Thursday was the 2000th Anniversary of the event that set into motion our redemption: the Annunciation of the Lord when the Angel Gabriel imparted to the Blessed Virgin Mary God's Will that she be the tabernacle for His Only-begotten Son Who would be called Jesus. The rest, as we like to say, is History and thank God for it. We chose this first bimillennial occurence of the Jubilee 2000 events - the Annunciation - to announce our new look on the Port of Entry Page - the DAILY CATHOLIC masthead of the two pillars of the Holy Eucharist and the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the seas in accord with the vision Saint John Bosco received, which is detailed on Our Mission page. The special applet graphics were prepared by DesignerSites and complete the nautical theme throughout these pages as the pillars and Masthead shimmer as a mirror in the rough seas, but through Heaven's promise that, if we navigate with the Barque of Peter safely between the pillars, we will stay afloat. And, through the grace of God and inspiration of the Holy Spirit the DAILY CATHOLIC has been able to stay afloat even though financially it has been tough with file storage rates increasing and our computer equipment fast becoming extinct as in the days of the dinosaur. But readership is steadily increasing and we should exceed one million visits thus far for 1999 by early to mid April.
We've also been working behind the scenes to streamline pages so you can download faster, from the Port of Entry page at the main URL to the various categories such as Home Port Page where you can see the total scope of what the DAILY CATHOLIC pages offer in quick loading portholes as well as text links to all pages. We've added a special page for the various Webrings we offer as well as special sites of interest; a special page for those requesting permission to reprint or copy material found in these pages which we call "Rites of Copy"; and a special page where you can view the Ship Logs which list the number of passengers who have booked passage on the DAILY CATHOLIC for the previous day and through the month, year and previous year, as well as total visits since we inaugurated the DAILY CATHOLIC on All Saints Day in 1997 after two years on-line with the bi-weekly "A Call To Peace" - the same publication we published in print dating back to 1990. We will soon be adding a special page to aid the reader in navigating through these daily pages and giving instructions how you can place the DAILY CATHOLIC on your desktop for faster retrieval each day. In addition, we provide various religious news services through our ticker page. We are also endeavoring to make it easier for retrieval of past articles for all. While we do not have the financial means to acquire a sufficient search engine that could contain all the information for fast retrieval via search by word, we have been working on listing all past articles by feature or columnist; thus all editorials would be listed on a special page with subject matter that you can review - the same for Sister Lucy and Pat Ludwa's columns, and our three on-going megaseries as well and other articles as we gain the time to complete these archive listings.
Many have also asked about an abridged version of THE HISTORY OF THE MASS AND HOLY MOTHER CHURCH called The New Sacrifice which we will begin carrying sometime after Easter.
Since the meditative lessons of the Rosary have proven so popular during Lent with "It is Consummated!" we have decided to keep them going after Easter with the meditative lessons of the Glorious Mysteries taken from the book "My Lord and my God!" up until Pentecost. In keeping with the Jubilee 2000 spirit we're also going to introduce another feature on the Monday immediately following Pentecost Sunday with our 100th issue for the year. That will be the Countdown of the 100 most influential Catholics of this Century. It's a list we are now compiling and we'd like your input into this since the DAILY CATHOLIC is your paper and we'll publish what you would like to see as long as it is still in accord with all the Church teaches and coincides with our evangelization mission of this apostolate. So over the next sixty days we are opening up the voting to you the reader. You may submit whoever you like and a brief background on the person - his or her accomplishments - as well as a brief sentence on why this person deserves to be listed. We also ask that you give us your top pick, the number one most influential Catholic of this century. There are many who come to mind - Pope John Paul II, Pope Saint Pius X, Mother Teresa, Padre Pio, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, etc. The top ten should be relatively easy, but it's the other ninety that should be interesting and we want to hear your opinions. You can e-mail your submissions to Vote for the Top 100 Catholics of the Twentieth Century
or mail your submissions to the DAILY CATHOLIC, 1585 Green Oak Road, Vista, CA 92083. We will begin with the 100th pick on Monday, May 24th, the 99th pick on Tuesday, May 25th and so on down the line as we countdown to the top Catholics of the Twentieth Century.
These are just a few of the projects planned at the DAILY CATHOLIC as we strive to be on the cutting edge of the Church today while never forgetting our roots which stem deep over 2000 years. After nearly two and a half years on-line we remain the only regular English-speaking Monday through Friday publication for Catholics anywhere in existence! Having labored with love in publishing 350 daily issues to date, we can see why no one else has taken on such a formidable enterprise. Without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the guidance of Our Lady and the encouragement of so many readers this effort might well have fizzled out by now. But because of those plusses, the DAILY CATHOLIC is growing stronger and more well-known every day. Each day we get more e-mails from folks informing us that they have just discovered us. With no budget for advertising, we have been able to grow through word-of-mouth advertising and we again appeal to you to tell your parish friends and pastor about this publication and how they can receive it daily. Also, we make a humble appeal that if you can afford a few dollars to help this cause out, we would be most, most grateful. You can submit a love offering to this bonafide ministry via credit card at Donation Page or send a check or your credit card number to the DAILY CATHOLIC's address listed above in this commentary. Any little bit helps for we are in dire, dire need of upgrading equipment since the mainframe computer where this editor hammers out each and every issue is basically running on fumes and a prayer...a big prayer!
As you can surmise, many of the events currently happening - including the war in Kosovo - have been foretold by Our Lady to numerous visionaries and messengers the world over. It is no coincidence that just before the bombing commenced the stock market closed at 9666!!! Think about it! We are 280 days and counting away from the Third Millennium. Not a lot of time left as the days fly by and this upcoming Holy Week affords us all an excellent opportunity to take note of our spiritual bank accounts and balance our hearts and souls so that we can gain the maximum interest in the best dividends available - eternal salvation. So while we all contemplate who are the top 100 Catholics of the Twentieth Century let us all remember the bigger picture that it takes more than 100 Catholics to comprise the Mystical Body of Christ - it takes a global village - like one billion Catholics - to make up the Universal Church. And it starts with each one of us taking responsibility for the God-given gift of grace and applying those graces for good. Whether one billion or one - we are all God's gift - not "God's gift to the world" but rather God's precious gift that He has given freely through His Own Passion, Death and Resurrection. Through this gift He has given us the precious gift of our faith. With those kind of benefits we'd be foolish to look a gifthorse in the mouth!