Our Father and My Father

Volume XXV, Number 7 – April 23, 2021

Let's begin with an amazing true story.

How the Mother of God
Started the Mary Foundation

My father will turn 88 in June, yet in my mind's eye, he's always 40, so it was a bit of a jolt to see the present-day, wrinkled version in person when I went to visit him and my mom before going to the Blue Army Shrine on Divine Mercy Sunday.

Hundreds of thousands of people have heard my father in person, although it is more likely that you are one of the several million souls inspired by his Marian Apparitions Explained recording.

My visit got me to pondering how my father never promoted himself nor taken a fee for any of the hundreds of talks he started giving while I was in college nearly forty years ago. Before the Internet ever existed, several million people heard him echo the words of Mary and Jesus. This is the miraculous story of how this came to be.

Until his retirement at age 71, he worked long hours as an executive in the packaging industry. Thus his evangelization efforts were a truly a labor of love, and, as you will see, he always relied upon God, not his own plan.

Fatima and People Express

A devout Catholic since early childhood, the Holy Spirit set my dad on fire on May 13th, 1982. This was the very same day Saint John Paul II was in Fatima to publicly thank Our Lady for saving him from the poison bullet that came very close to killing him exactly one year earlier in 1981. (As you probably know, Mary's first appearance to the children at Fatima took place on May 13th, 1917.)

My parents happened to be at Niagara Falls on an unplanned weekend trip because my dad saw an ad in the Saturday morning paper proclaiming that the original discount airline, People Express, was offering $19 fares to Buffalo, New York. On a lark they drove to Newark Airport and saw Niagara Falls that afternoon.

The next day, after Sunday Mass, my father, who knew very little about Our Lady's apparitions at the time, bought a book at the gift shop about Our Lady of Fatima, in part because he was vaguely aware that the pope was in Portugal from television reports.

Well, Dad stayed up all night reading that book, utterly transfixed, and woke my mother the next morning, insisting with his slow, controlled intensity, while lightly tapping his index finger on the cover...

"Pat, this book has changed my life. The Holy Spirit has spoken to me through this book. I am going to dedicate the rest of my life to learning everything about Our Lady and her appearances on earth."

Mom, understandably, thought he sounded a bit nuts.

By the way, would you like to know the name of the church where my mother and father happened to attend Mass just outside of Niagara Falls? A local shrine named after Our Lady of Fatima!

My father has a genius-level IQ and an astounding memory. A valedictorian in high school and an outstanding athlete, he could have attended any college in the country, but instead he went straight into the Marine Corps at the height of the Korean War.

Handsome, tall, blue-eyed, and supremely gifted, he had prepared since boyhood to become a professional entertainer. His act included dozens of spot-on impersonations weaved seamlessly into stand-up comedy. Before meeting my mother, he was well on his way to stardom, but she wisely asked him during their engagement to give up show business on account of his heavy drinking, which that lifestyle exacerbated.

My father agreed without regret, and eventually gave up drinking when I was a young boy, attributing his deliverance from alcoholism to the miraculous intervention of Saint Jude.

After his Niagara Falls epiphany, already steeped in Scholastic theology from a traditional pre-Vatican II Seton Hall night-school education, he spent countless hours devouring everything in every book he could find concerning historical, approved Marian Apparitions and Marian theology. My father began to discern the subtle connections and the larger themes throughout the centuries. He memorized thousands of facts, dates, and Our Lady's words, while calling authors and visiting apparition sites. It is not an exaggeration to characterize his knowledge as encyclopedic.

He began an intense study of the preparation methods of his hero, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, one of the greatest orators of the twentieth century. God had already given my father the natural speaking talent, the voice, the confidence, and decades of experience in holding an audience in the palm of his hand.

After hearing my father discuss his research during an informal conversation, one of his fellow Knights of Columbus asked him to a presentation to a local group of Knights in New Jersey. After that talk, another Knight then asked him to speak at a local parish. That led to more parishes, and, eventually, to Catholic conferences all over the country.

