The True Cross Pilgrimage
We walked 4,500 miles to form a living Crucifix over America. Will you join our spiritual warfare project?
Millions of us know that something has gone terribly wrong with our nation. A supernatural battle is being waged to determine the fate of America.
Carrying the Actual True CrossNow you can do something about it every day by praying with us as we continue to engage in spiritual warfare to save our country.
Over the past year, a few determined men led by the gutsy apostle of Our Lady, Bud Macfarlane, completed four grueling walking pilgrimages to the Lourdes Grotto at Notre Dame to form the living Crucifix of Reparation over the United States.
Remarkably, they carried an ancient Relic of the True Cross from sunrise to sunset, for over 13,000,000 steps, in often brutal weather over mountains and through deserts, all the way from four national shrines in Wisconsin, California, Washington DC, and Florida.
Tens of Thousands Participating!Through word-of-mouth by people just like you, tens of thousands of concerned Americans all over the country have joined the movement by offering prayers, alms, and penance.
Forming a geographical Crucifix of Reparation has never been accomplished in any country, and now we are calling upon Catholics everywhere to continue to join us in daily prayer and penance.
HOW TO JOIN US
1. Pray the Daily Prayers
Order the official prayer book for only $1 to start praying every day. It takes just 12 minutes to offer the life-changing prayers:
Order Daily Prayers Book Only $1
Read or Print the Daily Prayers
2. Personally Invite Others
Talk to your family and friends. Link to this webpage through email and social media while distributing the prayer book to parishes, groups, and Adoration chapels. Print and share the official flyer.
3. Give Sacrificial Alms
Making a donation can bring great joy, and the Bible reassures us that "almsgiving atones for sin." We warmly encourage you to invite God to show you how much constitutes true self-denial in your own situation.
One-time gifts and monthly donors are crucial to supporting this apostolate.
WHY JOIN US
Our Lord taught us that "some demons can only be driven out through prayer and fasting," and pilgrimages have been penitential since the earliest centuries of the Church.
But the kind of prayers matter, as well.
Exorcism Prayers for LaymenIn addition to the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the profound Mantle of Mary prayer, the Daily Prayers to Save America feature the Auxilium Christianorum spiritual warfare prayers for laymen come from the well-known exorcist, Father Chad Ripperger.
Father Ripperger's prayers profoundly affect the "spiritual orientation" of everyone who offers them. They rely firmly on the Mother of God.
Honoring Our Lady of SorrowsThis is why we chose national Marian shrines as departure sites (listed below). On day one, August 14th, 2022, Feast of the Holy Cross, we formally consecrated Operation True Cross to the Immaculate Mary to honor her consoling presence at the crucifixion, where her "heart, too, was pierced by a sword."
If you love Our Lady and care about your country, join us.JOIN OPERATION TRUE CROSSCyrenes: Self-Denial and Reparation
• Pray the Daily Prayers
• Distribute the Daily Prayers
• Give Alms to Atone for Sin
Like Simon the Cyrene, these brave men helped each other carry the Holy Cross. They slept in a cramped cargo van with no running water in bitter cold and sweltering heat for over eight months.
In imitation of Christ, by taking on suffering in their bodies to atone for sin, these men confronted the high-level demons that feed off the blood of the innocent, sexual perversion, and the idolatry of the self—sins that cry out to heaven for justice.
These powers and principalities must be cast down forever by Saint Michael the Archangel and the heavenly host.
As you can imagine, the Cyrenes endured persistent diabolical attacks. Protected beneath the Mantle of Mary, in union with Christ Crucified they silently embraced suffering for you, your family, and the fallen-away.
Satan Fears the CrossFrom Lucifer to the lowest scum of hell, all demons are liars and cowards. They are terrified of the True Cross because they know Christ shed his precious blood and died upon it to atone for all sin.
Here is Bud's ancient fragment of this same cross inside the reliquary we crafted from a crucifix to carry around our shoulders:
BUD'S PHOTO-DIARIES
The man who founded this movement, Bud Macfarlane, is a uniquely gifted writer—he's always warm, funny, jolting, and insightful.
