True Cross Update: The Final Challenge

Volume XXVII, Number 11
May 9th, 2023

I really missed you. The final beam of Operation True Cross is almost through Tennessee—with only 400 miles to go!

If you missed my last update, well, it was a doozy...

Mary Crushes the Serpent

Sleep Sleep Sleep Then Go

After completing the grueling California beam on Holy Thursday (with a profound sense that God's divine intervention to save America has been secured in heaven), I drove back home to Ohio and slept for twelve hours a day during the Triduum.

New Christmas Tree Record

When I finally got home, it had been four months since I slept in my own bed or used my own shower. Shaking my head, I took down my Christmas tree the day before Easter!

The Last Million Steps

After thousands of miles and endless months of walking from sunrise to sunset, there are "only" 2 weeks and around 1,000,000 more steps before heaven's victory begins to manifest!

The weather has been wonderful (for a change) although the narrow-shouldered by-ways in Florida and Georgia were nerve-wrackingly dangerous. We remain ever-reliant on angelic protection.

We walk with angels. Big, powerful ones.

I have lots of photos and a few quotes. Let's begin with...

Bud's Psychological Update

To be frank, although I am stronger than ever physically (despite my knee going kerplooey yesterday), the mental strain of going full-tilt, 24/7 for months on end is taking its toll.

The telltale signs: my "human error rate" is increasing while juggling minor tasks and calculations. I have to force myself out of my bunk in the morning. Even getting enough sleep has turned into another form of work.

Playing Hurt

I eat well and sleep well. I take "me time" to decompress in spare moments. I carefully adhere to well-worn therapeutics to manage my aches, pains, and minor injuries.

When I was a young man, my many coaches in numerous sports used to admire how well I "played hurt."

I'm playing hurt now.

In recent days, I additionally have endured relentless, strange temptations and experienced times of uncharacteristic difficulty concentrating on the simplest of prayers.

I like to think of myself as a metronome—plugging away methodically—but the truth is, the Cyrenes carry me as much as they carry the True Cross.

On Some Days...

I'm not sure if this is spiritual warfare or the trauma of repeating difficult daily challenges for months on end.

And some days, well, I'm just a sixty-year-old man.

In many respects, this has been the most difficult year of my life. I miss my loved ones and just living a "normal" life.

So I'm flesh and blood—shocker.

Thus I confess and boast of my weakness. I've been lazy my whole life, falsely making a virtue out of "creativity" and "working smart." Wasting my talents. Not being honest with myself about all the time I've squandered watching television late at night and indulging my huge appetites—for food, for comfort—you name it.

A few months of mild discomfort hardly makes up for that. I did not undertake Operation True Cross for personal improvement or to do reparation for my own sins.

I am doing it, simply, because I believe Our Lady wanted it done, and you clearly wanted it done, too.

I am doing it, like the wily old Marines I'll introduce you to below, because I love my country.

Not One Ounce of Zeal

Don't get me wrong: I have not lost one ounce of zeal for crushing the evil that pervades everything in our culture or for the supernatural goal of divine intervention. That never changes.

That zeal is grace, not me. I can keep this up for months. Or for another three years. Until it breaks me.

Only debilitating injury or death can stop me now. And even if I were to die, the other Cyrenes would pick up my cross and finish this—which consoles me.

I keep reminding myself what Saint Mother Teresa said, "God's resources begin when ours end."

That is a long way around saying that I could use your prayers, just for me.

And thank you for the all the prayers so far, just for me. They are being answered.

Let's finish strong, shall we?

The Florida Beam!

Divine Mercy Sunday

Eight "Simons" and "Veronicas" joined me for the first few miles on Divine Mercy Sunday to solemnly begin this unprecedented fourth and final beam from the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche in Saint Augustine (on the northeastern coast of Florida).

Everyone took turns carrying the True Cross:

Here's the indefatigable Donna Buchner with her husband James...

Soaked with the Blood of Martyrs

The La Leche Shrine is built upon the location of the first Catholic church erected on U.S. soil—just a few decades after Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Saint Juan Diego to claim all of the Americas in 1531. Tragically, dozens of martyrs were slaughtered there in the 1700s (their official cause is working its way through the Church).

Jesus Was a Little Baby

The location has a massive cross facing the ocean and exudes a somber yet serene spiritual atmosphere. Given its history of martyrs and the deeply maternal symbolism of the name (leche, meaning milk, is a reference to breastfeeding), it is difficult to imagine a more fitting holy ground to begin our final beam to end abortion (among the many other satanic evils plaguing our rapidly-disintegrating nation).

Always remember that Our Lady was here in America first.

No One to Walk with Me

I was literally "stepping out in faith" when we departed from the shrine.

If you've been following my sporadic updates, then you know I departed from California last December with three fine men pre-committed to walking month-long segments all the way to Indiana.

On the day we departed in Florida, however, I only had one Cyrene for the first five days—the amazing Anthony Mencini, 25, who was such an inspiration to all of us on the original Wisconsin beam way back in September.

