My dear friends,
Something mildly embarrassing happened to me today.
I received an email from a Substack I read offering me 20 percent off an annual subscription. I enjoy the publication. I wanted to support the work. I hit the button immediately.
Then, like St. Paul falling from the horse that Scripture never actually gives him (Seriously, look it up…Acts 9:4… No mention of a horse, it must be lying down with the lions and the lambs somewhere)
Anywho, the point I’m trying to make before I got distracted was that I had a revelation.
I CAN DO THIS TOO!
I’ll keep it real, I am a priest. I am trained to read ancient books, light beeswax candles, preach the Gospel, and stand beside people when life becomes too heavy to carry alone. Somewhere in my formation, however, nobody thought to include a seminar on locating the discount button inside Substack.
Apparently, it has been there the entire time, hidden from a priest who did not know to go looking for it.
And I immediately thought of you.
I know there are people reading Message From the Margins who would like to support this ministry, but ten dollars a month is more than they can comfortably manage. I understand, I’m right there with you. Groceries cost more. Housing costs more. Medicine, utilities, insurance, and nearly every ordinary expense now seem more like a luxury.
Ten dollars is not “just ten dollars” when you are counting every one of them.
Until today, I thought my choices were to ask you for the full subscription price or ask nothing at all.
It turns out I was wrong.
Before I tell you about the offer, though, I want to tell you what your support carries.
Elizabeth wrote:
“As someone who was raised Catholic, 12 years of Catholic school and feeling I have lost the faith that helped me thru many difficult moments your post have given me hope and a renewed faith. Thank you.”
Elizabeth had twelve years of Catholic education behind her. Christianity was not unfamiliar. What she had lost was the sense that this faith could still carry her through the life she was actually living.
Somewhere along the way, something began to close that distance.
Mary described another part of the same experience:
“I have never had the in-depth analysis of Jesus’s teaching or how they can relate to our today’s world as I have learned from Father Rich.”
In the rest of her comment, Mary told me that this ministry has encouraged her to consider returning to church, something she had wanted to do but had been hesitant to attempt.
Think about that for a minute.
A person can spend a lifetime around Christianity and still never be invited deeply into the teaching of Jesus. They can attend Mass, receive the sacraments, survive years of religious education, and somehow remain uncertain about how any of it speaks to the world outside the church doors.
The ancient books remain ancient. The doctrines remain stored safely on the shelf. Faith becomes something inherited and occasionally admired, but not especially useful when someone is frightened, grieving, angry, lonely, or trying to decide what faithfulness requires on an ordinary day.
Message From the Margins exists to close that distance.
We open the ancient books and ask what they reveal about the people we have become. We study history because the Church did not float down from Heaven with every answer neatly indexed. We pray together. We talk about fear, money, grief, politics, sexuality, forgiveness, family, injustice, and the parts of faith people were told they should never question.
Sometimes someone writes because an essay helped them understand Christ differently. Sometimes they write because they have not spoken to a priest in years and are taking an enormous risk by trying again. Sometimes they need prayer. Sometimes they need an answer. Sometimes they need someone to remain beside them while the answer refuses to arrive.
The podcast is part of this ministry. Queries From the Margins is part of it. So are the essays, prayers, pastoral conversations, Bible studies, social media teaching, and messages answered away from public view.
Many people have also become distant from Christianity because they no longer recognize Jesus in the version presented to them.
The voices of Christian nationalism are becoming louder, wealthier, and more confident. They have television networks, political access, enormous social media platforms, and no apparent shortage of clergy willing to place Christian language around whatever the powerful have decided to do.
Cruelty becomes courage. Exclusion becomes faithfulness. Political power becomes divine favor. The Cross becomes campaign scenery.
They should not get to define Jesus simply because they have the largest microphones.
This ministry insists that the Gospel still belongs to the poor, the wounded, the stranger, the person pushed aside, and everyone who has been told that cruelty is the price of Christian conviction. We can love the Church without surrendering our conscience to its worst representatives. We can take Scripture seriously without turning off our brains. We can speak about mercy without becoming timid about injustice.
And yes, when circumstances require it, we can fight the dirtbags.
This work now reaches millions of people through Substack and social media. I am profoundly grateful for that reach, but reach and financial sustainability are not the same thing. A video can cross a million screens and still leave the software bill sitting on my desk. Research requires time. Production requires equipment. Pastoral accompaniment requires the freedom to answer the person who needs a priest, even when that conversation will never generate a view, a like, or a dollar.
Supporting Contributors provide that freedom.
So, for a limited time, I am offering 20 percent off the first year of an annual subscription.
The regular annual price is $99. With this offer, your first year will cost $79.20, which works out to about $6.60 a month.
You will become a full Supporting Contributor. You will be helping sustain the essays, podcast, pastoral work, Bible studies, and public witness of Message From the Margins. You will also be able to submit questions for consideration in Queries From the Margins.
I cannot leave the discount open forever. The financial reality of this operation requires people who can carry the full cost to continue doing so.
But a community does not require everyone to carry the same amount. It asks each person to carry the portion appropriate to their life.
St. Paul called that bearing one another’s burdens. Substack calls it a special offer. Their terminology differs, but for once the algorithm appears to have wandered somewhere near the Gospel.
This offer will remain available through Sunday, September 27, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
If $79.20 is within reach and Message From the Margins has helped make faith more understandable, more useful, or more alive in your life, I am asking you to become a Supporting Contributor today.
If the discounted price would still place strain on your finances, please remain here without guilt. Read, pray, ask your questions, share the work, and allow this community to accompany you. Supporting subscribers help keep the doors open precisely so money does not decide who receives the ministry.
Apparently, the Lord can work through ancient manuscripts, beeswax candles, and buttons buried inside a Substack settings page.
We have a Gospel to share, people to accompany, and more than a few dirtbags still requiring our attention.
Let us get to work.
With enormous gratitude,