Here are his gripping accounts of the Cyrenes' tribulations and triumphs, including extraordinary photos from all over our beautiful nation:
Northern Beam
Wisoncsin #1: The First Step of 13,000,000 Steps
Wisconsin #2: Did Anthony Actually See the OTC Angel?
Eastern Beam
DC #1: Our Lady's 3 Old Men Cross the Appalachians!
DC #2: A Clear, Striking Sign from God
Western Beam
California Begins: Harsh Conditions
Cali #2: Dark Forces in the Heavens
Arizona: Our Lady Sends in the Marines
New Mexico: Can You Outwalk a Snowstorm?
Texas: Rainbows and Butterflies
Oklahoma: We Need Your Prayers Now
Indiana: Mary Crushes the Serpent!
Southern Beam
Note: You can subscribe to Bud's legendary twice-a-month email message here. It's completely private and free.Our Lady's Hidden Army
Operation True Cross has no earthly power, wealth, or influence. There is no marketing campaign beyond your conversations with like-minded friends and giving a simple, beautiful $1 prayer book to others.
You can do this because everyone can do this.
"Be not afraid!" Jesus meant it. We believe it. Together, side by side, we will aim and fire exorcism prayers and reparations into the soft white underbelly of the dragon until he is vanquished and Christ the King reigns fully over our beloved land!
The Four Marian Shrines
To the Lourdes Grotto, Notre Dame IN
2022 Sept: from Champion WI 2022 Oct: from Washington DC 2023 Jan: from Santa Clara CA 2023 April: from St. Augustine FLUnique Gift from the Old Man
Bud is New Jersey-tough and still going strong at sixty. For decades he has been beloved by countless Catholics for his riveting and life-changing bestselling novels.
As his personal gift of thanks, an annual "Novena of Masses" is being offered for Operation True Cross participants. Submitting intentions is completely anonymous, free, and secure.
Saint Clement I
It is only by sacrificing and suffering, offered as penance, that you will be able, by the grace of God, to convert sinners.
Saint John Vianney
We also boast in our afflictions, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance proven character, and proven character hope—and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.
Romans 5: 1-6
JOIN OPERATION TRUE CROSS
• Pray the Daily Prayers
• Distribute the Daily Prayers
• Give Alms to Atone for Sin
In Bud Macfarlane's Own Words
As only he can, let Bud tell you why he founded Operation True Cross.If you break your leg, you go the the emergency room. If your car isn't working, you bring it to a mechanic. If you are clinically depressed, by all means seek out a counselor—but when you are under spiritual oppression from the devil, you must turn, face him, and fight. If you shrink from spiritual warfare, nothing else matters—not politics, not economics—not anything. After all, the era-defining conflict between powers and principalities is why everything is so unstable. "Resist the devil and he will flee," as Saint James assures us. Catholics and many Church leaders have forgotten this is how the salvation of souls works.There is no other way to deal with the diabolical oppression destroying our land and luring away the people we love most, especially our children.
And so I say to all who are willing to choose a side: "Fight." I have turned to face the demons. Many, many others have joined me. Angels are with us. We are going to fight—and we are going to win!
And because our "weapons" are the Holy Rosary, humility, poverty, suffering, self-denial, exorcism prayers, and sacrifical almsgiving, the Blessed Mother purifies our imperfect pleadings for Divine Mercy for our nation when she places them before the throne of heaven. Our Father is already answering her.
Our children and grandchildren will not grow up in this cesspool of sin, crime, adult exploitation of innocent children, murder, greed, legalized perversion, godlessness, corruption, idolatry of self, and the endless, hideous lies. That's over, my friends. As it says in the Saint Michael prayer, "by the power of God" we are going to end it. Now.
And nobody can stop us. We barely exist, in worldly terms. By design, Operation True Cross does not have any social media. We are the hidden yet deeply concerned Catholics (struggling like everybody else in the real world) having serious conversations with our friends and then giving out an essentially free prayer book that takes less than fifteen minutes to pray on a daily basis.
