Revised and Expanded: On the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, December 22, 2025

Saint Thomas the Apostle plays a role in every offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Yes, his name appears in the Roman Canon as an alter Christus prepares to bring God down in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity on an altar of Sacrifice under the appearance of bread and wine. Each and every single one of us utters the words of Saint Thomas when we see the Host and Chalice elevated by a true priest at their respective consecrations: Dominus meus et Deus Meus, My Lord and my God. 

It is, of course, quite appropriate that we utter the words of Saint Thomas as the greatest miracle on earth takes place day in and day out, the Transubstantiation of the elements of this earth into the very Body. Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man in Our Lady's virginal and immaculate womb. Saint Thomas did not believe that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had risen from the dead on Easter Sunday until he had put his fingers in the nail prints on Our Lord's hands and feet and pressed his hand in Our Lord's wounded side. It was then that He uttered the words that we ourselves during the Consecrations of the Host and Chalice, Dominus meus et Deus Meus. Saint Thomas had seen and believed. We see Our Lord only under the appearance of the elements of the earth, believing by Faith that He is indeed present in every particle of the Host and every drop of the wine that have been miraculously Transubstantiated into Himself. Saint Thomas thus plays a vital role each time we assist at Holy Mass.

Although Saint Thomas doubted Our Lord's Resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday, he became a bold proclaimer of the Gospel of His Divine Master once the God the Holy Ghost descended in tongues of flame upon him and the other Apostles and our dear Blessed Mother on Pentecost Sunday in the same Upper Room in Jerusalem where he had been ordained to the fullness of the priesthood, the episcopate. Having pressed his flesh into the Flesh of Our Lord, Saint Thomas enfleshed Our Lord every time he offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass himself, receiving the unmerited privilege of not only touching Our Lord anew but being fed by Him to nourish his soul unto eternity. Having doubted Our Lord's Resurrection, Saint Thomas became the instrument by which many thousands upon thousands of others would come to believe in Him without having seen Him in the flesh themselves.

The force of Saint Thomas's preaching, which included his own recounting of his initial disbelief in Our Lord's Easter victory over sin and eternal death that He had won on the Holy Cross on Good Friday, was such that pagan peoples in lands far distant from his native Galilee begged him to baptize them with urgency. Yes, you see, Saint Thomas, one of the first twelve bishops of the Catholic Church, was in the business of proselytizing unbelievers and converting them to be Catholics.

Saint Thomas did not want anyone on earth to persist in the unbelief that had manifested itself in his own life when he heard the other Apostles speaking about Our Lord's Resurrection. He wanted everyone to have belief in and access to the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament so that they could be sharers in eternal glory in Heaven. He wanted everyone to have their mortal sins forgiven in the Sacrament of Penance, which was instituted by Our Lord at the moment that Saint Thomas was absent from the place where the other Apostles were hiding for fear of the Jews. He wanted to make sure that He took seriously Our Lord's parting words before He Ascended to the Father's right hand in glory: to go and to preach the Gospel everywhere, baptizing all men in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." He worked many miracles in his lifetime. He has worked them ever since, including stopping the floodwaters of the tsunami last year at the steps of the church in India that bears his name and is thus under his holy patronage. The "Thomas" Catholics in India trace their lineage directly to the Apostle himself.

The "doubting Thomas" became a "twin" of Christ. That is, Saint Thomas the Apostle, to whom I pray every day as the first in the line of Saint Thomases I count as my patrons (Saints Thomas a Becket, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas More, and Thomas Villanova are the others), sought to be like Our Lord in every way imaginable. A venerable Catholic priest who bore his name nearly fourteen centuries later, Thomas a Kempis, wrote his incomparable Imitation of Christ to explain how we must imitate Our Lord in every way at all times, especially in the smallest of things. Our Lord's "twin," Saint Thomas the Apostle, fully imitated Our Lord to the point of his being immolated in India because he dared to convert souls to the true Faith. We must, therefore, pray to Saint Thomas the Apostle so that he will help us to be "twins," if you will, of Our Lord, willing to die to self to such an extent that we will have the same apostolic zeal for souls as he did as he traversed to distant lands to speak of the Holy Name of Jesus Christ no matter what it might cost him, including his life.

