One of the most egregious forms of arrogance by “modern man” is the notion that no one before the 1500s… or even 1962… had any idea when anything happened, what year it was, what date it was, or had any means of knowing or recording anything. This is laughable in an age when everyone, including small children, walk around with a baby television that gives them complete access to the sum of human knowledge, available to them in their mother tongue or any language they choose, and the vast majority of teenagers in post-Christian North America couldn’t name their eight great-grandparents if you put a gun to their head, and furthermore have exactly zero desire or curiosity to know who they were. Most modern teens have absolutely no idea what their grandmothers’ maiden names were, and quite a few have no idea when their own parents – not grandparents, but PARENTS – were born. Look around you. If anyone is functionally retarded to the point of not even knowing when major events happened, it is us, NOT the people of 2000 years ago, who kept and memorized meticulous genealogies and most assuredly knew when their children were born.

The Blessed Virgin Mary knew EXACTLY when Our Lord was born, and she told the story countless times, no doubt, including to all of the Apostles, most especially St. John and certainly to St. Luke who wrote the Nativity narrative in his Gospel. And yes, St. Luke tells us the date of Our Lord’s Nativity in his gospel when he opens with the narrative of the conception of St. John the Baptist.

Luke 1:    Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a narration of the things that have been accomplished among us; According as they have delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word: It seemed good to me also, having diligently attained to all things from the beginning, to write to thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mayest know the verity of those words in which thou hast been instructed. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zachary, of the course of Abia; and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elizabeth.

And they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame. 7 And they had no son, for that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years. 8 And it came to pass, when he executed the priestly function in the order of his course before God, 9 According to the custom of the priestly office, it was his lot to offer incense, going into the temple of the Lord. 10 And all the multitude of the people was praying without, at the hour of incense.

(Zachary is on duty in the Temple, going into the Holy of Holies, where the Archangel Gabriel appears to him…)

11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zachary seeing him, was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

(…)

And the people were waiting for Zachary; and they wondered that he tarried so long in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he could not speak to them: and they understood that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he made signs to them, and remained dumb. 23 And it came to pass, after the days of his office were accomplished, he departed to his own house. 24 And after those days, Elizabeth his wife conceived, and hid herself five months, saying: 25 Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he hath had regard to take away my reproach among men.

Now I’ll blockquote a website with the exact details of the date of Zachary’s Temple service:

https://www.dec25th.info/Preisty%20Courses%20Explained.html

“…the priestly rotations were framed within a 24-year cycle, originally set in motion by Solomon and renewed by Ezra, which commenced the Sabbath on or next before Tishri 1 (I Kings 8:2; II Chrn. 5:3; Ezra 7:1).[5] Each course served one week twice annually, plus such additional weeks necessary to fill out the year, coming in the evening of the Sabbath (Friday) and going out the evening of the Sabbath (Friday) following.[6] Assuming each course advanced annually to the next station or week in the calendar, the cycle of priestly ministration would be completed in 24 years, at which point it would begin anew.[7]

Rabbinic tradition placing Jehoiarib on service when the temple was destroyed allows us to identify the station in the twenty-four-year cycle. From there we can find when the cycle began. Then, by reckoning backward in twenty-four-year increments to the course preceding the conception of John the Baptist in 3 B.C., we can putatively identify the week and month Zachariah was serving. The number of steps from the first station of Jehoiarib’s second ministration (for the first does not reach so far) to the week of Ab 9 is twenty-one stations. Thus, A.D. 70 was the twenty-first year in the twenty-four-year cycle. To return to the beginning of the cycle we subtract twenty years from A.D. 70, which brings us to A.D. 50. Subtracting twenty-four more years brings us to A.D. 26; this course would therefore have consisted of the years A.D. 26-49. Twenty-four more years brings us to A.D. 2; this course would have consisted of the years A.D. 2-25. 24 years more bring us to 23 B.C. (there was no year zero). This course would have consisted of the years 23 B.C. to 1 A.D.

Counting forward from 23 B.C. to 3 B.C. when John was conceived shows that the course of Abijah would have been serving at its twenty-first station when Gabriel appeared to Zachariah (23 B.C. to 3 B.C. = 21). Assuming Zachariah’s course was in its second ministration, this would mean he was on duty approximately the week of Elul 28-Tishri 5 (Sept. 8-14). We do not know how long after Zachariah’s ministration his wife conceived. Human fertility cycles run about 28 days, during which a woman is fertile only about 7. If we allow that Elizabeth conceived the second week after Zechariah returned home, this would place conception in the week of Tishri 13-19 (Sept. 22-28). Normal human gestation is 38 weeks. A 38-week gestation would place John’s birth the week of Tammuz 21-27 (June 20-26), 2 B.C. Based on statements in Luke, John was about six months older than our Lord (Lk. 1:36, 56). Six months is 26 weeks. Twenty-six weeks from John’s birth brings us to Tebet 25-Shebat 2, which answers to the week of December 22-28.“

The date of Christmas is the date of Our Lord’s birth. Today is truly the birthday of Jesus Christ. Don’t believe the satanic propaganda that Christmas is just a re-branded pagan festival. The Church has known from day one exactly when Our Lord was born, because The Blessed Virgin Mary, Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all Graces, and Queen of Heaven and Earth is also Mother of the Church, and, the Mother of God. She knew when He was born, and she TOLD everyone when he was born, and St. Luke cited it in reference to St. Zachary’s conversation with Gabriel inside the Holy of Holies in September of 3 B.C. John the Baptist was conceived a few weeks later, and Our Lord was conceived six months later on 25 March, John the Baptist was born on the 24th of June, and Our Lord on December 25th, 15 1/2 months after Gabriel and Zachary’s talk, during his Temple Service in the Second Ministration of the Course of Abijah. Just as St. Luke said in his Gospel.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Lord Jesus, King and God and Sacrifice.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay,
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And take us to heaven to live with Thee there.

The Fourth Reading from the Second Nocturne of Matins of Christmas.

From the Sermons of Pope St. Leo (the Great)

Dearly beloved brethren, Unto us is born this day a Savior, Luke 2: 11.

Let us rejoice. It would be unlawful to be sad to day, for today is Life’s Birthday; the Birthday of that Life, Which, for us dying creatures, taketh away the sting of death, and bringeth the bright promise of the eternal gladness hereafter. It would be unlawful for any man to refuse to partake in our rejoicing. All men have an equal share in the great cause of our joy, for, since our Lord, Who is the destroyer of sin and of death, findeth that all are bound under the condemnation, He is come to make all free. Rejoice, O thou that art holy, thou drawest nearer to thy crown! Rejoice, O thou that art sinful, thy Saviour offereth thee pardon! Rejoice also, O thou Gentile, God calleth thee to life! For the Son of God, when the fulness of the time was come, which had been fixed by the unsearchable counsel of God, took upon Him the nature of man, that He might reconcile that nature to Him Who made it, and so the devil, the inventor of death, is met and beaten in that very flesh which hath been the field of his victory.

The phrase “God rest ye merry, gentlemen” is totally misunderstood by modern ears, due to the shift in the meaning of the word “rest”, which any student of a modern Romance language will know means “keep” or “remain”. (‘Rester’ in French, ‘restare’ in Italian, ‘restāre’ in Latin).  So in this case, “rest” in English means to “keep”, “cause to remain”, or simply, “make” in the modern parlance.  It does NOT mean ‘take a nap’ in this context.

“Merry” is also misheard by the modern ear as “happy”.  No, no.  Merry in early modern English means “mighty” or “great”.  Armies were described as “merry”.  As were Robin Hood’s men (saving discussion of the Robin Hood motif and its wicked socialist message for another time.)

And finally, the little comma.  Punctuation saves lives, folks.  I’ve said it for years.  (“Let’s eat Grandma!” vs. “Let’s eat, Grandma!”)

The modern ear, having misunderstood the meaning of the verb “rest” misplaces the comma thusly:

God rest ye, merry Gentlemen.

