Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is nigh today. He comes to us in Midnight in piercing cold in Bethlehem.

Have we prepared to "make haste," that is, to flee from the world and its false attractions and promises and "saviours" to welcome Him in our hearts and souls by means of Holy Communion?

Have we asked His Most Blessed Mother, Who brought Him forth miraculously in the cave when there was no room for Him in the inn, to help us to make room for Him in the "inns" of our hearts and souls.

Have we asked the Patron of the Universal Church and the Protector of the Faithful, Good Saint Joseph, to protect and to guide us as we seek out His Divine foster-Son as He is born for us on Altars of Sacrifice in the Catholic catacombs?

Are we prepared to make this day, Christmas Eve, the Vigil of Christmas, one final day of penance as we abstain from the eating of meat and as we have but one full meal?

Are we prepared to celebrate this Christmas with joy and with thanksgiving as the Word Who was made Flesh in Our Lady's Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of God the Holy Ghost beckons us to adore Him in His Real Presence day in and day out?

Make haste, the Lord is nigh.

Midnight is coming.

Are we ready?

Make haste.

Prepare well.

Our Saviour is to be born for us!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

[Update on Friday, December 23, 2016: Part six of "Sober Up" is nearing completion. As it focuses on how many Catholics will naturally gravitate in defense of Donald John Trump when he is criticized by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, whose affinity for pro-abortion, pro-perversity pantheists in public life is a well-established fact, a great deal of effort is being to illustrate how Bergoglio's opposition to Trump will give many Catholics in the conciliar structures an incentive to "go easy" on the new president when he does things to promote the lavender agenda of perversity or to serve as a willing stooge of Zionism while further denigrating any remaining respect they may have for the office of the paper. Although the article will be completed by late this evening or tomorrow afternoon, it will not be published until the Feast of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr. There will be several revised Christmas reflections that will be published in the interim. Thank you for your patience.]

This is a slightly revised—and very brief reflection—on the heroic missionary work of the saint whose feast we celebrate today, Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, a naturalized citizen of the United States who is the first and thus far 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 Jorge Mario Bergoglio to “reform” her “Pelagian” ways if she lived at this time of apostasy and betrayal.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Today is the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle.

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. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

This brief reflection has been revised and enlarged, and there is preface with a link to "Sober Up, part two," which is a commentary on the efforts of Raymond Leo "Cardinal" Burke and three other conciliar "cardinals" to defend the Catholic doctrine on the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony by using conciliar teaching. One cannot use error to oppose error, and a proposed "papal correction" based on error is not correction at all. The false religion is what is at fault, and Jorge Mario Bergoglio is only its faithful evangelist.

Part six of "Sober Up" should appear by Friday, December 23 2016.

Saint Thomas the Apostle, pray for us.

Yes, part six of "Sober Up" will come along soon.

As there has been a great deal of talk by naturalists about "hope" and "hopelessness" lately, time has been taken to deal with such talk in the context of this Fourth Week of Advent.

Our hope is not to be found in the "right" or the "left." It is to be found solely in Christ the King and His Holy Catholic Church.

Vivat Christus Rex!

Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

[Ember Saturday Update: Part six of "Sober Up" is still a work in progress. I hope to have it done for posting on Monday, although there should be a spiritual reflection ready for posting tomorrow, the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Thank you for your patience.]

A presbyter in Italy has removed a Nativity scene from a cemetery near Milan for fear of offending Mohammedans. Such an act of cowardly betrayal, which will receive no rebuke from Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who might even call the presbyter to said he has acted correctly, as the conciliar religion itself is a betraya of Christ the King and His Catholic Church.

This is a very short commentary.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

This article, which was published during the overnight hours, has been revised slightly since its initial posting.

Although I had wanted to focus on Jorge Mario Bergoglio's role in aiding and abetting the agents of the false opposite of the naturalist "left," which the adversary uses to engender sympathy among "conservative" Catholics for agents of the false opposite of the naturalist "right," this part of my continuing series deals with the hypocrisy of the "left," whose adherents never believe that anything is "settled" unless it is "settled" on their terms. To be sure, Jorge gets a mention at the end. However, he will be the sole star of part six.

I thank you for your patience as the production of these articles is dependent at present on my ability to work on the computer with the effects of a concussion.

A republished reflection on Saint Lucy can be found below.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

The saint whose feast we celebrate today, Saint Lucy, resisted all efforts made by the civil authorities to induce her to worship the idols when a suitor, who was angered by her rejection of him after she had given away her riches to the poor, betrayed her as Christian to the pagan officials of the Roman Empire in Syracuse, Sicily at the beginning of the Fourth Century A.D., in the year 304 A.D. Saint Lucy could have saved her life if only she worshiped the idols.

