We Really Need Your Help

Volume XXVI, Number 20
December 10, 2022

I only ask once a year, and I really really need you to participate in this year's Christmas Appeal. Without the help of just about everyone reading this, we will definitely have to close our doors in 2023. Donate Now

That would be a shame, because we are about to undertake the most intimidating "beams" of Operation True Cross, our penitential pilgrimage to implore God to save America.

The Bible teaches that "almsgiving atones for sins." What does this mean for you and me, today?

On behalf of Our Lady, I'm warmly inviting you to make a real personal sacrifice—to atone for our own sins and those of our fallen-away relatives and fellow countrymen.

I believe God will show you how much constitutes true self-denial. He will guide your heart when you fill in that number after you click on the donate button.

Beloved Friends of the Mary Foundation,

Some of you don't need a bunch of reasons. You just need a reminder that our Heavenly Father keeps this apostolate alive through your annual Christmas gift.

So just click on that donate button, offer a quick prayer before filling in whatever amount the Holy Spirit inspires—and have a happy and holy Christmas!

Make Your Christmas Donation

But if you're new, or wondering what this crazy Catholic guy (uh, that would be me) is going on about...

We're in big financial trouble. And it's the best kind of trouble—we've been growing like crazy and we're reaching more people than ever!

And it's your fault. Without your hard work, prayer, and sacrifice, this growth wouldn't be happening. My little band of young coworkers and I are grateful and humbled. So whatever you do, don't stop!

What's Coming in 2023

As you probably know, I am fasting virtually every day in 2022 and 2023 for Operation True Cross. My main intentions are the conversion of our fallen-away loved ones and for God to deliver America from diabolical bondage.

I am literally walking 4,500 miles with a few brave men while we carry an authentic relic of the True Cross around our shoulders.

We walk six hours a day, every day, up to twenty miles each. Despite tremendous obstacles, we completed the Wisconsin and Washington DC "beams" of our unprecedented "Crucifix of Reparation" over America this past fall.

Cali is Next: 3 Days After Christmas

On December 28th, Feast of the Holy Innocents, I will begin the treacherous 2,700-mile journey from the National Shrine of Our Lady of Peace in Santa Clara, California, all the way to the Lourdes Grotto at Notre Dame.

It will take four months, through Lent and past Easter, into late April.

Thanks to you, as we walk, tens of thousands of Catholics all over the country are now forming the spiritual backbone of Operation True Cross by praying the Daily Prayers to Save America.

That's just one of several reasons why we're facing such wonderful financial challenges. But we are struggling to keep up with inflation, pay fair wages, train new workers, and print hundreds of thousands of books—not to mention the exploding demand for Purple Scapulars!

Don't Leave it to Everybody Else

I'm not complaining—but without thousands of new volunteer donors and hundreds of thousands of dollars coming in this Christmas, we will have to shut down before next summer—and before we can finish Operation True Cross.

You are "everybody else."

I'm just grateful that we have a chance to survive for one more year. Seriously. It's exciting (if not a bit nerve-wracking for me personally) because we run the tightest little ship in the Catholic world. We spend every dollar to reach souls, efficiently and boldly.

Your gift will not be a drop in the bucket.

Over the past 32 years, we've received millions in what the world considers "small gifts."

Remember that Our Lord sees the sacrifice, not the amount.

So please, take a minute and join the others!
(No one ever regrets it.)

Make a Credit Card Donation

Become a Monthly Donor

Mail Your Donation
The Mary Foundation, PO Box 26101, Fairview Park, OH 44126
(check, cash, or money order) Make payable to "The Mary Foundation"

You guys are the best. Every year I say the same thing, because it's true:

Help us impact millions of souls.

This year, because of Operation True Cross, this means hundreds of millions of souls.

For reasons known only to heaven, our Immaculate Mother has chosen her little Mary Foundation and its benefactors to do the crucial, humble, and hidden reparation needed for God to deliver America from evil.

Joy in Atonement

Of course, making a donation can bring great joy. As a good Catholic, you know this. And even better, "almsgiving atones for sins," both our own sins and the sins of our nation.