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B.'s, hagiography of my principal patron saint, Saint Thomas the Apostle, reminds us that this is the last feast on the General Roman Calendar before Christmas, although we in the United States of America have the privilege of celebrating the Feast of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, S.J., the first and thus far only American citizen to be canonized:

This is the last Feast the Church keeps before the great one of the Nativity of her Lord and Spouse. She interrupts the Greater Ferias in order to pay her tribute of honor to Thomas, the Apostle of Christ, whose glorious martyrdom has consecrated this twenty-first day of December, and has procured for the Christian people a powerful patron that will introduce them to the divine Babe of Bethlehem. To none of the Apostles could this day have been so fittingly assigned as to St. Thomas. It was St. Thomas whom we needed; St. Thomas, whose festal patronage would aid us to believe and hope in that God whom we see not, and who comes to us in silence and humility in order to try our Faith. St. Thomas was once guilty of doubting, when he ought to have believed; and only learned the necessity of Faith by the sad experience of incredulity: he comes then most appropriately to defend us, by the power of his example and prayers, against the temptations which proud human reason might excite within us. Let us pray to him with confidence. In that heaven of Light and Vision, where his repentance and love have placed him, he will intercede for us and gain for us that docility of mind and heart which will enable us to see and recognize Him who is the Expected of Nations and who, though the King of the world, will give no other signs of his majesty than the swaddling clothes and tears of a Babe. But let us first read the Acts of our holy Apostle. The Church has deemed it prudent to give us them in an exceedingly abridged form, which contains only the most reliable facts, gathered from authentic sources; and thus, she excludes all those details which have no historic authority.

O glorious Apostle Thomas! who didst lead to Christ so many unbelieving nations, hear now the prayers of the faithful, who beseech thee to lead them to that same Jesus, who, in five days, will have shown himself to his Church. That we may merit to appear in his divine presence, we need, before all other graces, the light which leads to him. That light is Faith; then, pray that we may have Faith. Heretofore, our Saviour had compassion on thy weakness, and deigned to remove from thee the doubt of his having risen from the grave; pray to him for us, that he will mercifully come to our assistance, and make himself felt by our heart. We ask not, O holy Apostle, to see him with the eyes of our body, but with those of our faith, for he said to thee, when he showed himself to thee: Blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed! Of this happy number, we desire to be. We beseech thee, therefore, pray that we may obtain the Faith of the heart and will, that so, when we behold the divine Infant wrapped in swaddling-clothes and laid in a manger, we may cry out: My Lord! and my God! Pray, O holy Apostle, for the nations thou didst evangelise, but which have fallen back again into the shades of death. May the day soon come, when the Sun of Justice will once more shine upon them. Bless the efforts of those apostolic men, who have devoted their labours and their very lives to the work of the Missions; pray that the days of darkness may be shortened, and that the countries, which were watered by thy blood, may at length see that kingdom of God established amongst them, which thou didst preach to them, and for which we also are in waiting. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, December 21.)

Jacobus de Voragine's The Golden Legend tells of the episode that ultimately won Saint Thomas the Apostle the crown of holy martyrdom:

Next Thomas went to Upper India and gained fame by his many miracles. He brought the light of faith to Syntice, who was a friend of Migdomia, the wife of Carisius, a cousin of the king. Migdomia asked Syntice: "Do you think I might see the apostle? Then, taking her friend's advice, she put off her rich garments and mingled with the poor women who were hearing the apostle's preaching. Thomas began to expound upon the misery of this life and said, among other things: "This is indeed a miserable life, subject to all sorts of misfortune, and so fleeting that when one things one has it well in hand, it slips away and is gone." Then he exhorted his hearers to receive the word of God gladly and offered four reasons, comparing the word to four kinds of things: to an eye-salve, because it enlightens the eyes of our intellect; to a potion, for it purifies and cleanses our will of all carnal love; to a plaster, because it heals the wounds of our sins; and to food, because it delights us with the love of the things of heaven. And just as these things can do no good to the ailing person unless he uses them well, so the word of God cannot benefit the ailing soul unless it is heard devoutly. Migdomia believed the apostles's preaching and thereafter shunned her husband's bed with horror. At this Carisius complained to the king and had Thomas thrown into prison. Migdomia visited him there and implored him to pardon her for being the cause of his plight; but he consoled her kindly and said that he was happy to bear all his suffering. Then Carisius asked the king to send the queen, his wife's sister, to his wife, hoping that she might bring Migdomia back to him. But the queen, carrying her mission, was converted by the very one she sought to lead astray; and seeing the great miracles the apostle performed, she said: "Those who refuse to believe so many signs and works are damned by God!" Meanwhile Thomas spoke briefly to all present on three points: they should love the Church, honor the priests, and come together gladly to hear the word of God.

When the queen returned home, the king asked her: "What kept you away so long?" The queen's answer was: "I thought Migdomia was stupid, but on the contrary she is very wise. She led me to the apostle of God and let me learn the way of truth. The really stupid ones are those will not believe in Christ!" And from then on she refused to lie with her husband. The king, dumbfounded, said to his brother-in-law: "I tried to get your wife back for you, and instead I have lost my own; she treats me worse that yours treats you!"

The king ordered the apostle to be brought before him, hands bound, and commanded him to counsel the wives to return to their husbands. The apostle proceeded to prove to the king, by three examples--a king, a tower, a spring of water--that as long as these men persisted in their error, the women must not do as commanded. "You," he said, "being a king, want no dirty servants around you, but only clean servingmen and handmaids. How much more surely should you believe that God loves chaste, clean servants? Am I wrong in preaching that God loves in his servants what you love in yours? I have raised a high tower, and you tell me, the builder, to tear it down? I have dug a deep well and brought up a flowing spring, and you tell me to shut it off?" (Archbishop Jacobus de Voragine, O.P., The Golden Legend.)

Saint Thomas was then subjected to a series of attempts to torture him, each of which was thwarted miraculously, before he was slain with a sword. He had given his life for the One Whose Resurrection he had initially doubted. His own disbelief became the cause of the belief of many in his own day and from his own day to our own day.

The incident that led up to Saint Thomas the Apostle's martyrdom contains a line from the queen who had tried to take her friend Migdomia out of the Faith: "The really stupid ones are those who will not believe in Christ!"

Yes, those who refuse to believe in Christ are the really stupid ones yet today. And to their ranks must be added those who say they believe in Our Lord but who don't trust His ineffable power enough to proclaim His Holy Name publicly or to make public advertence to the simple fact that every single element of human life, both individually and socially, must be completely and totally subordinated to the Deposit of Faith He has entrusted solely to the Catholic Church. To believe in Our Lord is to be as fearless before kings and potentates and, yes, even before television and radio talk show hosts, in professing unapologetically the Catholic Faith as was Saint Thomas before the king who ordered his execution.

Unlike the late and completely non-lamented fiend name Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who believed that doubt in God, in His Divine Revelation, in His Church, and even in His Divine Providence was “healthy,” Pope Saint Leo the Great reminds us that the doubt of Saint Thomas the Apostle is meant to fortify our own faith beyond all doubt the Holy Catholic Church excludes all doubt because she was founded by Our Lord Himself and is sustained by the working of God the Holy Ghost, who never leads souls in doubt:

Dearly beloved brethren, what is it in this passage which particularly claimeth our attention? Think ye that it was by accident that this chosen Apostle was not with them when Jesus came? or, when he came, heard? or, when he heard, doubted? or, when he doubted, felt? or when he had felt, believed? All these things were not accidental, but Providential. It was a wonderful provision of Divine mercy, that this incredulous disciple, by thrusting his fingers into the bodily Wounds of his Master, should apply a remedy to the spiritual wounds of unbelief in our souls. The doubts of Thomas have done us more good than the faith of all the disciples that believed. While he feeleth his way to faith, our minds are freed from doubt, and settled in faith. (Pope Leo the Great, Matins, the Divine Office, Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle.)