Unlike the conciliar "pontiffs," men who have esteemed the symbols of various and sundry false religions, with their own consecrated hands, Saint Lucy refused to do so and was immovable when taken to a house of sin. She refused even to look upon the vice that was before her. May this immovable foe of religious liberty help us to see more clearly with the eyes of our immortal souls that the Catholic Church cannot be in the least responsible for the abominations and blasphemies and sacrileges and defections from the Faith perpetrated by the counterfeit church of conciliarism. May Saint Lucy, a model of purity and gentleness and grace and courage, help us to see so clearly that we flee to the catacombs where the Faith is protected without any concessions to conciliarism.

A blessed Feast of Saint Lucy to all who are named after this great witness to the Faith, especially my dear wife, who took Saint Lucy as her patron at Baptism, and our dear daughter, Lucy Mary Therese Norma, who has, of course, a special devotion to the virgin and martyr from Syracuse, Sicily.

I ask your prayers also for the repose of the soul of the late Father Salvatore V. Franco, who died on this day fourteen years ago now. Father Franco, who suffered from serious heart problems but died of a form of leukemia that he only found out he had weeks before he died, was good enough to offer us refuge in his kitchen in Westbury, Long Island, New York, in April of 2002 as he offered the Immemorial Mass of Tradition for us each weekday.

Although I had long before abandoned the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic Novus Ordo liturgical service on Sundays as I moved in "indult" circles, we made the decision to abandon all putative "offerings" of this abominable travesty during the week when Father Franco took ill and before he died. Father Franco, who was ordained as a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn in June of 1953, had a heart attack in 1963 at the age of thirty-seven, an act of God's Divine Mercy that kept him from being immersed in parish life as the conciliar revolution proceeded apace. Father Franco kept active, however, offering Mass and helping souls. We will be forever grateful to him for providing us with the refuge that he did after Lucy's birth. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen. We miss you, Father!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Two articles on Our Lady of Guadalupe are being republished today. Each has been slightly revised and, of course. In addition to this article, there is also "We Must Be Made As Simple and Trusting" that was published in four parts back in 2010.

Today is a great feast day in the Americas as it was on this day 485 years ago that Our Blessed Mother gave us two great miracles.

Acceding to the demand of Apostolic Administrator [later Archbishop] Fray Juan de Zumarraga, O.F.M., the Mother of God saw to it that Castilian roses grew atop Tepeyac Hill so that her little "Juanito," Juan Diego, a fifty-five year-old widower to whom she had first appeared on December 9, 1531, could provide proof that it was she who had made the request of Fray de Zumarraga to built a shrine in her honor on the hill where she appeared. The administrator's guards, who had treated Juan Diego with such cruelty and even racism, spied those roses and tried to grab them out of Juan's tilma as he waited to see Fray de Zumarraga. The roses, quite miraculously, disappeared every time the guards sought to snatch them away from Juan Diego.

Those Castilian roses were presented by Juan Diego to Fray Juan de Zumarraga, who knelt before the Indian convert to the Faith as he gazed upon the miraculous image that Juanito did not know was there: the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who was clearly expecting the Baby Jesus. Remember, this was Advent in the year 1531, just forty-nine years after Christopher Columbus first set foot on the Island of San Salvador to implant the Cross of the Divine Redeemer in this hemisphere for the first time since Saint Brendan the Navigator had done so in the First Millennium.

Our Lady's miraculous image showing her expecting the Baby Jesus is quite symbolic of the expectant desire she had then--and has now--for the conversion of the peoples of the Americas to the true Faith, that each person and each nation be born anew as they submit themselves to Christ the King through His Catholic Church. Over nine million indigenous people converted to the true Faith within a short time following her apparition to Juan Diego on this day 485 years ago, almost person for person the number of people lost to the Faith as a result of the Protestant Revolt in Europe. It was almost as though God was saying to those who left, "Fine. I will have My Mother get new souls to populate Holy Mother Church and hence Heaven itself."

The Americas were indeed converted to Catholicism, which is why the devil had to attack the Faith in Latin America with such ferocity by means of the Masonic revolutionaries who were supported in both philosophical and monetary terms by the lodges in the nascent Untied States of America. Great crimes were committed against Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His Most Blessed Mother as a result. These crimes continue to this day, which is, of course, one of the reasons that Saint Michael the Archangel appeared with Our Lady as she spoke to Juan Diego. Our Lady has crushed the head of the serpent with her heel and Saint Michael the Archangel is our helper to crush him in our own lives and in the Americas where he reigns, albeit temporarily, in civil government and in popular culture.

May we rely upon the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Empress and Patroness of the Americas, to help us to be courageous enough to plant seeds for the conversion of the Americas, including the United States of America, to the Social Reign of Christ the King as It must be exercised by the Catholic Church. Perhaps an extra Rosary today on this glorious feast day will help us to be more faithful and more courageous in our promotion of the Social Reign of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen.