My father always spoke without notes, having completely mastered his subject. He always spoke free of charge. Always in his free time. He has never once volunteered his willingness to anyone to speak anywhere. He simply waited to be asked. During the early years, he even refused to be recorded or allow videos of his talks.

My father also always gave away free books and materials (at his own expense) at every talk. Can you see the pattern now?

As a boy, I idolized my bigger-than-life father, who generously gave me nine beautiful sisters and one incredible younger brother. Although I did not inherit his intellectual firepower or outsized talents (although I can do a horrible impersonation of Kermit the Frog), I began reading the books he sent me while I was a student at the University of Notre Dame.

Several years later, my dad was not even aware he was being recorded when he gave a talk in a New Jersey parish on the Feast of Saint Anthony. At the beginning of that talk, he mentioned how had just completed a novena to this "greatest preacher of all time."

Almost two years later, in October of 1991, against his advice but with his blessing, some of my fellow Knights of Immaculata and I gave away the first few hundred copies of that very talk at a pro-life conference in Cleveland. (I had to convince my father that this was not "promoting" him because we were giving them away as free gifts with a desire to spread Our Lady's message, not his.). I christened this new organization the Mary Foundation, a name without a mission that had been floating around in my mind for quite some time.

A Vast Ocean of Souls

At the end of that conference, I sat up like a shot in bed late at night, having seen in my imagination a vast living ocean of many millions of people, going into the horizon beyond sight. I saw countless people in the front being given free materials. Simultaneously, the "principles" of the Mary Foundation were infused into my heart. (I can still see that ocean of souls now as I type these words--the image never leaves me.)

The next morning, I wrote down the principles, began guiding the Mary Foundation by them, and over the past thirty years, I have witnessed that striking image come true through your hard work and sacrifices.

Without any traditional advertising, by word of mouth, through one person giving another person one tape or CD at a time, millions of people worldwide have since heard Marian Apparitions Explained. It's one of the most popular Catholic recordings of all time (alongside Scott Hahn's conversion story, our second talk!).

Since then, tens of millions have been influenced by our other materials, our website, my novels, but mostly through God's pure grace working through your own lives, one person at a time.

No Plan But God's Plan

That baby Mary Foundation had no marketing plan. It had no budget. It had no money, except, almost literally, my last $500, which had been set aside for tithing, and which was used to buy a few hundred blank cassettes. There was no human plan.

As the above story illustrates, it was all Providence, all God's plan, and in particular, as you now know, Our Lady of Fatima's plan, from the beginning. My mother and father had been attending daily Mass and praying the Rosary through the crazy joys and deep suffering of raising their family through some of the most treacherous confusion and difficult times that all Catholic parents of their generation experienced.

Forty-one years after Our Lady appeared at Fatima, where the most spectacular public miracle since the parting of the Red Sea took place, my parents jumped happily into the supernatural miracle of holy matrimony in 1958. A quarter of a century later their love led to a ridiculously inexpensive flight to Buffalo in 1982. Their marriage is still filled with God's grace on this very day, in 2021, nearly four decades after their weekend getaway to see a gigantic waterfall.

One bullet led a pope to Fatima, which led my father, after a lifetime of preparation for public speaking, to one book, which led to one conversation, which led to one talk, which led to another talk, which led to the very first cassette tape, which led to millions of tapes and CDs and books...

...which led you to reading my words today.

God is all-powerful. He has a plan. He manifests His plan through the Mystical Body of Christ, which is made up of you and me, the baptized.

Remember it the next time you give someone one of our books, or prayer medals, or scapulars, or booklets.

God's grace is the Niagara Falls in your soul, my friend. (And you don't need a $19 ticket!)

The Evergreen Talk

Likewise, the Operation True Cross prayer movement, which began picking up steam last week, also can trace back to Fatima in 1917.