God let you take a nap, happy men.  Um… NO.

The proper placement of the comma is AFTER “merry”:

God rest ye merry, Gentlemen.

God make you great and mighty, Men!

With this in mind, let us enjoy anew this lovely Christmas Carol.  Sing along!

And, again, a blessed and very MIGHTY Christ’s Mass to you all!

Almost there! Halls being decked!

In addition to being the Fourth Sunday of Advent, today is the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle! This is the last Feast before Christmas.

John 20: 19-31

At that time, when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews, Jesus came, and stood in the midst and said to them: Peace be to you. And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you. When He had said this, He breathed on them, and He said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them: 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. And after eight days, again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you. Then He saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see My hands, and bring hither thy hand, and put into My side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said to Him: my Lord and my God. Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed. Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, you may have life in His Name.

Here’s an amazing tidbit from Fr. Z. In the original Greek, the word for “hand” actually sometimes refers to the hand plus the wrist plus the lower forearm. In Ancient Greek, when you are speaking of just the hand proper, additional words can be added to make that precision. Given this, the reality of what exactly happened to St. Thomas might be far, far more intense that what we imagine.

Our Lord has breathed upon the other ten Apostles, minus the absent Thomas, thus imparting the Holy Ghost upon them, and giving them all the power of binding and loosing, thus instituting the Sacrament of Confession.

Then, Our Lord appears to them again on the eighth day, and Thomas arrives, and puts his fingers into the finger-sized nail holes in Our Lord’s hands. Then he puts what the Greek indicates is his entire hand, wrist and lower forearm all the way into the lance wound made by Longinus in Our Lord’s thoracic cavity, at Our Lord’s command.

It is conceivably possible that Our Lord breathed the Holy Ghost upon Thomas WHILE THOMAS WAS HOLDING OUR LORD’S LUNG IN HIS HAND, and that Thomas literally touched Our Lord’s BEATING SACRED HEART, and PALPATED THE STAB WOUND in Our Lord’s Sacred Heart.

Now, consider being Thomas and doing this, but also consider being one of the other Apostles standing there watching this happen, watching Thomas stick his hand and forearm into Our Lord’s side.

And if you’re thinking to yourself, “That isn’t possible…”, well, neither is walking through walls. The resurrected body of Our Lord is in an entirely different category. It isn’t held to the laws of the physical universe that bind us as we await our resurrection that He purchased for us.

People wonder why and how the Apostles were able to do what they did, and all but John were killed for the faith, and John was miraculously prevented from being killed, despite multiple efforts. Well, I reckon if we saw one of our friends stick his hand into Our Lord’s thoracic cavity up to the forearm, hold His breathing lung, and touch His Sacred Heart, we might be… confirmed and quickened, to put it mildly.

Click over and read Fr. Z’s full piece.

So, Happy Feast of St. Thomas! I hope you never think of it quite the same way again.

St. Thomas, pray for us.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us, on the Petrine See, unnecessarily vacant these 1086 days and counting, and on Your One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel” isn’t the only Advent hymn.

I’m willing to bet that you have heard the achingly gorgeous “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”. The melody that we use today is called “Picardy”, a French medieval folk melody, but the hymn is ANCIENT, from the earliest days of the Holy Catholic Church. The words are from the Cherubic Hymn (sung at the Offertory) of the ANCIENT Rite of St. James the Less, son of Alphaeus, Apostle, Bishop of Jerusalem, and cousin of Our Lord. We’re talking the first DECADES after Our Lord’s Passion, Resurrection and Ascension. St. James the Less, Bishop of Jerusalem, was martyred in ARSH 62, and this is from his Rite.

The title comes from Habakkuk 2: 20.

When is the last time you quoted Habakkuk?

But the Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.
Dominus autem in templo sancto suo : sileat a facie ejus omnis terra!