But oh, my brothers and sisters, what a book it is! Prayers for the laity from an exorcist! These prayers within change the spiritual orientation of every person who offers them. They changed me. They will change you.
Like Saint Joseph, we can terrorize demons with impunity—as long as we remain in a state of grace. If you haven't gone to Confession in a while, do not delay in receiving the profound gift of absolution. (If it's been a long time, I wrote a very popular booklet just for you—and it's free.)
From the striking reactions I get from people who find out about Operation True Cross, I know that good Catholics catch on to our powerful "hidden" Marian dynamic fast. This is reverent, solemn spiritual warfare. It works. How?
Of course, from a theologicially perspective, only God's divine will and power can cast out demons. God decides and then provides the means. In the actual battle, it is the angels of the heavenly host, and accord with the design of God's creation, who carry out this divine work.
Our subordinated human role, however, is beyond profound—and in ways beyond our comprehension. Just think: angels, as non-corporial spirits, do not have bodies of blood, organs, flesh, and bone. Jesus, the incarnate second person of the Holy Trinity, does. Thus, only we, as human beings, have the particular capacity (and honor) of imitating and participating in his eternal atonement for sin in our flesh by embracing (and voluntarily taking up) the cross in this battle of powers and principalities.
This spendid bodily form of the imitation of Christ, reserved as a gift for humanity through baptism, is not optional. We are born, body and soul, into a battle taking place in a fallen world. Jesus was clear: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." It is no secret that just about everyone in our godless culture completely organizes their daily lives to maximize physical and emotional comfort while avoiding life's burdens—even many Christians.
Furthermore, Jesus Christ's incarnation, birth, childhood in the Holy Family, physical manual labor as a working man, fasting, public ministry (much of which consisted of casting out demons), teaching, gruesome passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the sharing of his body and blood in the Holy Eucharist through His one, holy, and apostolic Church are not merely symbolic or merely illustrative. They are reality. His way is the way to participate in the salvation of souls.This is precisely what Operation True Cross is. It is atonement for sin in union with Christ Crucified, through sacrificial offerings in our fleshly existence—fasting, prayer, almsgiving, self-denial, and reparation. This is a glorious invitation, my friend, which is why I am so passionately thrilled for each individual person who enlists in our army-of-the-willing!
I had fasted every day for many months long before Our Lady inspired the Mary Foundation to undertake Operation True Cross during the summer of 2022. During my fasts, I began to receive two strong, specific phrases in prayer: "Build the army," and "Don't lose your nerve."Build an army? I was confused. I'm just a worker bee. What army? Yet Our Lady kept whispering it to me. She was gently encouraging me, as is her way—to be the one who goes first. I asked her to help me. She did.
Here's the thing: I've never been very good at fasting, but I was compelled to take it up, despite a lifetime of self-indulgence—until I began fasting just about every day in 2021 (under the spiritual direction of a holy Catholic priest).
Fast forward to this moment in time, and now her mighty force has grown all over North America and beyond. Nearly two-hundred thousand Daily Prayers to Save America books are in circulation! All through word-of-mouth.
I attribute much of this to the power of the exorcism prayers within the book itself. People want—they need—to do something that works in the heavenly realm.
When Our Lady's army reaches hundreds of thousands and hopefully millions (and it will, very rapidly, if you do your part), the victories will come fast and they will be astounding (the fall of Roe v Wade is just the beginning).
As we press the advantage through prayer and self-denial, eventually, at the Divine Command, the Red Sea will part and the divine intervention will bring an astounding new earth ruled by Christ the King. Our Lady of Fatima promised this—and she is incapable of telling us anything other than the truth.
There are tens of millions of Christians in our country who know something has to done. This spiritual warfare movement is that something. We'll get there—all we have to do is suffer in union with Christ to atone for sins.
What a paradox: a rapidly expanding movement based on suffering!
In my own pitiable way, I've sought out the honor of joining myself with Christ Crucified, and I will remain with Him until the victory—and may it come quickly!
And yet, the consolations I've experienced—the conversions, watching this army expand—it's all incredibly joyful and more than worth it. I have never been more at peace. Brothers and sisters, I want you to have that same peace.
