The shadow of the Holy Cross hung over the cave in Bethlehem even as the shepherds who had been called by angels from the nearby fields adored the Infant King alongside the Mother of God and her Most Chaste Spouse, Saint Joseph.

Holy Mother Church directs our attention to this fact today as we focus on the truth that the Birth of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in Bethlehem on Christmas Day was to make possible our own spiritual rebirth in the Baptismal font and our birth unto eternal life at the moment of our deaths if we persist to the very end in states of Sanctifying Grace. The path to our salvation runs directly through the Holy Cross and it requires us to be willing to sacrifice riches and honors and pleasures and human respect and even our very lives to bear witness to Christ the King as He has revealed Himself to men exclusively through the Catholic Church that He founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope.

Saint Stephen the Protomartyr was willing to lay down his life as he preached the Gospel of the Divine Redeemer in an attempt to convert the Jews who were listening to him and engaging him in disputation. He exhibited the Virtue of Fortitude as he proclaimed the Gospel in the midst of insults an threats. And Saint Stephen the Protomartyr exhibited the Virtue of Charity as he prayed for his executioners, one of whom was the fire-breathing anti-Catholic zealot named Saul of Tarsus.

Saint Stephen's prayers at the time of his martyrdom and from eternity thereafter won the conversion of Saul, who became the Apostle to the Gentiles, Saint Paul the Apostle. Saint Stephen wanted to effect the conversion of his executioners. He did not seek to reaffirm them in their act of murder or to reaffirm them in the practice of Judaism. Saint Stephen did not dismiss or denigrate the gravity of their crimes. He simply did not hold those crimes against his persecutors as he prayed for their conversion.

We must pray always for those who hate us, for those who calumniate us, for those who have done us some injury in the past, for those who have rejected us for one reason or another. Praying for and forgiving those from whom we are estranged is not an option for a Catholic. It is an obligation of the interior life imposed directly by the God-Man Himself in the Sermon on the Mount.

If He forgives us so readily in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance, why are we so slow to forgive others who owe us but an infinitesimally small portion of what we owe Him for our own forgiven sins?

As the late Father John Hardon, S.J., noted in a 1996 conference in Sterling Heights, Michigan, at which I gave two presentations, "God permits us to sin so that we can forgive each other. Let me repeat myself here: God permit us to sin so that we can forgive each other."

A sinner who is contrite and thankful to God never withholds forgiveness from his fellow sinner. Saint Stephen teaches us that lesson today.

Are we going to learn it once and for all?

I was going to have a new article for you today. However, I did not have any desire to write about Robert Francis Prevost, who will again be the subject of my next article, or Donald John Trump on Christmas Day. Thank you for your patience. I will have that new article for you on the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist within the Octave of Christmas.

A continued merry and most blessed Christmas to you all.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, pray for us.

This is the fourth (and a very brief) reflection for Christmas Day,

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, pray for us.

This is the third and final republished reflection on the Nativity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to be posted for your consideration.

Once again, a blessed Christmas to you all!

This is the second of three reflections on the Feast of the Nativity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to be posted for your consideration. There is some overlap with the refletion published late last evening. However, there are points here that were not covered in the first reflection.

A continued Blessed Christmas Day to you all.

Venite Adoremus!

The Newborn Babe, Christ the King has been born for us.

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

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Rejoice! Venite Adoremus!

Gloria in Excelsis Deo!

Our Saviour has been born for us of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Midnight in piercing cold. Venite Adoremus!

Surrounded by the host of Heavenly angels, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity Who was made Man in His Most Blessed Mother's Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, at the Annunciation nine months before is born for us this night. The long awaited Messiah comes as a helpless Infant, born in anonymity, poverty and humility. Bright radiant beams shine forth from His Holy Face, a Face that would be marred beyond all recognition by our sins as He walked on the Via Dolorosa on Good Friday to redeem us on the wood of the Holy Cross and thus make possible for us eternal life in Heaven in the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, Himself, the God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

Those bright beams that shone forth from the Newborn Baby Jesus this morning are meant to shine forth from our own souls as we grow in the graces that He won for us on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces. There is no Holy Mass, where Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is born under the appearances of bread and wine every time a true bishop or a true priest utters the terrible words of Consecration, without this holy night. Just as Our Lord obeyed His Heavenly Father to become Man, so does He obey mere men when they, whose immortal souls have been conformed to His Priesthood and Victimhood, utter the words of Consecration over the mere elements of this earth, making Him Incarnate to feed our bodies and souls unto eternal life.