Here are the Benedictine nuns of Gower, Missouri, the selfsame community founded by Mother Wilhelmina Lancaster, found incorrupt two years ago, singing this exquisite Advent hymn off their CD, which I recommend that everyone have in their collection. These nuns truly give us all a foretaste of heaven with their pure, clear voices.

Please do contemplate these heart-rending verses as the Sisters’ voices draw us nearer to heaven, and to Our Eucharistic Lord even now, during this all-too-brief season of Advent.

Mother Wilhelmina Lancaster, pray for me, pray for us.

Lord Jesus Christ, in the crib, on the Cross, and in the Most Holy Eucharist, have mercy on us.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly-minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the Body and the Blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His Own Self for heav’nly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the pow’rs of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six-winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the Presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
“Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!”

(Given the filth we find ourselves involuntarily immersed in as the Prevostian Antipapacy and the Antichurch infiltrating and occupying the Vatican descends into a full, open manifestation of its true satanic nature, I think this piece is particularly apropos for this Advent and Christmas. I think it might help folks be able to process how Infinite, Perfect Love, Goodness, Truth and Beauty can come down on the Altar at every Mass, and stay reposed in all the tabernacles of the world despite everything.

Please accept my deepest, warmest wishes for a happy and holy ARSH 2025 Advent and Christmastide to one and all, and my undying gratitude to all of my benefactors and supporters. HANG IN THERE!)

“This day you will know that The Lord will come, and save us: and in the morning you shall see His glory.  Alleluia, Alleluia. Tomorrow shall the iniquity of the earth shall be abolished: and the Savior of the world shall reign over us. Alleluia.”)

In my video in which I burned the Koran, I bookmarked the various pages with strips of raw bacon. Why did I do this? Is it because I actually believed that I was thumbing my nose at a non-existent pagan moon deity? Nope. People, there is NO SUCH THING AS “ALLAH”, so therefore what sense would it make for me to “offend” or “bait” a non-existent entity?

And a book is just a book. The paper is made out of tree cellulose and the ink is made out of petroleum and probably some sort of soy derivative. The bacon itself was composed of muscle tissue, fat tissue and connective tissue. The components of these tissues are water, protein, fatty acids and collagen. Break it down further and we’re talking carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in various configurations. Touching a piece of bacon, or any piece of pork or pigskin to a book does not result in anything except making a bit of a greasy mess of the book. No pagan moon deity is roused from slumber and filled with murderous wrath. Do you know why? Because THERE IS NO PAGAN MOON DEITY.

So why did I bookmark my koran with bacon? Because it was WITTY. Because it pointed up the absurdity of the West’s groveling before musloid superstitions – specifically the U.S. Military’s rules and protocol for handling korans, namely handling with the right hand only, and preferably with the hand or hands gloved.

Yeah, because the people who actually use toilet paper and DON’T wipe their butts with their bare left hands are the ones with the “dirty hands”. You betcha, General Petraeus.

Question: Why don’t we issue the gloves that our military are supposed to wear when handling korans to the musloids themselves, and then the musloids can use the gloves to wipe their butts, and then won’t have to go through life with feces-encrusted metacarpi? Is it just me, or does that not make a LOT more sense? I was going to crack wise at this point about “exiting the Stone Age”, but you know, I don’t think Stone Age peoples wiped their bottoms with their bare hands. I think they used vegetation.

This is also why I don’t go for any of the “shoot the musloids with pork bullets” stuff. Whether or not a bullet was coated in pork blood or grease has nothing to do with anything, and I really don’t think that it is healthy or constructive for Christendom to stoop to the level of musloid superstitious stupidity by giving any credence to these ridiculous myths.

Pork grease doesn’t condemn people to hell. “allah” doesn’t condemn people to hell. There is no “allah”. People, at the end of the day, send themselves to hell through their rejection of Jesus Christ manifested in their deeds and choices in this life. Yes, Christ is the Judge of all man and their deeds, but His Mercy is also infinite and available to all men. Men go to hell because they reject Christ and His Infinite Mercy. Whether or not a person was in physical contact with pork or a pork byproduct at the moment of death is utterly meaningless.

