially support us, it’s the human side of that story that I really want to accentuate.
We just received a large donation from someone who suffers from several disabilities, and whose family is in need of prayer. He described it as, “not much.” Where I come from, it’s more than much. I even contacted him to make sure it wasn’t a mistake, an extra zero typed into the form. It wasn’t. I was floored.
And then there are the countless souls who send $5, $10, or $20 (or more) and always add a little note that says, “It’s not much” or “I wish it were more”. These people are giving from their substance. Please, never think that your help is insignificant. Everything counts. I have a habit that I’ve developed that every time I see a notification that a donation has been made, I say a little prayer for the person who did it. It is my ardent hope that God will reward you for your generosity.
I’ve also heard back from people who want to support us financially but can’t. People who are out of work or struggling financially. Elderly people on fixed incomes. People supporting adult children who are going through crises. One person who is actually homeless, and about ready to give up on God. Another who previously gave up on God until the prayers of his family brought him back to the faith – but not before laying him low and causing him to lose his very successful business enterprises.
Please pray for these people. Please pray for their families and needs and intentions. Please pray for all of our benefactors and all of our readers and everyone praying for us. By that I mean, let’s pray for each other. We are in this together. All of us. And we are not just a few.
From where I sit, I look every day at numbers. I see the statistics, the traffic, the site visits. I see the countries they come from and the links they follow to get here. I moderate the comments. I can tell you that as we approach the second anniversary of our founding on August 1st, we have already served up 7,292,377 pages of content to 1,471,787 unique visitors from around the globe. To give you some perspective, Michigan Stadium can hold 109,000 people and is the third-largest stadium in the world. It looks like this when it’s full:
Multiply that by almost 14, and that’s how many people have come to see us here since we got started on the Feast of St. Peter in Chains, 2014. Now imagine all of those people all praying for each other, and for the mission of helping the Church to be restored to her former glory. Think of the power of that many people, praying, sacrificing, beseeching God, and supporting each other. Many of us have come to this place, myself included, out of a need to feel as though we are not alone. The numbers tell us the truth:
YOU. ARE. NOT. ALONE.
Our community is real, and it is everywhere. Men and women from every walk of life across the globe who love their families, their parishes, their Catholic Faith, and would do anything they could to see the glory of the Church restored. Men and women who put their faith in our little upstart publication to be the David against the Modernist Goliath.
The weight of that duty is heavy on my shoulders, but the encouragement is powerful. Our work, our efforts, our success, are born aloft on your prayers every bit as much as on your contributions. Our success or failure depends principally on our faithfulness to God.
Let’s find ways to not just come and read content and leave, but build on our community so we can do more things together for the good of the Church and the world. It’s my promise to you that I’m going to do my best to find ways to add features to our apostolate that will allow better collaboration. We may not know each other’s names or faces, but we should feel each other’s presence and carry each other in prayer.
I pray that God will bless all of you in abundance. I offer my sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been a benefactor to this cause, both financially and spiritually. (If you still want to help us to meet our goal this month, we’ve got 36% left to go.)
We’ll catch up this month, then deal with next month’s expenses when we get there. As Our Lord said, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.” (Mt. 6:34). Good advice. Just like the advice that came right before it: “Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt. 6:33)
The idea that there are so many of us in this common cause is something I don’t reflect on enough. I’m so grateful to have an actual army of supporters and friends. It’s incredibly encouraging, and we can all use some of that right about now.
Thanks, Steve. A very encouraging post. Sending a donation today. Prayers for all who read and write here. May God bless you all.
I am day by day struggling to comprehend exactly what is happening with the world, but it gets more disorienting by the minute. I am very grateful for the courageous voices on the web, like this site, who are very often the only ones who speak out about the unspeakable. I donated today, and I hope everyone else who hasn’t – and who has the means – will take a moment. People -especially priests – are being silenced and we need to have venues where the information can be shared and discussed. Without our support these endeavors will fold and we will have lost what little bit of rudder there is left.
Done
Go Blue!
If it wasn’t for this site, I would be very confused… questionably even catholic anymore. With debilitating mental illness, the country (US) about to implode, and the Church being viciously attacked from the inside, it’s almost more than I can handle. Now I’m working the modernism out of my own spiritual formation and have some hope… Reading here is what got me to the TLM and out of my resident NO parish. Thank you so much, Steve. And thank you fellow supporters and readers… You mean a lot more than you think you do.
I went to the TLM for the first time ever this Sunday. High mass. It was beautiful and just truly amazing. For quite some time now I’ve struggle with the irreverence on the Novus Ordo and personal negativity/anger for the affairs of the world, and sadly the state of The Church. Today that all disappeared. Now if I could at least learn enough Latin so I could verbally express what my heart felt today.
I’ve been terrible at tithing but it’s clear to me that the TLM is what needs to be supported and spread throughout the land. I’m sincerely thankful for all that you do Steve. You, your family, and the community you’ve brought together, remain in my prayers.
Some resources:
– Catholic Prayers – Our Father, Latin then to the other basic prayers like the Hail Mary and the Glory Be; Sign of the Cross.
– Latin-English Study Bible
– Extraordinary Form of the Mass – Presentation Edition | CTS
– SANCTA MISSA
– Laudate – #1 Free Catholic App
– Treasury of Latin Prayers
*
Remember we learned to walk by walking.