Come with me. Come with us. Climb up Calvary hill, step by difficult step. Stand at the foot of the Holy Cross. Kneel with Saint John the Evangelist and the Mother of God, Our Lady of Sorrows, as her "heart, too, is pierced by a sword." Gaze upon your Savior. Look at His glorious wounds, the humility, the precious blood pouring forth from our innocent God. This—this, my friends—is the Sacred Heart on fire. Nothing is better. Nowhere is better.
All you have to do is suffer with Him, and only for a season—for a year or two. Do it for love—of your family, your community, and your spiritually lost countrymen. Do it for your own sanctity and salvation. Find a reason. Just stop being lukewarm like I was for so many wasted years. If we are truly honest with ourselves, lukewarm is a miserable way to live. That's why God spits it out: as a gift to us. Get into the battle. Fight.
Remember, the cross carries you, not the other way around. I suffered and others joined me. If you suffer, others will join you. It's not complicated and no clever marketing campaign is needed. Just Catholics praying and offering reparation with each other.
By God's providence, we have "joined" all four beams into a living crucifix over the entire nation for the first time in all of human history. In the fullness of time (that is, in "God's Time"), every last lying, filthy, and slimy evil entity oppressing our beloved nation—all of them, on the earth and above the earth—are done. Over.
Some have already been cast down. Yes, it's true. I believe it because it kept coming to me as I walked and prayed with the guys during the first thousand miles from Wisconsin and then Washington DC. In my mind's eye, towards the end of the ardous California beam, I saw Our Lady's foot crushing the neck of a demoralized demon just before it was about to be cast down.
On our side, we have the almighty and everlasting power of God and his relentless Guardian Angel of the United States. Click here to find out what this mighty battle-angel told the mystic, Vince Sigala. The short version is that our nation's guardian angel asked us to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet to save our country, which is why it's in the Daily Prayers to Save America prayer book. (It has to do with the Eucharistic Atonement required to end abortion.)
The point is, if we turn and confront evil the way Jesus did—and go about it the way He did—we cannot lose, no matter what happens during the short run—no matter how grim or chaotic. Human events will deteriorate, here in the U.S., and around the world. Please, let none of those things bother you or distract you from our mission of reparation. It's absolutely crucial to remain serene during your day-to-day struggles. God knows every hair on your head and will provide you with the grace you need. If you fall—and you will fall—get back up, remembering that Jesus fell three times on that blood-soaked path to crucifixion.
The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is coming soon. You are blessed to be in the generation which will witness it take place. You are blessed to have this chance to fight for souls. Our children's children will build cathedrals and compose hymns to honor the Mother of God's victory!
Bravery is fighting despite fear. True bravery is fighting without fear. Now that I'm used to it, I'm enjoying the battle (well, sort of). I wish someone had told me before I got into it how satisfying it can sometimes be. Oh wait, the saints did tell me, especially Saint John Vianney, but I could not really understand until I received the grace. Jesus taught, "I come that you may have joy, and that your joy may be complete."
That joy can be yours.
And this sublime divine joy is given to me despite the endless spiritual attacks on me, on some of the people close to me, and our apostolate. That's been happened for over thirty years because the Mary Foundation has been doing real, lasting damage to Satan and his pathetic plans. The evil one always loses. There really is emnity between that snake and the Woman. She always wins. Never forget that.
I am so mediocre, I am so not a saint—and I brag about this because it shows that anyone can be an effective soldier in Our Lady's army, even me. Not being holy should never stop you. The only saints are in heaven. Just us sinners down here.
(Please do not allow the truth of your fallen nature to deter you from rooting out all the habits of venial and mortal sin in your life, which the Church teaches can be done, and is actually normal if you live a prayerful sacramental life while following God's will.)
So, if you haven't already done so, make the total consecration to Mary and go grab a weapon.