There is nothing “healthy” about doubting the Holy Catholic Faith or the efficacy of her true Sacramental rites to lead her children away from sin and thus to everlasting life in Heaven.

Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., explained in his own sermon on Saint Thomas the Apostle that Faith is certain and that those who defect from It in one thing defects from It in Its entirety:

St. Thomas was a fisherman, born in Galilee. The divine Saviour received him among His Apostles, to announce His Gospel to the world, and to convert mankind. From the time that he was chosen to so high an office, Thomas followed his beloved Master everywhere, and feared no danger. One day, when Jesus spoke of going to Judaea, to awaken Lazarus from the dead, some of His disciples opposed Him, saying: "Rabbi, the Jews but now sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou thither again?" They probably feared that they would have to suffer with Him. Thomas, however, more courageous than the others, said: "Let us also go, that we may die with Him." By these words the Apostle manifested that no fear of death would separate him from Christ; and that, rather than leave Him, he would die with Him. It is true that later, with other disciples, he left Him on the Mount of Olives, when He was taken prisoner by the Jews; but he returned soon, and joined the rest of the Apostles.

On the day of His resurrection, Christ appeared to them. Thomas, however, was not with them. When they told him afterwards, that they had seen the Lord, he doubted, and said: "Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." By this, Thomas meant that he did not believe the resurrection of the Lord, although he had several times heard from the lips of Jesus, not only a prophecy of His sufferings and death, but also of His resurrection; and although the Apostles and several pious women had repeatedly assured him that they had seen the risen Lord. The Holy Fathers say that Christ permitted this unbelief in Thomas, not only that from it we might learn our own weakness, but also that all who believe in Him might be so much better instructed in the mystery of His resurrection, and strengthened in their belief in it. Hence, St. Gregory writes: "The unbelief of Thomas has been more useful to our belief than the belief of the other disciples of the Lord, who, without hesitation, received the news of His resurrection," because the unbelief of Thomas gave occasion for new proofs of the resurrection of Christ.

The eighth day after that event, Christ came into the hall where Thomas was with the other Apostles, and greeted them with the words: "Peace be unto you." Then, turning to Thomas, He said: "Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing." What Thomas must have felt at these words, and at seeing his risen Saviour, each one may picture to himself. He saw himself suddenly convinced, not only of the resurrection, but also of the omniscience of his dear Master. With shame and fear at the remembrance of his fault, but also with love and confidence at the thought of the meekness of the Saviour, he touched, with deep veneration, the holy wounds, and exclaimed: "My Lord and my God!" In these few words he repented of his unbelief, and at the same time made a confession of his faith, in presence of those whom he had scandalized by his obstinacy. He remained until his end, constant in his belief; and, after the descent of the Holy Ghost, announced, not only the glorious resurrection of the Lord, but also the other mysteries and articles of the faith.

St. Thomas passed some time in Judaea, preaching the Gospel, and then went into distant countries, inhabited by savage races, as Parthia, Media, Persia, Hyrcania, and came, at last, to India. In all he preached the Gospel of the Lord, notwithstanding the manifold difficulties which the Evil One placed in his way, through the enemies of the faith, and the numerous persecutions which he everywhere endured. How many thousand souls this holy Apostle converted to Christ is known only to Him from whom nothing is hid. The many miracles which he almost daily performed, persuaded the people that the faith which he preached was truly divine: hence his success with the most embittered pagans. He made the largest number of converts in India. This immense territory he traversed in every direction, and established Christianity in it so firmly, that traces of it were found there in the sixteenth century, fifteen hundred years after his death. Even in China, indubitable signs of it were discovered. He erected many churches, and placed Christian teachers in them, that the faith he had personally preached during his life might be preserved after his death.