So I really do beg of you: ask Our Loving Father to show you the amount that constitutes true-self denial given your own unique situation.

Three Ways to Challenge Yourself

Pray for a Percentage

This came to me in prayer. Consider giving a specific percentage of your savings. (In the big picture, you might never even need it.)

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.)

Sacrifice 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. Investment gains are a blessing.

Big or small, consider postponing or giving up something you desire or love for the sake of treasure in heaven.

Make a Credit Card Donation

Become a Monthly Donor

Mail Your Donation
The Mary Foundation, PO Box 26101, Fairview Park, OH 44126
(check, cash, or money order) Make payable to "The Mary Foundation"

Five Ways You'll Help Souls

1. A Conversion Tool for Millions

Since the dawn of the Internet, our website has been there for the world, in good times and bad, for every minute of every day, 365 days a year.

Millions of curious, lukewarm, or devout visitors, young and old, find us every year—it's a chance for God's grace to work through our Catholic content, books, booklets, scapulars, and podcasts.

2. A Hidden Rosary Apostolate

With your help we have distributed over twenty million tools for evangelization.

As just one example, we have distributed more Rosary recordings than any organization in all of human history. Countless millions of Holy Rosaries and Divine Mercy Chaplets have been offered to heaven as a result.

3. Prayer Movements

In addition to the Mantle of Mary Project and Operation True Cross, since 2015, most of you participated spiritually when we physically (and permanently) delivered your intentions to dozens of holy places in Rome, the Holy Land, Fatima, Canada, France, and all over America.

4. Reaching the Unreachable

Everything we offer—every book, every recording, every webpage—is designed to reach the luke-warm and the fallen-away.

5. Creative Initiatives

Many of our newer benefactors are not aware of some of our other creative initiatives and services:

- CatholicYoungAdultGroups.org
- a top "Catholic Prayer" page
- the entire Catholic Encyclopedia
- the Catechism Simplified
- the #1 Catholic Baby Names page
- the Archbishop Viganò Archive

Not to mention the oldest Catholic email message on earth, from yours truly, which I began writing just months after the World Wide Web went live twenty-seven years ago.

Our Lady's "Little Project"

I believe Our Lady sent you to us. All this miraculous activity happens because she is the true founder of this hidden little project consecrated to her Immaculate Heart.

This is Mary's apostolate. I really believe helping us this Christmas helps her.

Make a Credit Card Donation

Become a Monthly Donor

Mail Your Donation
The Mary Foundation, PO Box 26101, Fairview Park, OH 44126
(check, cash, or money order) Make payable to "The Mary Foundation"

Catholic Quotation

"Fasting is better than prayer and almsgiving is better than both."
- Saint Clement I

"Almsgiving, according to the Gospel, is not mere philanthropy. Rather it is a concrete expression of charity, a theological virtue that demands interior conversion to love of God and neighbor, in imitation of Jesus Christ, who, dying on the cross, gave his entire self for us."
- Pope Benedict XVI

Pray with Us

Let us, tens of thousands together, begin in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...

O come, thou rod of Jesse,
and free thine own from Satan's tyranny.
From depths of hell thy people save,
and give us victory o'er the grave!
Amen.

And amen. Thank you, thank you, for being a part of my life and a part of it all. The short version of everything I wrote above is:

We need you. America needs you. Our Lady needs you.

I always ask you to pray for the country, and for various intentions, but this time, please offer a prayer, or Rosary, or Holy Communion, for me.

The Lord, in prayer, has been sending me a steady and silent message (and it's not a bad thing): that 2023 is going to be the most difficult year of my life.

Fine by me.

The crew and I are looking forward to sending out a whole bunch of "thank you" letters, so pour it on!

As longtime readers know, I try to stay out of your inbox during big Catholic holidays, so I'll see you on the other side of Christmas, dear friends. I'll be writing from the road, with the True Cross around my shoulders, in California.

May God grant us all a grace-filled, beautiful, and truly Merry Christmas!

With Baby Jesus,

Bud Macfarlane
(American Cyrene)

Help Keep Our Doors Open

What Bud Learned from an Exorcist

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