At the Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima this past Divine Mercy Sunday, Father John Anthony told me and the director of the Blue Army, David Carollo, that recently he had just re-listened to "Marian Apparitions Explained." Father John Anthony described it as "evergreen" because it applies better to 2021 than 1991.

My friends, I love to tell you stories, yet I do not, as a habit of mind, dwell on the past, except to learn from my many mistakes, and more importantly, to highlight and recognize the patterns of God's ever-perfect, mysteriously silent, and providential role in bringing all of us into the present moment.

As I never tire of reminding myself, you are part of this apostolate because Our Lady sent you to us. All we need to do is cooperate with her plan, day by crazy day, which is God's plan.

Despite his immense natural talent and hard work, my father turned out to be a failure as a drunken comedian, because he wanted even more to be a good Catholic husband. Today I gaze upon the ultimate goal: to be a creaturely cooperator in the Divine Plan of Salvation History to bring every one of the billions of souls on this planet into the Catholic Church, the only Kingdom of God. By that measure, I consider my own life a tremendous, spectacular failure, so far.

So thank you for failing with me. Let's keep failing until we turn tens of millions into hundreds of millions.

During this year of Saint Joseph, in honor of my father, William Noble "Bud" Macfarlane, Sr., earthly father of this little project for Mary, thank you.

Find the Suffering Souls

We all know how difficult the last year has been. There are surely many people in your life who are suffering from loneliness, unemployment, loss, or sickness.

You know who they are. It does not take much effort to bring the joy of Christ into their lives. (Helpful hint: pray to the Holy Spirit and your Guardian Angel, then scan through the contacts in your phone.)

1. Take a few minutes to call them.

2. Send an encouraging text.

3. Pray a Rosary or receive Holy Communion for their intentions and let them know.

4. Invite them out to a meal, a walk, or to Mass and/or Confession.

5. Mail or personally deliver a religious gift (or even a financial gift if appropriate).

Divine Mercy Mass for Your Petitions

On Divine Mercy Sunday I drove to the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in the western New Jersey mountains for our special "capstone" Mantle of Mary Mass with Father John Anthony Boughton, which he offered in thanksgiving for the Great Awakening and Illumination of Consciences that is coming soon.

On an encrypted thumb drive, Father John Anthony placed tens of thousands of your petitions on the altar. After Mass, I permanently buried the petitions and a chunk of the exorcised salt from last year's project to "pin the mantle" of Mary.

Pray This for Your Children

At virtually all of his hundreds of speaking engagements, my father, Bud Macfarlane Sr., shared the following prayer with parents and grandparents troubled over their fallen-away children and grandchildren. According to Father Gobbi, in 1990 Our Lady herself implored parents to hold up their beads at the start of their Rosaries and pray:

Holy Mary, Celestial Queen, with this Rosary I bind my children to your Immaculate Heart.

Then Our Lady assured him, "And then I will tend to their souls."

"At the Hour of Our Death..."

It is easy to overlook the emphasis which Sacred Tradition has imbedded in so many common Catholic prayers to ask for Our Lady and the saints to be with us "at the hour of our death." It has been right there within every Hail Mary during all your rosaries for your children.

I'm not a theologian, yet I believe with complete confidence that your children or grandchildren, if they have prayed one single and sincere Hail Mary, even if it was decades ago as a small child, will have Our Lady by their sides during the hour of their deaths.

Of course, just like you, I yearn for the conversion of the people I love right now. If there is no earthly sign of conversion before death, I have to remind myself that the human will can be prompted to act at any time, and the grace of salvation can be granted in a microsecond.

While we are not privy to the interior dialogue between Our Savior Jesus and a soul in that crucial moment before death, I am consoled that such a conversation is possible. I hope you can now share this same consolation.