At the building of the church at Meliapor, one of the chief cities of India, a wonderful event took place. The sea had cast ashore a very large tree, which the king desired to make use of for the palace he was just erecting. But neither men nor many elephants could move the tree. The holy Apostle, full of trust in the Almighty, offered to draw the immense burden all alone, if the king would make him a present of it for the Christian church he was about to build. The king consented, and St. Thomas, loosening his girdle, tied the end of it to one branch of the tree, made the sign of the Cross, and drew the tree away from the place where it was lying. All present were greatly astonished at this miracle, and many were converted, and assisted the Apostle in building the church. In this church the Saint erected a cross of stone, which, it is said, is still to be seen at this day. Upon this cross he engraved the following words: "When the sea will have reached this spot, men will come from Europe to propagate the faith which I began to preach." The sea was, at that time, far off, but at the time when St. Francis Xavier landed there, it had reached the cross, and the prophecy was fulfilled.

The idolatrous priests who could not contradict the faith which St. Thomas preached, and which he verified by so many miracles, were enraged at his success, as they lost considerably in temporal goods by the conversions that took place. They therefore endeavored to arouse the king's wrath against him, or to make away with him in some other manner. Some write that they persuaded the king to pronounce his death-sentence, and that he was shot dead with arrows. Others relate that the Brahmins themselves took the life of the holy Apostle. They had ascertained that the Saint went every day, towards evening, to a cross which he himself had erected, and that he remained there a long time in prayer. This gave them a favorable opportunity to vent their wrath upon him. They came together silently to the place where, on bended knees, the Saint was saying his prayers. One of them thrust a lance into him so violently that he sank upon the ground; after which, the others continued to beat him and to trample on him until all signs of life ceased.

When St. Francis Xavier came to India, the signs of blood were still to be seen on the cross where this murderous deed was committed; and more than once drops of blood appeared on this cross during the celebration of Mass, when crowds of people were present. St. Xavier, shortly after his arrival in India, went to the tomb of St. Thomas, and passed many days and nights there in prayer. He begged God fervently to bestow upon him the Spirit and zeal of this holy Apostle, that he might be able to restore the Christian faith which St. Thomas had preached there, but which had gradually been entirely exterminated. Before undertaking any important work, he went, if possible, to the tomb of St. Thomas; and when this was impossible, he invoked the holy Apostle's intercession, and endeavored to follow his example in all things.

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS.

I. St. Thomas, for three years, accompanied Christ our Lord; was present at His divine instructions; saw the many miracles He wrought; and yet became incredulous and remained so for eight days, and might have remained still longer, had not Christ mercifully restored his faith. Go, O man, and build upon your own strength, or if you have lived piously for some time, imagine you are secure against falling! Oh! how foolish, how presumptuous you are! That which happened to an apostle may surely happen to you. The sad fall of our holy Apostle, ought not, however, to make you despondent or fearful; it ought only to incite you not to trust too much in your own strength, but to walk continually in the fear of the Lord, and to pray to Him daily, that He may give you the grace not to offend Him, but to remain constant in His service If you remain continually in the fear of the Lord, you will walk carefully and not fall into any great sin. For, it is written: "The fear of the Lord is unto life; and he shall abide in fulness without being visited with evil," (without falling into sin.) (Proverbs, xix.) Tertullian writes: "Fear is the foundation of our salvation. Whoever fears is careful. Through fear we shall become careful, and through carefulness we shall be saved. Whoever is careful is sure." If we cease to fear God, then we are near falling, even if we have reached the highest pinnacle of perfection. This the Holy Ghost indicates in the following words: "Unless thou hold thyself diligently in the fear of the Lord, thy house shall quickly be overthrown." (Eccles. xxvii.)

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.