There is no regeneration of souls in the Baptismal font or in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance without this holy night.

There is no hope for mankind without this holy night.

There is, as the first Pope, Saint Peter, teaches us, no "salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4: 12.) Only Christ the King is God. None other. Catholicism is the one and only foundation of personal and social order. None other.

We gather around Our Lady, out of whose Virginal and Immaculate Womb the Newborn Babe passed as light through crystal this morning, and her Most Chaste Spouse, Good Saint Joseph, to adore Our Saviour, the very Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world, including yours and, most especially, mine!

May the Joyful Mysteries we continue to pray during this Octave of Christmas help us to be ever thankful for the great, incomparable gift that Our Lady gave to us this night as she brought forth her Divine Son so that He, Who stretched out His holy arms in the Crib this night, could stretch out this holy arms on the wood of the Cross to embrace all men to lift them up to the Heavenly Father in Spirit and in Truth.

On behalf of my wife Sharon and our daughter Lucy, I wish each of you a most Blessed and Joyous Christmas. This greeting is extended to all who access this site. No matter the difficulties of the present moment as false ecclesiastical officials deny the Sacred Rights of the Social Reign of Christ the King and esteem the symbols of false religions that are hideous and loathsome in His sight, the peace of Christ the King that He has entrusted to the Immaculate Heart of His Most Blessed Mother is something that a believing Catholic must will for everyone, praying fervently for all whom God's Holy Providence has placed in his path over the years, including those, of course, from whom various events have estranged us.

May each of us, united to the Merciful Heart of the Divine Redeemer that was formed out of us and is united yet to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, help us to pray for each other as we pray for the day with all Catholics will speak with one voce (una voce) and will think with but one mind, that of the Catholic Church, she who teaches the unchanging truths of the Immutable Triune God.

A blessed Christmas to you all.

Our Lady, Mother of God, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saint Anastasia, pray for us.

The title speaks for itself as this is a new commentary about the still unfolding tragedy wrought by the Israeli genocidal against the Palestinian people in Gaza in retribution for Hamas's terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023.

I thank you for your patience as this commentary took longer to complete than I expected.

Now, the next original commentary will be published on the Feast of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr within the Octave of Christmas. A Christmas Eve reflection will be republished tomorrow.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

This is a very brief republished reflection on the heroic missionary work of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, whose transferred feast we celebrate today, Tuesday, December 23, 2025, with a Commemoration of the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, a naturalized citizen of the United States, was the first and thus far the only citizen of this country to be canonized by a true and legitimate Successor of Saint Peter.

Let me try to put it to you this way: Mother Cabrini’s insistence on the highest standards of personal modesty and her concern about Italian immigrants being converted by the materialistic and decadent ways of Protestant and Judeo-Masonic American culture, to say nothing of her love of mortifications and sufferings, would have earned her an “apostolic visitator” sent by the late Jorge Mario Bergoglio to “reform” her “Pelagian” ways if she lived at this time of apostasy and betrayal.

Part twenty-seven of "Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomini Domine, will be published in about fifteen minutes from the time of this posting.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Also, please see Mother Cabrini's Shrine: A Pictorial Essay, for photographs taken on December 22, 2007.

Today, Monday, December 22, 2025, is the the transferred Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle and the Commemoration of Moday in the Fourth Week of Advent.