Finally, please pray for my younger brother (and only sibling), who turns sixty-three years of age today. Our late mother died on March 18, 1982, and our father died on September 5 1992. The years have certainly passed quickly.

As noted just below, I can only work at the computer for several hours at a time because the symptoms from the concussion that I suffered five days ago worsened on Saturday evening. I did some work on the next original article yesterday, and hope to be able to complete part five today as I need also write part six, which will focus on some of the incoming administration's Cabinet selections. All that I will say on that score for the moment is this: Rex Tillerson=Exxon Mobil=Planned Barrenhood=Foggy Bottom's Bloody Tradition of "Family Planning" will continue.

What was that I was saying about false opposites?

Viva Cristo Rey!

Viva La Virgen de Guadalupe!

Our Blessed Mother gave us two great miracles on this day 485 years ago. Acceding to the demand of Apostolic Administrator [later Archbishop] Fray Juan de Zumarraga, O.F.M., the Mother of God saw to it that Castilian roses grew atop Tepeyac Hill so that her little "Juanito," Juan Diego, a fifty-five year-old widower to whom she had first appeared on December 9, 1531, could provide proof that it was she who had made the request of Fray de Zumarraga to built a shrine in her honor on the hill where she appeared. The administrator's guards, who had treated Juan Diego with such cruelty and even racism, spied those roses and tried to grab them out of Juan's tilma as he waited to see Fray de Zumarraga. The roses, quite miraculously, disappeared every time the guards sought to snatch them away from Juan Diego.

Those Castilian roses were presented by Juan Diego to Fray Juan de Zumarraga, who knelt before the Indian convert to the Faith as he gazed upon the miraculous image that Juanito did not know was there: the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who was clearly expecting the Baby Jesus. Remember, this was Advent in the year 1531, just forty-nine years after Christopher Columbus first set foot on the Island of San Salvador to implant the Cross of the Divine Redeemer in this hemisphere for the first time since Saint Brendan the Navigator had done so in the First Millennium.

Our Lady's miraculous image showing her expecting the Baby Jesus is quite symbolic of the expectant desire she had then--and has now--for the conversion of the peoples of the Americas to the true Faith, that each person and each nation be born anew as they submit themselves to Christ the King through His Catholic Church. Over nine million indigenous people converted to the true Faith within a short time following her apparition to Juan Diego on this day 484 years ago, almost person for person the number of people lost to the Faith as a result of the Protestant Revolt in Europe. It was almost as though God was saying to those who left, "Fine. I will have My Mother get new souls to populate Holy Mother Church and hence Heaven itself."

The Americas were indeed converted to Catholicism, which is why the devil had to attack the Faith in Latin America with such ferocity by means of the Masonic revolutionaries who were supported in both philosophical and monetary terms by the lodges in the nascent Untied States of America. Great crimes were committed against Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His Most Blessed Mother as a result. These crimes continue to this day, which is, of course, one of the reasons that Saint Michael the Archangel appeared with Our Lady as she spoke to Juan Diego. Our Lady has crushed the head of the serpent with her heel and Saint Michael the Archangel is our helper to crush him in our own lives and in the Americas where he reigns, albeit temporarily, in civil government and in popular culture.

May we rely upon the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Empress and Patroness of the Americas, to help us to be courageous enough to plant seeds for the conversion of the Americas, including the United States of America, to the Social Reign of Christ the King as It must be exercised by the Catholic Church. Perhaps an extra Rosary today on this glorious feast day will help us to be more faithful and more courageous in our promotion of the Social Reign of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen. Viva Cristo Rey!

Readers, especially those who are new to this site, might also be interested in a series on the apparitions of Our Lady to Juan Diego that was written six years ago now: May We Be Made As Simple and Trusting, part one, May We Made As Simple and Trusting, part two, May We Be Made As Simple and Trusting, part three and May We Be Made As Simple and Trusting, part four.

Also, I ask for your prayers today for my brother, who turns sixty-three years of age on this Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Yes, I am making progress on part five of "Sober Up." However, the concussion symptoms worsened considerably on Saturday evening, December 10, 2016, and have gotten a bit worse since then. This is not unusual as it sometimes happens that the full effects of a concussion take several days to manifest themselves, and they have done so in a penitential way that I so richly deserve as but a small way to pay back God for the debt that I owe Him because of my many sins. Deo gratias!

As a result of the headaches and general, all-around heaviness of head, I can only work at the computer for several hours at a time. I did so yesterday, and hope to be able to complete part five as I need also write part six, which will focus on some of the incoming administration's Cabinet selections. All that I will say on that score for the moment is this: Rex Tillerson=Exxon Mobil=Planned Barrenhood=Foggy Bottom's Bloody Tradition of "Family Planning" will continue.

What was that I was saying about false opposites?

Viva Cristo Rey!

Viva La Virgen de Guadalupe!