As 3,000 people prepared to navigate the ravaged, boarded up streets of downtown Madison to make their way to a public prayer site, Kevin O'Brien reminded participants why they were there.

"Your presence is a witness of Christian courage," O'Brien told the assembled crowd. "We need that right now more than ever, we need men and women to stand up for truth and goodness. Again, we have the fullness of the faith, we have the power, we don’t need to cower in fear. We can come together and we can unite to truly make a difference." 

Video of the event was recently released. 

Kevin O'Brien, co-founder of Unite Our Nation.

That was the scene two weeks ago. Six weeks prior, the group that pulled it off, Unite Our Nation, was not even a thought bubble yet.

Six weeks ago O'Brien was laying in bed, restless. A Milwaukee resident, he had experienced turmoil all around him since early June when riots and protests started popping up across the country.

"We were seeing the rioting and this culture of hate and division and I said, 'What is this?'" O'Brien told the Wisconsin Catholic Tribune

Weeks before riots had broken out in Madison resulting in significant damage to the city's downtown district. Milwaukee also saw rioting. The turmoil in nearby Kenosha - where two would die - was still to come.

Across the country at least 75 communities have experienced some sort of rioting or rioting this this year along with many more protests featuring divisive rhetoric and behavior.

O'Brien was turning over the idea of bringing people together when his wife woke up from a dead sleep. She had been watching the rioting on TV earlier in the night and was stricken with anxiety and fear, worrying about the future. The couple have seven children together.

"I said honey you take care of this and I've got to get with the guys and brainstorm," O'Brien said. 

Driven by his wife's distress and realizing others across the country were experiencing such hopelessness, O'Brien began reaching out in his community.

O'Brien is active in Catholic organizations and the business community in Milwaukee. One of those groups, Milwaukee-based Men of Christ, one of the largest Catholic men's organizations in the country, made O'Brien's outreach much easier.

"Evil resides when good men do nothing," O'Brien said. "We talk a good game, but we have to put our word into action."

O'Brien challenged the organizations he belongs to to get involved and also leaned on ministries with the idea if the group could organize an outing featuring public prayer in the face of hate and destruction they could bring the community back together.  

"There is strength in numbers, the devil divides and Christ unites," O'Brien said.

The group came up with the idea of offering a Eucharistic procession and patriotic rosary rally. 

The concept of the event was simple...to hold a public prayer to pray for everyone and heal the divisions within the nation.

"What we want to do is ask forgiveness and ask God to heal our land," O'Brien said.

Now they just had to carry it out.

The result was the founding of Unite Wisconsin, now rebranded as Unite Our Nation.

With only three weeks of planning, working with warp speed Unite Wisconsin built a website, set up social media accounts and sent representatives to the street to gather participants for their event scheduled for the Feast of the Assumption on Aug. 15. 

By the time the march was set to occur only 1,200 had registered for the event. O'Brien estimated many would not show.

Instead, 3,000 people were in attendance for the public prayer. 

The group walked through damaged areas of Madison and then came to a spot to pray.

"After walking right through all of those buildings boarded up with graffiti," O'Brien said. "We were full of peace, 3,000 people kneeling."

As part of the event, attendees gave law enforcement in attendance a standing ovation. 

"You could see the emotion," O'Brien said. "These are good men and women trying to the right thing and they are beat down. You can go to any profession and see people do wrong, but it is insult to say the whole thing is bad."

Participation in the event and its effect on the community was striking, O'Brien said.

"There was this ripple effect of goodness’s afterglow that has taken place," he said.

After the Madison event's success, the group was renamed Unite Our Nation.

O'Brien said the goal is just that.

Unite Our Nation is now preparing to launch in all 50 states and on college campuses throughout the country.

"The response has been absolutely amazing, so amazing we are trying to manage the volume," O'Brien said.

For others considering holding such an event, Unite Our Nation has a playbook available on their website on how to carry it out successfully.

"Folks are going back and forth in their mind, should you do it or not do it," O'Brien said. "Freedom isn’t free. If I give you a book on football you don’t understand the game. You don’t truly grasp it. You don’t truly understand until you get on the field."

O'Brien said anyone can replicate the success Unite Our Nation had.

The next Unite Our Nation public prayer event is being planned for Michigan. So far, 10,000 people have expressed an interest in the event. 

"These experiences of going into the world and being a witness to others will allow folks to take their faith to an entirely new level," O'Brien said. "It will give a spark that unites the holy throughout the country, state, city and parish."

Attendees at the Aug. 15 Unite Our Nation rally in Madison numbered 3,000.