Our Lady of Surprises

I had already called everyone I know before I left Ohio, but on such short notice, no one was available. On Divine Mercy Sunday, like a little boy, I was trusting Our Lady would send the Cyrenes of her choosing.

Anthony and I rapidly blasted through Florida into southern Georgia—which is an immense state, especially on the diagonal route we were taking towards Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Of course she came through. Our Lady of Surprises.

Octegenarians of High Rank

When Anthony had to return home, two 83-year-old Marines formed an extraordinary "bridge" over an unforgettable, scorching hot weekend.

Born one day apart in 1939, Colonels Bob Adams and Dick Lochner (who flew in from Texas) are best friends. They deftly negotiated dangerous roads in multiple two-mile relays of their own devising, clearing out six miles a day each. Because they organized everything, I felt like I was on vacation. Dick even slept in the van.

Wise Men and Wise Guys

For the uninitiated, Colonel is a very high rank—only a tiny percentage of officers achieve it. Our Lady sent me two experienced men with iron wills—who were also adept at "digging" each other, as they termed it.

Longtime benefactors, Dick and his wife Ginny are on their 12th consecutive 9-day novena to Saint Charbel, which they offer for my ailing knee and the health of all the Cyrenes.

And thus, the two Colonels "bridged" me to the legendary Operation True Cross "Supersub," Steve Thomas.

The Progenitor

You might recall that Steve Thomas bailed us out last fall by walking most of the Washington beam in drenching hurricane weather over the Appalachian Mountains.

Once more into the breach, the "Bull Man" walked every day for six days. This was a miracle, because a week earlier Steve could not walk to the end of his driveway because of an injured knee.

There is much more to Steve's story—including how, seventeen years ago, Our Lady gave him the inspiration for a Eucharistic procession across America.

Because of Steve, in spring 2024, as a perfect lead-up to the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, our bishops are conducting a nationwide Eucharistic procession—also in the form of a geographical crucifix. Bishop Cozzens loved Steve's idea when it was presented to him.

Early on, I was asked to write an executive summary for the bishop. Forming a crucifix was my idea. That's another long story, and I have not been involved with the bishops' project since last summer.

Thus Operation True Cross and the bishops' procession both have an origin story that begins with Steve.

The Kuipers Bridge

It took three days for Steve to "bridge" me to Tom Kuipers of CORAC in Georgia. Tom is sixty like me, and overflowing with good cheer and a mystical faith. He sacrificed five days out of his busy schedule to bridge me to the Final Cyrene, Jason Hayes.

Again, if I had more time, I would tell you about how the endless spiritual warfare Tom and his family endured (including a weird infestation of spiders) was a sure sign that his crucial contribution was doing some real damage in the battle of powers and principalities.

Here he is just before his first walk, with his lovely wife Jesse. At six foot four, he couldn't stand up straight in the van.

Meet the Final Cyrene

Including departure and arrival days, dozens of Catholics of all ages have been given the honor by Our Lady of carrying the True Cross with me, including little children and a few priests. If only for a few hundred yards or for part of a day or two, the experience is profound because it's a fragment of the same wood Jesus carried and suffered upon two-thousand years ago.

Only eleven extraordinary men, however, have joined me for extended periods "in the van" since I departed from northern Wisconsin last September.

Jesus chose the Twelve Apostles. For our mission, it turns out that Our Lady chose her twelve. Here is Jason Hayes finishing his first walk.

Thirty and Sturdy

Jason hails from Tennessee, is thirty and sturdy, and recently walked the entire Camino de Santiago. He has been suffering with me for one week and is going to take the Holy Cross all the way home to Notre Dame during these final four hundred miles.

Please pray for Jason Hayes: Novenas. Rosaries. Fasts. Holy Communions. Chaplets. Or one quick heartfelt Hail Mary.

Operation True Cross Quotes

We actually say this stuff to each other:

"Every day is different—every day is the same."

"Five minutes early is five minutes late."

"Fatigue, aches, boredom, mountains, or bad weather—the answer is always to use good walking form."

"If you're not urinating, you're dehydrated."
(PG-13 version—we are a bunch of dudes, after all.)

(wryly) "It's only water."
(Before, during, or after walking for three hours in a downpour. Often mumbled by Bud to himself, if not to another Cyrene)

.

"Our Lady of Victory...Pray for us!"
(Before the next Cyrene begins walking, after we transfer the True Cross and pray over each other.)

"Walking is the best part."

Let's Pray Together

Tens of thousands of us, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...

Hail Mary,
Full of grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.

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

Thanks for being a part of it all. I'll try my best to notify you of the day we are due to arrive in South Bend. Finishing at a particular time of day is always tricky—we never know until the night before. By the way, this is how I looked the other day when I woke up in my bunk.

Onward to victory! All for Mary!

With Saint Stephen,

Bud Macfarlane
Founder

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