The September Letter
Twelve new titles in August, a step railing for a neighbor, twelve hours at the smokers for seminarians — and what we are working on now.
Dear Christ Bearers,
Every month we set out to do two things: put good books into your hands, and put our hands to work for our neighbors. August turned out to be a big month for both, and we wanted to tell you about it.
Twelve new titles went live. Here is what they were.
St. John Bosco on St. Vincent de Paul, in English for the first time in a long while.
St. Vincent de Paul was the priest who decided that pity was not enough. Seventeenth-century France was full of people moved by the poor; Vincent was the one who organized the response — founding the Congregation of the Mission and, with St. Louise de Marillac, the Daughters of Charity, and building the structures that fed foundlings, galley slaves, and whole villages long after the feeling had passed. His followers named five virtues as the marrow of his life: simplicity, humility, meekness, mortification, and zeal. Not one of them is a feeling. Every one of them is a habit you can practice on a Tuesday.
St. John Bosco wrote this book in Turin in 1848, while running an oratory for boys who had come to the city looking for work and found very little of it. He published it anonymously. What he wanted his readers to see was that Vincent had been holy in every social condition he passed through — among the poorest and among the powerful — and that virtue and ordinary decency belong together rather than apart. That is why the title joins them. Bosco was teaching boys with nothing that holiness and good bearing were the same road, not two.
The book gives you a short meditation for each day of a month, and each one ends the way Bosco ended everything: with something to actually do. He called it the fruit. That is the part that will find you out.
We publish it because most of us will never be asked to do something extraordinary. We will be asked to do ordinary things — a meal carried, a phone call returned, a name remembered — and the whole question of a Christian life is whether those are done in God’s grace and for His merit, or merely out of our own goodwill. Vincent’s answer was that no work is small when it is done for Christ and finished for Him. That is what turns an ordinary task into a saintly one. And it is what pushes you past the people who are easy to love, out to the margins, where Christ waits to be recognized in someone the world has stopped looking at. Bosco put that within reach of boys who owned nothing and had been told that sanctity belonged to somebody else. It is still within reach. That is why the book is in print again.
In paperback and Kindle, with the Spanish edition, El cristiano guiado a la virtud y a las buenas maneras, following four days later.
Four more months of the 12-Month Catholic Devotional, in both languages.
Most of us mean to pray more than we do. Not from indifference — from Tuesdays. These books are built for that problem: one page a day, tied to what the Church is already celebrating that month, so your prayer moves with the liturgical year instead of starting over every time you begin again. Four more months went live in August:
November — A Month with the Holy Souls
December — A Month with the Word Made Flesh
January — A Month with the Holy Name of Jesus
Each also released in Spanish, as part of the Devocionario Católico de 12 Meses — eight devotional titles in one month. You can now walk from October straight through January with a book for each, and hand the Spanish edition to someone who has been waiting for one.
The September Companion planner, in English and Spanish.
Most of us keep our calendar in one place and our faith in another, and the calendar usually wins. The Companion puts them on the same page: your appointments, your intentions, and the month’s devotion together, so that what you mean to pray about is sitting right next to what you have to do. September is the month of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, and this edition is built around her. It is on sale now in paperback and hardcover, alongside Compañero Portador de Cristo — Septiembre 2026 — and September has only just started, so you have not missed it.
While our publishing side continues to accelerate in spreading the word, we ultimately do this to bear Christ in deed as well. Evangelizing the faith costs real work, and our faith demands taking up Christ’s yoke through discipleship and charity. And while this side is growing at a smaller pace currently, we cannot have one side without the other.
We built a step railing. A single mother in our community has trouble with her ankle and leg, and her front steps had become a daily obstacle between her and her own house. We donated the lumber, brought a saw, and built her a railing. It took a Saturday. It gives her back every day after that.
We smoked Boston butts for seminarians. We joined the fundraiser, donated money for the food, and tended the smokers for twelve hours. It helped raise $1,700 for the men studying for the priesthood. Slow work, long hours, good company, and a real result — the Church’s future priests cost real money to form, and somebody has to pay for it. We were honored to be a part of it, and we look forward to the continued fruit this will provide for our Diocese.
In the workshop
- St. Isidore. We have begun a translation of one of the great gatherers of the Church’s learning — a man who tried to hold the whole inheritance of Christian knowledge together while the world around him came apart. He deserves a readable English edition, and he has not had one.
- More months of the 12-Month Catholic Devotional, English and Spanish, as we close out the calendar.
- More months of the Christ Bearer Companion planner, in English and Spanish.
In the neighborhood
- This month we are feeding the homeless — 150 meals for those who are struggling and overlooked in our area. We assemble the meals at the church and drive them out to where the need is. It takes real time and effort, but what it gives the people who receive it is worth far more than what it costs us.
- We are helping an elderly widow with her yardwork. Another Saturday, another set of hands, another neighbor who does not have to worry about how they will keep their yard from overtaking their peace.
Please note that we are continuing to build our foundation and work toward bearing Christ for those in need. All proceeds from book sales go toward this effort, and nothing is wasted. Currently all we ask is that you spread the word about our work, provide feedback, and continue to pray for us until we can open an avenue that can accept more. This small group truly loves bearing Christ to others, and we are thankful He allows us to work in His grace for His merit.
Thank you for reading with us, praying with us, and working alongside us.
St. Christopher, pray for us.
 | Warmly, Christopher |
quoting St. Gregory of Nyssa