SINCE the launch of the daily Now Word Mass reflections, the readership to this blog has skyrocketed, adding 50-60 subscribers each week. I am now reaching tens of thousands each month with the Gospel, and several of them priests, who use this website as a homiletic resource.
This is a full-time ministry for me, six days a week. My mornings are spent in prayer, and the rest of the day in writing and research. As such, I have to rely entirely now upon donations and the small number of sales of my music and book in the online store. As I wrote last autumn, my wife and I have put our farm up for sale, and have been steadily selling all our possessions, except for the essentials, in order to reduce our cost of living as much as possible. We are planning on moving to Atlantic Canada, where real estate is in a depression, in order to find a house large enough for our ministry and family without incurring the large mortgage we now have. We’re doing everything we can to make sure that I can continue to be faithful to Christ’s call in my life to be a “watchman” at this late hour, and distribute His Spiritual Food for the flock.
But the past several months, despite the rapid climb in readership and daily reflections, our ministry, which has one employee and many monthly expenses, has been going heavily into arrears. You may recall that last summer we launched a drive to ask 1000 readers to donate just $10 a month to meet our monthly obligations and have enough to continue creating new resources. The last number I published was that we were 81% of the way to our goal. However, I stopped publishing our total because we began to find that only half of those who pledged to donate were actually doing so, and others were dropping off. That means we’re falling several thousand dollars short every month. Lea and I have been able to keep up somewhat by selling our belongings, but those too are quickly running out.
I know these are hard times. Even five bucks is a lot of money for some folks these days. The last thing I want to is to be a financial burden to anyone. That’s why my writings and videos are absolutely free—there is no cost to the Gospel. Readers of my daily reflections may have also noticed I’ve been slowly posting my songs at no cost as well. I want to do everything I can to feed souls with what God has given me…. but I also have seven children still at home that I have to feed too.
Regular readers here know that I don’t make financial appeals very often. Many ministries today send out donation requests every week, and sometimes more than once, and that’s fine. I just don’t want to lose subscribers because they’re tired of hearing me beg for support. On the other hand, they won’t hear from me much at all if I keep going into the red.
Those of you who are suffering financially as well—please, just pray for me. But those of you who are able to donate, I need you to partner with my work so that money, or rather, the lack of it, does not become an obstacle.
Thanks to everyone who has been such a support with your letters, prayers, and donations. We go forward, one day at a time, by the grace of God.
Grace and peace, your servant in Christ,
Mark Mallett
To donate by cheque, credit card, or other, click the button:
