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 a 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 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?

As I fell asleep while attempting to revise this reflection last night, it was not possible to have this available for posting earlier today. I now understand why my late paternal grandmother, Adrienne Delfausse Droleskey, fell asleep in her chair on occasion when she was only about three or four years older than I am now! Well, it's back to work on part six of "Sober Up," which I promise will be worth the wait.

A continued merry and most blessed Christmas to you all.

Although late in the evening of Christmas Day, an original reflection has been written for the readers of this site to consider.

"Sober Up," part six, will appear at some point tomorrow, the Feast of Saint Stephen the Protomatyr, about whom a revised reflection will be posted in a few hours.

A continued blessed Christmas to you all.

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.