Saint Thomas did not believe that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had risen from the dead on Easter Sunday. Our Lord told the doubting Apostle to press his finger into His nail marks and to press his hand into His wounded side. Saint Thomas believed. Along with the other Apostles, including the one who replaced Judas Iscariot, Saint Matthias, Saint Thomas became a bold proclaimer of the Catholic Faith, going to India, where he sacrificed his life for the Holy Faith. Saint Thomas the Apostle touched the flesh of the Risen Saviour with his own hands. He then went on to touch the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of that same Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ with his own priestly hands as he uttered the words at Holy Mass that made the Messias incarnate under the appearances of bread and wine. The very words Saint Thomas uttered after he had touched Our Lord on Low Sunday, Dominus meus et Deus meus, are what we pray every time a true priest utters these words at Holy Mass: "Hoc Est Enim Corpus Meum." As we prepare the celebration of Christmas Day four days from now, we should ask Saint Thomas to help us reverence Our Lord in His Real Presence with greater fervor as we grow stronger in the Faith with every passing day, consecrated as we are to Our Lord through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

This reflection has been expanded slightly to include Father Francis X. Weninger's sermon on Saint Thomas the Apostle. Indeed, his second "practical consideration" for this feast day has very practical applications to the state of the Church Militant today during this time of apostasy and betrayal:

II. Thomas is called unbelieving by Christ, although he disbelieved only one article, the resurrection. Hence, it is clear that he who doubts, or rejects only one article of faith, cannot be counted among true Catholics, although he believes all the others. A Catholic must believe every truth revealed by the Almighty, be it great or small, as God cannot fail either in small things or great. The offence which we do to God by denying even the smallest article of faith, is as great as if we denied an important one, or all of them together; for, it is just as if we said: God has been deceived, or He has deceived us in revealing this article. Whether this is said of great and important articles, or of one that is small, makes but little difference; or if we desire to make a difference, we must say that it is a greater offence to God to ascribe to Him a fault in a small matter than in a great; for, what can be more blasphemous than to maintain that the Almighty has been deceived in a trifling matter, or that He intends to deceive us? They should ponder on this, who sometimes entertain doubts about an article of faith, or even go so far as to say that in some matters, they agree with non-Catholics, and consider them right. These are no longer Catholics. Their faith is lost; and if they do not repent, as St. Thomas did, they will go to perdition, because they are incredulous. They are disobedient who obey nine of the Commandments but not the tenth. What is the fate of the incredulous? Christ Himself pointed it out when He said: "Who believes not in the Son, will not see life, but the wrath of God will remain with him." (John viii.) (Father Francis X. Weninger, Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, December 21.)

Father Weninger, who wrote a book about papal infallibility from which I have quoted in at least twenty different articles, explained in his second consideration about the life of Saint Thomas the Apostle the truth that has been taught by Holy Mother Church since Apostolic times: to defect from the Faith in one thing is to defect from It in Its entirety. (See the appendix below for reminders of this consistent teaching.)

Saint Thomas the Apostle disbelieved in the Resurrection of His Divine Master, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for eight days until Our Lord Himself show mercy upon him and restored His faith. Unlike Saint Thomas the Apostle, however, the conciliar “popes” have denied many articles of the Faith (the unicity of the Church, the “goodness” of non-Catholic religions, the denial that the Old Covenant was superseded by the New and Eternal Covenant Our Lord ratified upon shedding every single drop of His Most Precious Blood and breathed His last, denying the immutability of Catholic doctrine, supporting condemned errors such as religious liberty and separation of Church and State, inverting the ends proper to Holy Matrimony, engaging in the forbidden practice of inter-religious prayer services, giving outright support to those living in Mortal Sin and admitting them to what purports to be Holy Communion in the Novus Ordo liturgy, etc.). Only those who do not want to see the truth and/or those who are simply intellectually dishonest want to recognize the simple fact that the conciliar “popes” and their cohorts are not Catholics and thus do not hold the positions they claim to hold.

Truth is simple, and the simple truth is that no one who defects from even one article of the Faith is a member of the Catholic Church.

I am writing part part twenty-seven of "Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomini Domine, Hosanna in Excelsis," and hope to have the commentary completed by this time tomorrow. Thank you.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Thomas the Apostle, pray for us.

Even as more and more studies continue to prove the harmful effects of marijuana, Donald John Trump, who is oblivious to facts about marijuana and the Wuhan Virus jabs, has reclassified marijuana from a Schedule I illegal substance to a Schedule III illegal substance. Such as classification is supposed to mean that a substance is not addictive nor can lead to psychotic episodes. As the articles referenced in this commentary demonstrate, however, marijuana is harmful and does indeed lead to long term mental and bodily harm.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.