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Volume XXIX, Number 15
August 14th, 2025

Bud is Sorry, Desperate...and Confident

My beloved friends, I'm sorry it's been so long. I just returned from a month of traveling to an unprecedented "exorcism" conference in New Jersey (featuring the saintly ninety-six-year-old exorcist, Cardinal Simoni) followed by a long conference in northern California which Our Lady extended by a week for the most delightful reason.

And this delightful reason is the same reason why I'm desperate for your help and confident in your heartfelt prayers. It could impact the eternal destinies of over one billion people.

Maybe.

I am not exaggerating—over a billion people, most of them young—and you're going to be a part of it all!

One Billion Souls. Really?

Let's get right into it.

While I was in California, a friend and fellow "Father Ripperger" troublemaker (a successful entrepreneur with decades of Hollywood connections) asked me to write a screenplay for the first of a series of high-quality suspenseful, funny, supernatural, and powerful Catholic action movies.

Neither one of us planned this—until he informally began telling his close friends at the conference about it and suddenly his movie started playing in my head.

Whenever I went for a walk, or to bed, or woke up I experienced an entire world of characters doing extraordinary things. Especially when I prayed, almost to the point of distraction.

Tapped on the Shoulder

It felt like being tapped on the shoulder by Our Lady for a very small role of a giant project—and because of the potential worldwide impact, it is surely the result of all your prayers and sacrifices during Operation True Cross.

It will feature some of the most well-known actors in Hollywood history and have the highest production values. At this juncture, I am honor bound to withhold many details.

This movie will play all over the world.

Trouble Is, I'm Not Good Enough

I just spent a full week with my friend in San Juan Capistrano (yes, at the famous Mission where the swallows return every year) outlining the story, fleshing out the characters, and composing the first scenes.

I need to finish the whole thing in my free time over the next two months.

It might surprise you that for someone with my background as a novelist, I am not actually a top-notch writer, much as I try my best. My true gift is "experiencing the story" as if I am in a coma, something God designed into me since before I was born. That gift is rare.

My friend has all the experience and resources to organize this vast endeavor. The way movie production works, however, nothing concrete happens without a compelling screenplay.

How Would You Feel?

My friend's story must come out in its most excellent form for one billion people to enjoy it and be inspired by it and be converted by it two years from now.

I am intimidated. But it's not nearly as daunting as walking across a giant country, eh? Both tasks have something in common—I will fail without God's power, grace, and sure guidance.

Do You Have My Back?

Which is why I am desperate for your prayers over the next two months—for your morning prayers, Rosaries, your Daily Prayers to Save America, Adoration, fasting, offering up your daily crosses, your Holy Communions, and your particular personal devotions—for me, for my friend, for everyone involved, and for the souls around the world who will be influenced.

Write it with me. Carry the cross of it with me.

And please, make a note right now so you don't forget.

I am confident in your faith—in God and in me. I am confident in the Holy Trinity dwelling inside of you.

This movie is one of the many world-changing reasons Our Lady sent you to the Mary Foundation.

And you're gonna love the title.

Thank you.

Quotations

"Art has a unique capacity to take one or other facet of the message and translate it into colors, shapes and sounds which nourish the intuition of those who look and listen."
- Saint John Paul II

"Pray, hope, and don't worry."
- Saint Padre Pio

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
- Saint Catherine of Siena

Let Us Pray

And we begin, tens of thousands of us all over the world, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost...

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 my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

You guys are the best!

Fear nothing.

Kill the dragon.

Laughing all the way.
(ho ho ho ho)

Be the fool, but stay cool.

With Saint Maximilian Kolbe,

Bud Macfarlane
Caffeinated, with son Xavier

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