What's the One Word Saint Joseph Said?

Volume XXVIII, Number 19
December 31, 2024

My Son's Take + 5 Profound Quotes

Merry Christmas!

Your appeal gifts have somehow squeezed through online and by mail despite every strange hiccup, and now we're this close to keeping our doors open in 2025.

If just a few hundred more of you jump in, I think we'll make it!

So please enjoy my son Xavier's unique view on working here, followed by mind-bending quotes and our worldwide group prayer featuring the one word from Scripture that we know Saint Joseph said...

A Ground-Floor Perspective

Hello Everyone,

I'm Xavier, the General Manager of the Mary Foundation. What follows is based on what I wrote to many of you last year.

Whether you're new or have been with us for decades, you probably know that my dad can be a bit intense. That's part of what makes the Mary Foundation so unique.

So I'm here with a different perspective.

Our annual Christmas Appeal is almost over, and I'm offering one last invitation for you to participate.

While my dad's messages highlight the extraordinary work your generosity allows us to accomplish together, here's another take for you to consider:

That's Anthony, our Operations Manager, on the packaging line this morning. (Can you spot Our Lady of Guadalupe on the wall behind him?) He returned to practicing the faith after college before coming to work here in 2020.

A couple of years ago he stretched himself to buy a nearby duplex where he lives on the bottom unit. Recently, a broken pipe behind a wall caused serious damage, but thankfully insurance is covering most of the repairs, some of which he is doing himself.

He drives a twelve-year-old stick-shift Dodge Dart with 167,000 miles on it.

Through his persistence, our parish enjoyed Adoration and Confession every Friday for two years. Lately he's been sensing the call to start a family, so please pray for his future wife to find him.

I want you to ponder this: you are the reason this Catholic man has a job.

You are the reason any of us at the Mary Foundation have jobs.

We are all hopeful Catholics, striving to live up to Christ's teachings, navigating a struggling Church, and making our way through this modern godless culture, and yet...

Because of you, we get to devote our lives to the Harvest of Souls.

Because of you, we get to wake up in the morning and drive to a workplace where Christ is King.

Because of you, we get to spend our days going after the lukewarm and fallen-away to bring them back into the love of the Holy Family.

Because of you, the Mary Foundation gets to exist, and we get to work here.

You are the reason we pack boxes, answer emails, record podcasts, and ship so many books and scapulars and medals.

You put food on our table, pay our rent and mortgages, and keep our used cars running.

And we are so grateful.

It's humbling to write these words, but Anthony and everyone else here genuinely relies on your generosity, so if you haven't already participated in this year's appeal, please prayerfully consider making a donation to keep us going for another year.

"Close Our Doors." Really?

I occasionally get asked why we say things like "without your help, we will have to close our doors next year." We say that because it's true.

Every year, we put all of our resources into producing powerful tools for evangelization, launching new initiatives like Treasure in Heaven, and expanding the Operation True Cross prayer movement.

This seemingly-reckless strategy was instilled in me by my father—I say seemingly because it's worked for thirty-four years.

We tell all our new hires, "It's better to crash and burn than to rust on the runway."

We're still flying, and that's because every new project is launched with careful planning and executed with a high standard of professional excellence.

Not a penny is wasted, but every penny is put to work, because money sitting in a bank account doesn't save souls. A book, a scapular, a podcast, a prayer—through God's grace, these can save souls.

Because of your gift of generosity and your work in the real world distributing our materials, we're continuing to reach more people every year. And because reaching more people means printing more books, packing more boxes, and paying more postage, this is a real challenge for our finances.

We just hired a new worker to help us pack your orders, answer your emails, and stick shipping labels on boxes this year—and we hope to hire even more.

Compared to secular careers, it's a gamble working here. We literally count on you for our livelihood.

So please keep our doors open.

It means a lot to all of us.

With the Holy Family,

Xavier Macfarlane
General Manager

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has already participated this year. You guys really are the best!

Make Your Gift

Five Catholic Quotations

"The lottery of honest labor, drawn by time, is the only one whose prizes are worth taking up and carrying home."
- Theodore Parker

"Rational natures are poised between alternatives. God moves the human spirit to good; nevertheless, it could resist. It is God's doing, then, that a man prepares himself to receive grace. If he lacks grace, then the cause of the failure lies in him, not in God."
- Saint Thomas Aquinas

"I'll tell you what I am grateful for as a Catholic man: everything. Every breath, every bite, every thought, every pain, every friend, every act of love, every appropriate pleasure, every ocean sound and cornfield view, every stormy night and sunny day, and every single thing that has ever happened to me, good or bad, remembered or forgotten, in the faith-filled succor of belief, that God made me and has kept me alive to experience the certainties and mysteries of this amazing place, seen and unseen, the awesome world which He so loved that He sent his only Son."
- Joseph Wood

"I will let the whole cat out of the bag and state Pascal's ultimate conclusion right here at the beginning—not only do we only know God through Jesus Christ, but we only know ourselves through Jesus Christ; we only know life through Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ we cannot know the meaning of our life or death, of God, or of ourselves."
- Peter Kreeft

"The Church is universal because she is born of God, all nations are at home in her, and the arms of her crucified Master are stretched above all races, above all civilizations. She does not bring nations the 'benefits of civilization,' but the blood of Christ and supernatural beatitude."
- Jacques Maritain

A Christmas Season Prayer

We are certain of only one word from scripture spoken by Saint Joseph: as the angel told him, he named the child, "Jesus."

Let us begin, on this seventh day of Christmas, on this eve of the New Year and our celebration of the divine maternity of Our Lady—and just three days before the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus—tens of thousands of us together, focusing especially on the words, Mother of God, and enjoying the sublime honor of uttering in our hearts or aloud, the name Jesus... in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit...

Hail Mary,
full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.

Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now,
and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

I hope you enjoyed Xavier's perspective. Whenever and however you pray this coming year, you can find me in the wounds of Christ.

You help me bear my invisible crosses, as I bear yours, and I am grateful, as we continue with courage and joy on our great pilgrimage into 2025.

We just took that picture a few minutes ago. For the record, I am 6'1", 220 lbs.

Yes, my son Xavier is a big man.

Happy New Year!

With Saint Simeon,

Bud Macfarlane
Founder

Help Keep Our Doors Open

Bud's "Intense" Message

Mystery Button

Our supporters have distributed tens of millions of life-changing Catholic gifts since 1991, making us America's largest producer of high-quality, super-affordable tools for evangelization. Join our work today!

See All Our Catholic Materials

Find Local Young Adult Groups

Meet Bud Macfarlane, Our Founder

Donate to Help Us Reach Millions

Pray with Us to Save America