Volume XXIX, Number 14
July 9, 2025
There is No Box
What's Inside the Box? Kevin.
This weekend I'm attending a pretty gnarly exorcism conference in New Jersey (meet me there!). Gotta admit I've been swamped. Apropos, I have an exorcism prayer for us all from the Daily Prayers to Save America, and cascading thoughts that will just pop out of my head.
What is Creativity?Because I've written novels and run a unique Catholic apostolate, most people think I'm a creative person. Perhaps, but after decades of pondering whether creativity is an inherent trait or a learned skill, I've concluded that it is primarily a disposition of the mind which can be learned. You don't even have to be all that smart.
Beginning in grammar school, mostly to fight off boredom, I think I stumbled into teaching myself how to perceive and think in non-standard ways. This helped me do well in sports, school, and making money, so I kept going. If I can learn how to take things (ideas, people, actions, and actual stuff) that already exist and recombine them in new ways, then so can you.
Which can be way cool. Yet frankly, sustaining a creative perspective requires shouldering a kind of interior loneliness, because the desire the think the same way everyone else does is a powerful one, and to a degree, is quite natural.
Unless you live in an insane culture defined by defying God's laws and killing babies and lying about everything all the time like we do.
There is No BoxBy the way, few things bemuse me as much as hearing the decades-old cliché that we need "to think outside the box." What could be less creative? Hey, why not look inside the box? There could be a five-dimensional universe filled with cool stuff in there—or an "ancient" idea so potent that everyone has forgotten or dismissed it for centuries! Or better, there is no box—it's a giant beach ball made of mustard! Let's pop it! (Or slather it all over a hot dog.)
Discovering the dogmatic truths of the holy Catholic faith in college, revealed by Jesus and fueled by the grace of the sacraments, super-enhanced my creativity. Saint Thomas Aquinas guided me: if divine truths are so utterly true, you can examine just about all worldly premises without fear, then act accordingly. I would rather be dead than not act on the reality of the Holy Trinity's power, but I'm not sure if I would risk death to affirm that brooms are the best way to sweep dirt around.
Vacuums? Hello.
You see, most good Catholics believe what the Church teaches, but do not always act as if these divine truths were true. I get it, because it's a fallen world, which my sins remind me of seventy times a day. We inherited darkened minds and disordered desires from Adam and Eve's fall, after all.
Treasure in HeavenFor example, for almost four decades, I have been asking our all-powerful and loving Father to show me my foot-soldier role in helping Our Lady transform the United States into the most Catholic place on earth. I take these prayers very seriously, every morning, because I am nothing and He is everything. I want what He wants.
It should be pretty obvious that one dude from New Jersey cannot convert a whole country, but millions of men and women can convert a whole country—if they become holy, and hundreds of thousands of them are fashioned into saints.
"Ask and you shall receive." Jesus, King of Kings, True God
So just how does one go about inspiring millions of people to become holy?
By asking a couple hundred million people to try while giving them a foolproof way to get started. Then God will unleash them beyond our wildest dreams.
For God, converting an entire nations is not "difficult." For us, it seems impossible, so I understand why most people reject, in practice, orienting their actions, sacrifices, generosity, habits, and prayers toward this outcome which is clearly the holy will of Christ.
Meet Kevin and His Big FamilyKevin Lee and I first met when he was in college a quarter century ago. A little over a month ago, after two years of praying for him to show up, Our Lady reintroduced him to me at a conference in Steubenville. Now he works for the Mary Foundation as the director of our Treasure in Heaven initiative.
Here he is with his wife Adrien and his amazing children.
Look at those smiles!
Imbued with faith and a uniquely keen mind, Kev is one of the most lovable men I have ever known—and many of you will have the wonderful experience of getting to know him personally over the next year or two.
More details to come. In the meantime, Kevin and Adrien are depending on your love for souls and your country.
Not being afraid is creative. It requires a non-standard way of thinking. (And thoughts typically precede emotions.) So many people without faith and even people with faith suffer from needless fear. If they zig, you should zag.
Fear not suffering, not heartbreak, not pain, not death, not forgiveness, not nothing never.
"Let nothing trouble you. Let nothing bother you. God alone suffices."
- Saint Teresa of Avila
Jesus taught so many times, "Be not afraid!" So don't be afraid.
Everything is going to be okay.
If there's still much of a world left in 2033, and if I'm still breathing, then I'm looking forward to writing to you as a citizen of the most Catholic nation on earth. I have no doubt.
You, me, Kevin, and my other coworkers—we are going to take tens of millions of near-future "generous ones" and near-future "holy ones" by the hand and invite them to join us. Our Lady has been preparing you—and them—since the moment you were conceived.
Please Pray with Me and So Many OthersLet's not rush. Let us take in the powerful meaning of the "Wednesday" Auxilium Christianorum prayer below, trusting that our plea will be answered, as we begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
In the Name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and God, we ask Thee to render all spirits impotent, paralyzed and ineffective in attempting to take revenge against anyone of the members of the Auxilium Christianorum, benefactors of the Mary Foundation, our families, friends, communities, those who pray for us and their family members, or anyone associated with us and for whom the priests of the Auxilium Christianorum pray.
We ask Thee to bind all evil spirits, all powers in the air, the water, the ground, the fire, under ground, or wherever they exercise their powers, any satanic forces in nature and any and all emissaries of the satanic headquarters. We ask Thee to bind by Thy Precious Blood all of the attributes, aspects and characteristics, interactions, communications and deceitful games of the evil spirits. We ask Thee to break any and all bonds, ties and attachments in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The weather is quite nice here in the Cleveland suburbs today. After work, I'm going to spend the first of many hours building a fifteen-yard long, one-foot high wall comprised of three thousand pounds of baby boulders (think grapefruits and eggplants), enjoying the use of my surgically-fixed-up arm.
When the wall is complete, I'm going to backfill it with soil and then carefully plant white roses to honor Our Lady, interspersed with blue plumbagos and salmon-colored hyssop (to honor Our Lord's passion).
Keep me in your prayers, my friends. You have been in mine, every morning, with all my heart, for the past thirty-four years—even before Our Lady sent you to be her harvest workers.
Pray. Work. Fast.
Love. Enjoy. Give.
Ponder. Imagine. Act.
The only security is courage.
You guys are the best!
With All the Saints of Ireland,
Bud Macfarlane
No Socks, In a Box
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