An Open Bible

This works! An open Bible in a place where you will notice it when you wake up or go to sleep is a Bible you will read. Each morning and evening, read a few verses until you receive inspiration from the Holy Spirit, or, until you are consoled.

Ask Yourself...

Is it time to restock? Many of you have received our Purple Scapulars, relic prayer medals, Warning books, Rosary CDs, or even my novels over the past few months. Most of you cared enough for the salvation of other souls to give them out within your unique circle of influence.

This is how you change the world: one small gift of love at a time. If you need more, Xavier, Anthony, and the new guy Dave are ready to pack and ship your order today!

Order Gifts Online

Order Gifts By Mail

Department of Cool Ideas

There are only three sacred Languages, determined by God, not man: Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. They are holy is because all three were affixed to the "instrument of our salvation," the Cross of Christ. This is another reason why the Latin Mass alone merits the label "extraordinary." Even the language itself is blessed by God.

Quotations

"Satan has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and he will within a very short time come to rule a false church."
-Saint Padre Pio (1960)

"In a certain way, I also think that this could be the time of the Antichrist. When electricity allows for the simultaneity of all information for every human being, it is Lucifer's moment. He is the greatest electrical engineer of all... Just think: each person can instantly be tuned to the 'new Christ' and mistake him for the real Christ. At such times it become crucial to hear properly and tune yourself in to the right frequency."
-Marshall McLuhan (1969)

"I am going to tell you now exactly why Our Lady is appearing...she is appearing because the world is very close to a great chastisement, worse than the time of the flood during the times of the Noah and the Ark. A great chastisement is about to befall the world! That's why she is appearing. These are the most dangerous times in the whole history of the world, from the beginning of its creation by God, to the coming Jesus the Messiah, from the establishment of the Catholic Church, right through this day, this is the final, final battle with satan. That's why she is appearing: to crush the head of satan. And she is telling us what we can do to help her and her son Jesus to prevent or mitigate this great punishment from the wrath of God."
-Bud Macfarlane Sr. "Marian Apparitions Explained"

"The faithful, therefore, should be recommended to recognize in such chastisements the fatherly love of God, and ever to have in their hearts and on their lips the saying of Job, the most patient of men: 'He woundeth and cureth; he striketh and His hands shall heal.'"
-Catechism of the Council of Trent

"For Jesus Christ, I am prepared to suffer still more."
-Saint Maximilian Kolbe

"We all know sometimes life's hates and troubles, can make you wish you were born in another time and space. But you can bet your life times that and twice its double, that God knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed."
-Stevie Wonder, the song "As"

"Nothing can happen to me that God does not want. And all that He wants, no matter how bad it may appear to us, is really for the best."
-Saint Thomas More

Praying Together Changes the World

Let us, tens of thousands of us, pray together, and thus, change the world. My thanks to Rich May for this prayer composed by Pope Leo XIII and promulgated in his encyclical, Quamquam Pluries. (Rich has also prepared a Saint Joseph Rosary Meditation, with an Imprimatur, which you can print out here. I recommend you pray the Rosary with it during this Year of Saint Joseph.)

Let us begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...

To you, O Blessed Joseph,
do we come in our tribulation,
and having implored your most holy spouse,
we confidently invoke your patronage also.
Through that charity which bound you
to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God
and through the paternal love
with which you embrace the Child Jesus,
we humbly beg you graciously
to regard the inheritance that Jesus Christ
has purchased by His blood,
and with your prayer and strength
to aid us in our necessities.

O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family,
defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ.
O most loving father,
ward off from us every contagion of error
and corrupting influence.
O our most mighty protector,
be favorable to us and from heaven assist us
in our struggle with the power of darkness.

And, as once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril
so now protect God's Holy Church
from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity.
Shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection,
so that, supported by your example and your aid,
we may be able to live piously, to die holily,
and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.
Amen.

Thank you for praying with me and your fellow CatholiCity Citizens.

With Mary,

Bud Macfarlane Jr.

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