Blog around the world update for 2011 – God is at work…

“He has put into my heart a marvelous love for the faithful ones who dwell in this land.” (Psalm 16) Every time I pray the Liturgy of the Hours and this psalm meets me again, my heart is inflamed as I am reminded of my love for you. The motivation behind this effort is love for the Blessed Trinity and love for you. What else would drive us to spend the hours that we do without pay? This work is truly a labor of love and the rewards are eternal and mostly unseen. However, we are regularly encouraged by what we can see and what we do hear from you.

2011 has been an amazing year. The sheer growth of the number of subscribers to the site has been astounding. The need for this project is clear – souls are hungry for real spiritual sustenance – they are using the internet as a primary means to find it – and by God’s grace, we are able to help. Here’s a look at the growth subscribers in this past year. The light blue reflects the number of subscribers we begin with each month. The dark blue is the number of new subscribers each month. So far this year we have added over 5,000 subscribers!

Here’s another amazing picture of the impact of this site. This global map shows visitors to this site since October 15th of this year. This only reflects a little more than a month’s worth of visitors. Is this not an astounding picture? Some of the red dots represent thousands of visits from one area!

This has happened because of you. You have prayed for us, you have encouraged us, you have told others about us, and you have supported us financially. To serve you we have produced a regular flow of quality content that includes exceptional books like The Better Part (in print, on Kindle, and iPhone!) and Encounter with Mercy, and personal spiritual guidance. If you have supported us in any way, we want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts.

As we close out this year I would like to ask for your continued support in this important mission. If you are giving what you can, please continue. If you can increase your giving, please do. If you have given once, please consider a monthly recurring gift of $5.00, $10.00, or $25 (or more if you are able). Whatever you can do to help us keep the momentum going, we are grateful. If we only had 1% of our subscribers giving $10.00 per month, we would be able to cover all of our costs and hire a full time staff member to improve our services to you. Here’s a little more about our efforts:

What does your support provide for?

• Basic costs behind keeping the site live and emails delivered to you.
• Computing systems and internet services for the site.
• Costs of producing faithful Catholic content.

What are our plans?

• Our end goal is to keep the good we have going and build on it by providing a constant stream of online live and local teaching and formation in the life of God. What this means is that we will need full time help to develop curriculum and provide the classes. We want to provide classes on all aspects of prayer and the spiritual life and eventually provide on-line courses for those called to spiritual direction.

What can I do?

• Give Monthly: Even if you can only afford $5.00 per month, these gifts help us a great deal to manage monthly costs. Click here to begin your monthly gift or increase your current monthly gift.
• Give An Annual Gift: Some of you have the ability to give to charity on an annual basis. Please consider us as the year winds down (we are a 501 c3 so your charity is tax deductible). If you give a gift of $25 to $100 it will go to off-set monthly costs. If you give $1,000 to $5,000 it will go toward providing online courses or other projects you may feel God’s call to encourage. If you would like to speak with me personally about a larger gift and more detailed plans for growth, contact me at rcspiritualdirection@gmail.com and provide your phone number. Click here to give an annual gift of any amount.

The souls of God’s people are being nourished by this humble work. We could do far more if you give more. If you can’t give, pray for us (and don’t feel guilty about it) and serve people by encouraging them in the comboxes (as many of you do). If you can, give as much as you can. Regardless, enjoy! God’s will be done.

He is real, present, and good – may He always be so to you and those you love.

Blessed Advent to you and yours,

Dan

Blog Around the World…

I haven’t updated you in a while regarding the readership of this humble effort to serve Catholics who desire to deepen their faith through authentic Catholic spirituality. Since beginning last January our readers have spent almost 2,000 hours reading our posts! As well, the world map here reveals that we have readers in more than 109 countries/regions. All the areas in green reflect where our readers come from. The dark green indicates the locations where the majority of our readers come from. This is particularly amazing in light of the fact that we have yet to invest any $$ in promoting the site.

What is truly exciting to us, is that what began as an experiment, has really become a transformational reality. Here is a quote from one of our readers:

Father, no question, just a sincere thank you for the clarity of your answers and the pastoral way you present them. Much, much appreciated and I find myself making notes of many “gems” for use with my RCIA candidates either as background or as direct quotes and reference to your website. Many blessings upon you! Mark

Mark is a great example of many Church leaders who read our materials and use them in ways that impact even more people than we can touch directly.

Without a budget, just by word of mouth and other humble means, we have connected with thousands of Catholics looking to deepen their faith.

The challenge at this point is how to take this effort to the next level. Several generous donors have kept this ball moving forward thus far. If you have been blessed by our efforts here, would you consider a donation? What will we do with your donation? That depends a bit on you and what you are able to give. Here are a few things we need to keep growing:

• Computer and Software Upgrade
• Promotion: This is an area where we have yet to invest but we are ready to serve a larger audience. Any donations here would go to improving our search engine rankings and beginning some outreach efforts.

Another way you can support us is to purchase your spiritual formation and Catholic supply materials through this blog via our partnership with Aquinas and More. For more titles and almost 20,000 Catholic supply items, click anywhere on the bar on the lower right. The great thing about what we offer through Aquinas and More is that we guarantee that you will not find a single item that offers teachings contrary to the magisterium of the Church.  Just to be sure – in order for us receive some support from your purchase, we need you to enter their site through this blog (that’s how they track how people come to them).

Times are tough – any amount or effort helps – if you are unable to help us financially, please keep us in your prayers as we work together to Seek Him – Find Him – Follow Him.

Pax Christi, Dan