A Joy Only God Can Give

Volume XXV, Number 21 – December 9, 2021

You know me. I only ask for your help once a year.

With a humble heart I am urging everyone reading my words to participate in our annual Christmas Appeal so we won't have to shut down by mid-2022. Without your generosity, we cannot exist.

We need 1800 readers to participate so we can keep offering our free "tools for evangelization" to the tens of millions of real people who will visit CatholiCity.com in 2022 and beyond.

Can you find it in your heart to be one of the 1800? I think you already know the secret: it feels good to support this apostolate!

Dear Friends,

I implored Saint Joseph to guide every word I write today.

Ways to Participate

Feel free to read on, skim, or just make your Christmas gift now:

Make a Christmas Gift

If you prefer becoming a monthly credit card supporter, it really helps me budget bringing in new workers. It's easy and risk-free:

Become a Monthly Donor

And if you want to mail your gift, please send it to:

The Mary Foundation
PO Box 26101
Fairview Park, OH 44126

Make checks payable to The Mary Foundation. And remember, Xavier, Anthony, and Patrick need more Christmas cards to adorn our shipping center nativity set!

Order Gifts and Donate

If you want to get our lovely Brown and Purple scapulars as meaningful Catholic gifts for your loved ones, then simply add your annual donation in the "Add a Christmas Gift" field provided on the online form:

Order Gifts and Donate

And please let me know why you love supporting our apostolate in the "Comments" box and I'll share some of these in my follow-up messages.

Canada or Overseas?

If you live in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, or elsewhere, we need you. Please consider helping us reach our goal. (And don't forget to order your Purple Scapulars!)

We Will Use Every Penny

In terms of reaching otherwise unreachable souls, our theological premise has always been that money sitting in a bank cannot influence souls, and so, as we do every year, we will boldly, wisely, and efficiently invest every dollar you send us.

This is why no apostolate in America or Canada impacts more souls "per dollar," including the many millions of people who surf into our website every year due to our outstanding search engine placement (as just one example, we have the top Catholic Baby Name website in the world).

What Immaculate Mary Wants

Whether you just found us or have been with us for all three decades, you have played a crucial role in distributing over twenty-million books, recordings, booklets, scapulars, and relic prayer medals! You do all the real work. We just make it easy and affordable. This is what Our Lady herself showed me personally in 1991, and we just follow her principles.

Millions More are Coming!

Great news! Not even counting our growing prayer movement to save America led by Father John Anthony Boughton, The Mantle of Mary Project, and our amazing new Colebrook Society (where friendship is the "tool for evangelization" to convert twenty-something Catholics all across America), my tech guys estimate that two or three times as many people will visit our website over the next three years than did over the last three years.

Our Prayers Change Things

As you've experienced, this email message itself influences souls through the prayers we pray together. Each one, no matter how small, unleashes the grace needed to change the world, and if we have helped you pray, you've helped influence the very course of nations.

Should You Even Make a Donation?

Every year I encourage you to "invite God into your decision" about supporting our work financially. I don't assume God wants you to support us in this way. Perhaps the Lord needs you to support other worthy charities?

I do know there is a tendency to assume that everyone else is donating. This is simply not the case. Only a small percentage of our readers participate.

My prayer this year is for you to receive the sublime joy that only God can give when He "transforms" something as mundane as our dollars into something as spiritually priceless as prayer movements, websites, and materials that His grace uses to help souls choose heaven who otherwise may have chosen to go to hell instead.

Make a Christmas Gift

I also never present this appeal as an obligation, and I never will. Jesus taught us "to give freely what has been given to you." I warmly invite you to at least pray one Hail Mary, or discuss your spiritual goals with your spouse or family before giving. (And it's okay if the answer is No).

The Widow's Mite

If you're struggling financially, consider giving just $5 or $10. This helps more than you might realize. After all, Jesus taught the tremendous spiritual value of the "widow's mite." (We have received over two million dollars in "widow's mite" donations over the past thirty years!)

"Our Lord sees the sacrifice, not the amount," as I always think when I give to my favorite apostolates. And by far my most favorite is the Mary Foundation. I'm a benefactor too! This year I'm matching all your gifts with a $1 widow's mite, so try to bankrupt this frugal Scotsman!

Three Ways to Give Like a Catholic

Pray for a Percentage

This suggestion came to me in prayer after extended 18-Day and 40-Day fasts. Perhaps you can consider giving a percentage of your savings that you might not ever need?

Adding a Zero

This one is elegantly simple: whatever the amount, ask Our Lady if she wants you to "add a zero" when you fill in the online donation form or write that check. (I've done this before and have never regretted it.)

Postpone a Good Thing

A nun once told me during an annual Christmas appeal that "the grace that saves souls never comes cheap." Vacations are valuable. Getting a coffee on the way to work is a good thing. New cars are really nice. Stock market gains are a blessing.

Big or small, consider postponing or giving up something you desire or love for the sake of treasure in heaven. Only you can figure out what that is. Like fasting, it is difficult because all sacrifice for the Kingdom of God is, even though Our Lord promised that his "burden is light and his yoke is easy."

By the way, it's easy to donate securities before the year's end and increase your gift by up to 37% using our non-profit partner CoCatalyst.

So that's it for now. You guys are the best! Let's Pray.

Never Was it Known!

Having just finished a 40-Day fast for your intentions, bolstered by so many of you joining me in your own ways, my petition is for everybody to participate in our Annual Christmas Appeal so we can all share the treasure in heaven!

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

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known
that anyone who fled to thy protection,
implored thy help,
or sought thy intercession,
was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence
I fly unto thee,
O Virgin of virgins, my Mother.
To thee do I come,
before thee I stand,
sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not our petitions,
but in thy mercy hear and answer them.
Amen.

You Were with Me in My Heart

On this very day, my favorite day of any year, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the final day of the extraordinary Year of Saint Joseph, the end of my 40-Day fast for your intentions, and the 38th anniversary of my total consecration to Mary at Notre Dame, a special Mass was offered for you at the most beautiful church in America, Saint John Cantius in Chicago.

Father Joshua Caswell, the young Superior General of the Canons Regular (who converted as a teenager in large part due to the Mary Foundation), had an encrypted flash drive of your intentions placed on that very altar during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

With Immaculate Mary,

Bud Macfarlane
Founder

Make a Christmas Gift

Become a Monthly Donor