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., composed a prayer to the Saint whose feast day is the last before Christmas Day almost everywhere except here in the United States, which usually celebrates the Feast of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini on December 22, a date set by Pope Pius XII himself for this country, but is celebrated on December 23 this year because the Fourth Sunday of Advent fell on December 2, 2025:

O glorious Apostle Thomas! who didst lead to Christ so many unbelieving nations, hear now the prayers of the faithful, who beseech thee to lead them to that same Jesus, who, in five days, will have shown himself to his Church. That we may merit to appear in his divine presence, we need, before all other graces, the light which leads to him. That light is Faith; then, pray that we may have Faith. Heretofore, our Saviour had compassion on thy weakness, and deigned to remove from thee the doubt of his having risen from the grave; pray to him for us, that he will mercifully come to our assistance, and make himself felt by our heart. We ask not, O holy Apostle, to see him with the eyes of our body, but with those of our faith, for he said to thee, when he showed himself to thee: Blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed! Of this happy number, we desire to be. We beseech thee, therefore, pray that we may obtain the Faith of the heart and will, that so, when we behold the divine Infant wrapped in swaddling-clothes and laid in a manger, we may cry out: My Lord! and my God! Pray, O holy Apostle, for the nations thou didst evangelise, but which have fallen back again into the shades of death. May the day soon come, when the Sun of Justice will once more shine upon them. Bless the efforts of those apostolic men, who have devoted their labours and their very lives to the work of the Missions; pray that the days of darkness may be shortened, and that the countries, which were watered by thy blood, may at length see that kingdom of God established amongst them, which thou didst preach to them, and for which we also are in waiting. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year.)

Father Benedict Baur’s reflection on the O Antiphon for December 20, 2025, “O Key of David, explains that we are the captives who have been freed from slavery to satan and his wiles, and that Holy Mother Church has power from her Divine Founder, Invisible Head and Mystical Spouse to defeat “the false principles and errors that threaten her doctrines”:

O sublime majesty of the coming Redeemer! To him has been delivered the key, the government of the house of David (Isa. 22:22). Boundless is His power over the graces and privileges of the Church, over the souls and hearts and the wills of men. He holds the destiny of the Church in the palm of His hand. He is Master of the storms that arise to destroy the Church and the souls committed to her. He is capable of dealing with the false principles and the errors that threaten her doctrines. He has overcome the devil and his associates, the world, the flesh and its tribulations. To Him all power is given (Matt. 28:18), “He shall open and none shall shut” (Isa. 22:22). Against the power that is His all other forces are powerless. The destiny of souls and the government of the Church is placed in His hand. He is the Lord of all. O Key of David, I believe in Thy power; and in many difficult situations that confront the Church and my own soul, I place my trust in Thee. Come, lead the captives from their prison. With the key of His almighty power, the Redeemer has opened the prison in which poor, sinful man was languishing in darkness and in the shadow of death. Those who were held captive by Satan and by sin, who were degraded and dishonored, are now given the power to become the children of God. They are rescued from the beast who would degrade them; their good inclinations and desires are strengthened; and they are made a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Men were slaves of passion; they were bound and fettered by concupiscence of the eyes, the concupiscence of the flesh, and the pride of life.

Key of David, com and deliver the captives from their prison. The Church wishes that by the practice of virtue we should free ourselves from sin and unfaithfulness. She asks God that He may spare us from punishment, deliver us from His wrath, from an evil death, and from hell. The Church prays that Go may free us from a heart that clings to the world, from a spirit that is pleased with worldliness, from a human respect that degrades us. She urges to return kindness and affection for scorn, love and compassion for persecution. Our Holy Mother the Church prays that we may be delivered from ourselves, from our self-love, and from all our secret sins. She prays that God may detach our hearts from all that and bind them to earth for he who has been freed from the things of the earth is free with the freedom of Christ. (Father Benedict Baur, O.S.B., The Light of the World, Volume I, B. Herder Book Company, 1954. p. 83.)