I was just wondering today what it must look like from the spiritual realm when great battles are taking place, such as when they have the satanic “Mass” in Oklahoma City and people from all over the world are praying and making sacrifices in reparation to Our Lord. When you say things like “You are not alone”, it makes me think of these spiritual battles and reminds me that we truly aren’t alone. Getting a mental picture of these battles and realizing just how many of us are praying together (your football stadium analogy makes it easier) certainly brings these things into perspective. Many people I know pray for a Crusade to be called for. I think, for now, that we are already at war, just not as we have always known it. Our Crusade is a spiritual one. We fight beside the Angels. The physical aspect is done by our sacrifices and penances. So, we are in it together and are never alone, even though it may feel that way. Thanks be to God, there are sites such as this one, for us to come together and bolster each other. Thank you Steve, for having the gumption to set up and sustain OnePeterFive. I truly appreciate it.
Steve, I just wanted to say thank-you for the work you do. I have been a committed Protestant believer for six years, but two months ago found myself reading your site. Your writing and faith, and that of the community here really resonated with me and prompted me to begin researching Catholicism. Long story short, most of my ideas about Catholic theology and the reformation have turned out to be wrong, and my husband and I have felt the Holy Spirit lead us to enrol in the RCIA at our local parish, which we begin tomorrow night.
You’ve written recently about feeling overwhelmed by the stream of new evils revealed everyday in the news. I wanted to encourage you that your work is achieving great things of eternal value.
You brightened my day. May Our Lady keep you ever close.
St. Peter Canisius pray for Grace and her husband. (It was this saint who gave us the ending of the Hail Mary: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death” (ratified by the Council of Trent). He was the first Dutch Jesuit and a mighty player in the Counter-Reformation.)
Amen.
Thank you Pearl!
Welcome home.
Grace, I’m so happy for you and your husband. Catholicism is so easy when you have the facts and you’re not afraid to face them! 🙂 God bless you for your courageous honesty. You’ve made the angels sing!
Thanks for your kind words. Although we are fairly certain this is the path God is leading us down, it’s not an easy transition for our family. All our friends are Protestant, most are strongly anti-Catholic, and I have some who actually think the Catholic Church is the anti-Christ. I’m not looking forward to telling them we are converting! There’s also issues with our children’s schooling (we have four). There’s a Catholic primary school with a good reputation a short walk from our house, but our two school-age boys are very happy at their non-denominational Christian school and I am torn about whether we should move them. Please pray for us as we learn more about the Catholic faith and work through some hard transitions for our family.
I understand some of your anxiety about family. Days before my official conversion my (VERY) Lutheran grandmother said to me (out of the blue), “Your mother told me not to say anything, but I’m telling you, you’re making a mistake.” 🙂
The school issue is tough. Are your children making the conversion with you? Moving schools (and friends) has the potential of making everything sour. On the other hand, I taught for a homeschooling family a number of years ago. They had built up quite a good library of textbooks, but had “Christian” history books that slandered the Catholic Church. The mother was shocked when I showed her the sections and discarded the books.
I have put you on my prayer list, Grace. The blessings you and your family receive will more than make up for the difficulties you are facing now.
There are a lot of great comments on this post, Grace, but this one made my month. I literally stopped short this morning with tears in my eyes. God gets the glory for anything I accomplish, but it if it reduces the temporal punishments I’m due, that’d make me pretty happy.
Thank you for sharing your story. And please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help along the way.
You’re welcome! I’ve read everything you’ve written since I found your site, but haven’t commented yet as I was an ‘outsider’. I’ll probably have a lot of questions in the next few months. 🙂
Thank you Steve for you do and all you are. You are a voice crying in the desert. Let us all help you to carry on as you help us to soldier on towards the Promised Land. Keep up your good work Steve. Here are some parting words from someone who learned the hard way.
We make a living by what
we get, but we make a life by what we give.
–Winston
Churchill
Spot on quote
God bless you, Steve. May God continue to send you (and all of us together as a community) much help and support and encouragement and the help of the angels and saints, on every level and every front. Please be assured of my prayers. It is very encouraging to know, as you have written above, that we are such a large community. God only knows the measure of the good that your work is achieving. Imagine if every person in this community shared 1P5 with 10 friends: that would reach approx. 14 million new readers. Let’s continue to throw truth in the face of lies. As someone said, “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.” There is nothing so powerful as to spread the truth, as you are doing with your band of helpers on this site. I am honoured to be part of this community.
Thank you Steve for your blog.
Thank you for your prayers.
I gave a little a couple of months ago and wish I could send you more, but we are seniors on a fixed income. We just had a $1,000 repair job done on our van (yes I’m a senior citizen with a van. I needed it to haul books and tables to set up a Catholic Traditional bookstore outside our parish church on some Sundays) and we are donating to buy 2 traditional priests with replacements for their worn thin cassocks.
I think it’s a wonderful idea to pray for each other (commenters on this blog).
I, for one, will start today with daily prayers for your continued success in helping us not feel isolated and alone with the many problems besetting our world and within Our Beloved Catholic Church and for all commenters who are in need of physical and spiritual prayers.
As Tiny Tim said: “God Bless us all.”
Thanks again and God Bless you with your continued insightful thoughts.
I love the 1P5 community for teaching, promoting and defending our Faith like no others in these confusing times. Please keep up the GREAT work and may God bless you, your apostolate and your family!