Don't lose your nerve. You have resources. Yup—there's a Rosary in your house somewhere. Pick it up and pray it. How about that book, The Daily Prayers to Save America? There it is, on the end table next to the comfortable chair where you like to enjoy a coffee or tea while you pray in the morning. Today is another glorious day to do reparation and offer up every burden, large or small, for this noble battle. Ask a trusted friend to join you.
"Hey, those Cyrenes and that sixty-year-old are walked thousands of miles from sunrise to sunset in every kind of weather over mountains and through deserts with a piece of the True Cross around their shoulders—I can at least park a little ways from the church and walk in reparation with them, the crucifix of my rosary beads in my grasp, and spend time with Christ in the tabernacle!"
The other eleven Cyrenes who walked up Calvary with me (just me and one other man in that van, consecutively, often for weeks on end) on those four pilgrimages were in this for real, for the souls of your loved ones, for complete victory, for Christ the King. If you suffer, we have your back. Will you have ours?
I know you will.
I was ready to crawl across America if it would save my countrymen's souls and end this nightmare. I think every good Catholic who finds out about Operation True Cross has within them a silent, certain knowledge that you were born into this time and place just for this. Somebody just needed to go first.
You see, my friend, Our Lady is whispering to you.
No matter where you live or how old you are, you can be the one who goes first right where you live.
You can build the army.
Which reminds me of another revelation that came to me in prayer while I've been fasting: some of our fiercest warriors are from my parents' generation—seventy, eighty, and ninety year-old Catholics who have lived through poverty, heartache, war, scandal, pain, and decade after decade of the Great Falling Away from the one true Faith while witnessing the diabolical corruption of our once great nation—and even among leaders of the Catholic Church. You know how to suffer and you know how to sacrifice. You have lived the one, true, holy Catholic faith and you do not know how to live any other way.
Our Lady told me to build an army. When I looked out into the world for troops, the first people I saw were these saints.
If you are one of these folks, you are mine and I am yours. I am your son, a man of sorrows who aches and toils for the sake of lost souls.
I'm counting on you to lovingly adopt me during Operation True Cross through your prayers, reparations, and sacrifical almsgiving. You are hidden, and often ignored, which means, in a sense, that you are probably the most potent Catholic force within the Mystical Body in the United States (Jesus in the Eucharist is always the most powerful force).
To be blunt, without you by my side I'm not sure if I can physically or spiritually live up to the daunting challenges Our Lady continually places before me. I need you. Let us, dear friends, together, ascend the holy path of the cross of salvation, one last time, for our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren!Finally, keep in mind that these powers and principalities have been feeding off the blood of the innocent for thousands of years. Consumed with pride, they do not expect to be cast down, even though God revealed to them at their creation that this must occur. They will destroy whatever they can before they careen into the abyss.
So do not lose your nerve, my friends. Be Immaculate Mary's consecrated sons and daughters who form the heel to crush the head of serpent!
I'm looking forward to all of us spending eternity together. Until then, hidden and humble, let's continue to walk, spiritually, deep beyond the enemy's lines.
With Saint Joseph, Terror of Demons,
Bud MacfarlaneSeptember 8, 2022
Our Lady's Birthday
(Updated, May 2023)
Order Daily Prayers Book Only $1
Meet the Founders
Operation True Cross is a spiritual warfare campaign of the Mary Foundation. It began in 2020 when Father John Anthony Boughton and Bud Macfarlane "pinned" Our Lady's mantle onto the four corners of the United States as a prophetic act to call upon God's divine intervention to save America.
Father John Anthony Boughton, CFRFather John Anthony Boughton, Servant General of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, is a grizzled Texan, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, and served in the U.S. Navy. He is the first Catholic in his family line in over five hundred years.
Bud Macfarlane, Troublemaker
Father John Anthony enlisted his friend, Bud Macfarlane, a Notre Dame graduate, bestselling novelist, and the tireless leader of the Mary Foundation, to bring the prayer movement into reality through the foundation's tens of thousands of worldwide supporters. He is the father of four adult sons.
Learn more here:
Read: Why This Movement Exists
Photo-Diary: Mantle Over America
Podcast: Carrying the True Cross
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
Meet Bud Macfarlane, Our Founder
