Catholic Books Forced out of Print

Saint Philip Neri once gave a gossipy lady this penance: "Go to the market, buy a chicken, and pluck it on your way back here, scattering the feathers as you walk. When you give me the plucked chicken, I'll tell you the rest of your penance." The baffled woman did as she was told. After she handed the plucked chicken to the saint, he said, "Now that you've spread those feathers about, go pick them up." "But, Father! It's impossible to know where they've all gone!" "Just like the words of your gossip," he said.

* * * A chicken has about 12,000 feathers. Since I established Sophia Institute Press to publish faithful Catholic books, I've sent forth into our world 10 million times as many words as there were feathers on that chicken! That's 120 billion words, and they've traveled farther and longer than any feathers: 2 million Catholic books by or about St. Francis de Sales, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Bishop Fulton Sheen, St. Robert Bellarmine, Fr. Lawrence Lovasik, and many other good Catholics. Before combat, thousands of Catholic soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan pray with our edition of Fulton Sheen's Wartime Prayer Book, and chaplains rely on it, too. You yourself may have grown closer to Christ through our editions of Angel in the Waters, The Aquinas Prayer Book, The Temperament God Gave You, A Mother's Rule of Life, Finding God's Will For You, or one of our other fine books. Like those feathers, the wise and holy words in our books have spread far across this land and even overseas, but unlike gossip, which spreads itself, we've had to struggle to help them along. It's never been easy, and for over two decades bankruptcy has constantly threatened our tiny non-profit publishing apostolate. * Last year, our affiliation with Thomas More College brought a brief respite, enabling us to get a very large loan to replenish 45 of our out-of-stock books and to publish 5 new ones, including the remarkable book praised by St. Thérèse herself, The End of the Present World: Right now, we have 18 more books in production, including a delightful children's book about St. Thomas Aquinas, a powerful classic on the angels, and even a charming book of Catholic family humor: Bless Me, Father, for I Have Kids. Yet now we may have to close our doors . . . just as we were getting back on our feet. You see, last fall, cutting our staff and restoring four dozen books boosted our sales 70% and brought us close to profitability. Then this nationwide recession slammed us, crippling sales from individuals and bookstores. Like many homebuyers who still earn enough to eat, but temporarily can't make the monthly payments on their home loans, we still earn enough money to stay open, but not enough to make the payment on our business loan: $15,000 a month. That one payment is stripping us of cash, and, without your help, we're going to run out of money April 1st, just seven weeks from now. Our doors will close; our holy Catholic books will be forced out of print. * This isn't the first time Catholics have come up short. Years ago, Jesus said to Peter, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." Peter answered, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets." When they did, they netted so many fish their nets began to break. Like Peter, we here at Sophia Institute Press have labored hard and long — a quarter-century now — producing hundreds of books. And like him, in recent months we've not had the success we need. Nonetheless, and also like Peter, we're going to abide by the command of Jesus. With this emailing to 135,000 Catholics, we're "putting out into the deep," confident that, if it's God's will, He will inspire you to help us now. Just $1 will save us. If everyone who receives this e-mail contributes a dollar, our nets (like Peter's) will begin to break! Our loan will be paid up, our doors stay open, and we'll have enough left to ensure we can publish another two million holy Catholic books! Not Wal-Mart nor even EBay gives you that much value for a dollar! And, using Paypal or your credit card, you can give that $1 here in less than a minute: Do you remember the feathers the woman strewed along her path, not knowing where they went or when they would stop traveling? Your dollar will help us strew 120 billion more Catholic words in the path of countless souls across the globe. Like those feathers that kept traveling, your dollar will keep working: miles from here and years from now, it will continue to bring souls to God in ways far beyond our poor ability to foresee. Finally, whether you contribute or not, please say a brief prayer that this appeal will work, and then forward this e-mail to every Catholic you know, strewing it across their path, too, like feathers from that plucked chicken. With your brief prayer, your $1 gift, and by forwarding this message, you can save souls . . . and save our apostolate! Thank you. I'm praying for you; please pray for me. John Barger, Publisher Sophia Institute Press 1-800-888-9344 Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108 Please forward this e-mail to others who might help.