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?

A continued merry and most blessed Christmas to you all.

A new article will be published within fifteen minutes of this posting. 

Our Lady of the Rosary, 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!

(A new article, A Personal Remembrance of Father Louis J. Campbell, R.I.P., was published a little over twenty-four hours ago.)

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.

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! 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.

This is a brief personal remembrance of the late Father Louis J. Campbell, whom we were privileged to know as a priest whose friendship will be treasured for as long as we live.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Yesterday was 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.

Medical appointments and the worsening nature of my various and sundry orthopedic problems have interfered with my ability to write, although I should have a personal remniscence of the late Father Louis J. Campbell to post by tomorrow, Saturday, December 23, 2023, or the Vigil of Christmas, Sunday, December 24, 2023. I will not publish my commentary on Victor Manuel Fernandez's antipapally sanctioned decision to bestow "blessings" upon those who living in states of Mortal Sin and, as such, have souls that are odious in the sight of the Most Blessed Trinity until after Christmas Day. 

For the moment, Antipope Appoveth, Antipope Undermineth What He Approveth, which was published thirty-two months ago, provides some background to the newest Jorge and Pals in Wonderland of the Absurd exercise.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Thomas the Apostle, pray for us.

With apologies for the delay, here is a new commentary, which continues the work of the "Sin: More Deadly Than the Coronavirus" series under a different title.

There are important facts contained in this commentary as well as Dom Prosper Gueranger's reflection on the Feast of Our Lady's Expectation, which can be celebrated today, December 18, 2023.

Another new commentary will follow in a few days as my health and strength permits. One thing is for sure, though: those cataract surgeries have improved my eyesight to such an extent that I am now able to work on the computer without any kind of glasses, including reading glasses. The vision is getting back as the eyes heal. Now, this is no guarantee that I, the all-time king of typographical errors, misplaced or omitted words and other such problems, will not continue to show my great fallibility on the keyboard. However, I have a better chance now of spotting my mistakes than I have had at any time in the past thirty-one years since I started using prescription glasses. Deo gratias.

As always, non-tax-deductible financial gifts are greatly appreciated and much needed in this week before Christmas. Thank you.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

As the next original article will not be ready for publication until tomorrow, Monday, December 18, 2023, an Advent ferial day on which can be celebrated the Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I am presenting a brief reflection on Gaudete Sunday that draws principally from Dom Prosper Gueranger's The Liturgical Year and also from Father Benedict Baur's reflections on the "O" antiphons prayed at Vespers starting this evening with "O Wisdom."

A blessed Gaudete Sunday to you all.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.