We need to rescued from our own captivity to our sins and worldliness, to our disbelief in the power of God to vanquish those in civil power who promote evil under cover of the civil law and to utterly destroy the false conciliar religion that is being propagated with such wanton abandon by a figure of Antichrist, the octogenarian named Jorge Mario Bergoglio. 

Christmas Day is but four days after the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, less than that if one considers that the Christmas season starts with First Vespers December 24.

Apart from Our Lady and Saint Joseph, there were only a handful of shepherds and the Three Kings from the East who were given by God to know from angels the news of the Birth of the Saviour, Whose Sacred Divinity lay hidden beneath the bright, radiant beams emanating from His Holy Face. It took Faith to see that the newborn Babe in Bethlehem was God Incarnate. It takes Faith today to see Him in His Real Presence. It was that same Catholic Faith that prompted the one who doubted, Saint Thomas the Apostle, who baptized the Three Kings with his own hands, to risk all to remain faithful to the point of his dying breath.

May we, keeping company with Our Lady and beseeching her chaste spouse, Saint Joseph, in these final four days before Christmas, ever imitate the example of the "twin" of the Christ-Child, Saint Thomas the Apostle, by bringing the truths of the true Faith into the souls of the unbelievers who are lost in a world of doubt, misery, confusion, darkness, despair, and stupidity precisely because they do not believe in the Babe of Bethlehem as He has revealed Himself through the Catholic Church, especially by means of praying our Rosaries for such souls to convert.

To Saint Thomas the Apostle we pray, "I believe. Increase my Faith."

With Saint Thomas the Apostle we say, "Dominus meus et Deus Meus." Help us to spread belief in and devotion to Our Lord in His Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Help us to plant the seeds for the Catholicization of this country and the world.

Our Lady, Mother of God, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, Patron of Departing Souls, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Thomas the Apostle, pray for us.

Appendix

Either the Faith is Held Entirely or It is Not Held At All

There are some persons, dear listeners, who hold almost everything with a firm faith that Catholics hold: but there is one thing or another, which they have not yet been able to accept completely, such as that purgatory exists, that sacred images are to be venerated, that the sovereign Pontiff is the vicar of Christ and the head of the whole Church. And since there are many things that they believe, and only one or two things that they do not believe and consider it is not important if taken together with the other articles, they think they are situated very well on the foundation of Christ. What is the difference, they say, even if I err in that one thing, which I still cannot believe, and at the judgment will the Lord be concerned about that? And will he not be mindful of the many difficult things I believe? Indeed, this is the way in which they flatter themselves; I serious rebuke them and say that they have fallen from grace and have laid their foundation on sand, and will have no part with Christ. Either the faith is had completely, or it is not had at all. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. I ask you (to clarify the matter with a crass example), when you order a pair of shoes from a shoemaker, if when they are finally made you find they are an inch shorter than your feet, do you not put them on and wear them? Your will say “I cannot wear them” But they are only an inch too short, so why can't you wear them, since they are just a little bit short of the right measurement? As, therefore, your shoes are either the right size for your feet or they have no value at all, so also the faith is either integral, or it is not the faith. Therefore no one should deceive himself. If we want to build a house which cannot be moved by wind or rain, we must lay the foundation of both rocks, that is, on Christ and Peter. (Sermons of St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J., Part II: Sermons 30-55, Including the Four Last Things and the Annunciation., translated from the Latin by Father Kenneth Baker, S.J., and published in 2017 by Keep the Faith, Inc., Ramsey, New Jersey, pp. 152-154.)

With reference to its object, faith cannot be greater for some truths than for others. Nor can it be less with regard to the number of truths to be believed. For we must all believe the very same thing, both as to the object of faith as well as to the number of truths. All are equal in this because everyone must believe all the truths of faith--both those which God Himself has directly revealed, as well as those he has revealed through His Church. Thus, I must believe as much as you and you as much as I, and all other Christians similarly. He who does not believe all these mysteries is not Catholic and therefore will never enter Paradise. (Saint Francis de Sales, The Sermons of Saint Francis de Sales for Lent Given in 1622, republished by TAN Books and Publishers for the Visitation Monastery of Frederick, Maryland, in 1987, pp. 34-37.)

8. We are mindful only of what is witnessed to by Holy Writ and what is otherwise well known. Christ proves His own divinity and the divine origin of His mission by miracles; He teaches the multitudes heavenly doctrine by word of mouth; and He absolutely commands that the assent of faith should be given to His teaching, promising eternal rewards to those who believe and eternal punishment to those who do not. “If I do not the works of my Father, believe Me not” John x., 37). “If I had not done among them the works than no other man had done, they would not have sin” (Ibid. xv., 24). “But if I do (the works) though you will not believe Me, believe the works” (Ibid. x., 38). Whatsoever He commands, He commands by the same authority. He requires the assent of the mind to all truths without exception. It was thus the duty of all who heard Jesus Christ, if they wished for eternal salvation, not merely to accept His doctrine as a whole, but to assent with their entire mind to all and every point of it, since it is unlawful to withhold faith from God even in regard to one single point. (Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896.)

The Church, founded on these principles and mindful of her office, has done nothing with greater zeal and endeavour than she has displayed in guarding the integrity of the faith. Hence she regarded as rebels and expelled from the ranks of her children all who held beliefs on any point of doctrine different from her own. The Arians, the Montanists, the Novatians, the Quartodecimans, the Eutychians, did not certainly reject all Catholic doctrine:they abandoned only a certain portion of it. Still who does not know that they were declared heretics and banished from the bosom of the Church? In like manner were condemned all authors of heretical tenets who followed them in subsequent ages. "There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and handed down by Apostolic tradition" (Auctor Tract. de Fide Orthodoxa contra Arianos).

The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodore :, drew up a long list of the heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity. "No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic" (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88). (Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896.)

Such is the nature of Catholicism that it does not admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole or as a whole rejected: ‘This is the Catholic Faith, which unless a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved’ (Athanasian Creed). There is no need of adding any qualifying terms to the profession of Catholicism: it is quite enough for each one to proclaim ‘Christian is my name and Catholic my surname,’ only let him endeavor to be in reality what he calls himself.

Besides, the Church demands from those who have devoted themselves to furthering her interests, something very different from the dwelling upon profitless questions; she demands that they should devote the whole of their energy to preserve the faith intact and unsullied by any breath of error, and follow most closely him whom Christ has appointed to be the guardian and interpreter of the truth. There are to be found today, and in no small numbers, men, of whom the Apostle says that: "having itching ears, they will not endure sound doctrine: but according to their own desires they will heap up to themselves teachers, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables" (II Tim. iv. 34). Infatuated and carried away by a lofty idea of the human intellect, by which God's good gift has certainly made incredible progress in the study of nature, confident in their own judgment, and contemptuous of the authority of the Church, they have reached such a degree of rashness as not to hesitate to measure by the standard of their own mind even the hidden things of God and all that God has revealed to men. Hence arose the monstrous errors of "Modernism," which Our Predecessor rightly declared to be "the synthesis of all heresies," and solemnly condemned. We hereby renew that condemnation in all its fulness, Venerable Brethren, and as the plague is not yet entirely stamped out, but lurks here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully on their guard against any contagion of the evil, to which we may apply the words Job used in other circumstances: "It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring" (Job xxxi. 12). Nor do We merely desire that Catholics should shrink from the errors of Modernism, but also from the tendencies or what is called the spirit of Modernism. Those who are infected by that spirit develop a keen dislike for all that savours of antiquity and become eager searchers after novelties in everything: in the way in which they carry out religious functions, in the ruling of Catholic institutions, and even in private exercises of piety. Therefore it is Our will that the law of our forefathers should still be held sacred: "Let there be no innovation; keep to what has been handed down." In matters of faith that must be inviolably adhered to as the law; it may however also serve as a guide even in matters subject to change, but even in such cases the rule would hold: "Old things, but in a new way."  (Pope Benedict XV, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, November 1, 1914.)