I run into this kind of foolishness amongst Christians fairly regularly (insomuch as some of these sects, which, let’s face it, are so utterly far afield that they can’t really be considered Christian in any honest sense, even though Our Lord’s name and a cross may be displayed prominently on the neon sign out front). I had a client tell me once that anyone who is cremated goes to hell because there has to be a body to be resurrected at the Final Judgment. If there is no body to resurrect, the person is disqualified from Christ’s Mercy and isn’t “saved”. Period. No matter what. Even if the person didn’t want to be cremated, or was burned to ash in a fire or plane crash or in war.

Riiiiiiiiight. Because GOD ALMIGHTY is completely hamstrung by the physical laws of the universe. He has no power over matter or energy. He knits every person together in their mother’s womb, cell by cell, molecule by molecule, atom by atom, but He can’t put a person back together. Riiiiight. And so, for example, all of the people who were killed in the jets that hit the World Trade Center and were incinerated just go straight to hell no matter what, just because their bodies were incinerated, nothing else withstanding, according to these geniuses. Because the same Jesus that they claim to love and know so well would do that. Nah, it doesn’t matter what anyone did, believed or professed in life. Nah. If you’re on a plane that gets flown into a skyscraper you’re hellbound and down because your body was involuntarily cremated. And that goes for all of the soldiers and pilots who have been killed in war and had their bodies burned to ash. Sorry, boys! Infinite love and power only goes so far!

This is what happens when the true magisterial teaching authority of the Catholic Church is removed through schism and heresy, or internal infiltration. Things get extremely stupid in a big hurry.

Here is a little rule of thumb I use to help me think through such questions: GOD IS SMART, SO DON’T EVER TREAT HIM LIKE HE IS STUPID.

ONLY PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT THEY ARE SMARTER THAN GOD HATE HIM (or, for that matter, love Him like He is a golden retriever) FOR BEING “STUPID”.

Do you see how this ties back to the musloid pork superstitions? Islam is intrinsically stupid because its founders and especially its followers were and are stupid, and so it is not surprising that the musloid fake deity, “allah”, is also stupid. This also goes for the Mormon cult and the Scientology racket.  Same dynamic.

The musloids’ argument is that if a soldier fighting in jihad for “allah” should be shot with a pork-laced bullet, he goes to hell – even though he had no control whatsoever over the pork bullet or his death. Because the allegedly all-powerful “allah” is powerless against the crazy magic voodoo ju-ju of . . . pork products. See how that works? It’s called stupid. Slackjawed, mouthbreathing stupid.

And now a name and event that every single person should know: Thomas Vander Woude. On September 8, ARSH 2008 Thomas Vander Woude, aged 66, was working in his back yard with his seventh and youngest child, Joseph. “Josie” was 20 years old at the time, and did everything with his Dad. Josie was born with Down Syndrome. After finishing up cleaning the family’s swimming pool, Josie walked through the back yard toward his Dad who was also doing yard work. When Josie stepped on the 2X2 foot cover of their septic tank, the cover collapsed and Josie fell into the nearly-full, eight-foot deep tank. Thomas saw this and immediately ran over to the tank. He tried to pull the panicked Josie out, but couldn’t. Thomas Vander Woude then slipped himself into the septic tank to help his son. A workman who was at their house at the time saw what happened and told Mrs. Vander Woude who called 911 immediately. Both the workman and Mrs. Vander Woude then ran outside to help. Thomas was in the tank, treading the sewage, trying to lift Josie up so that the workman and his wife could get a grasp on him and lift him out. It wasn’t working.

Thomas Vander Woude then made the decision to take his last breath on this earth, dove under the surface of the sewage and pinned himself under his son so that Josie’s head was above the surface and he could breathe until the rescue crews arrived. Thomas Vander Woude drowned, without struggling, in human sewage saving the life of his developmentally disabled son. His last moments were in the total blackness of the bottom of a septic tank, with a combination of urine, feces and wastewater rushing into his mouth, down his windpipe and into his lungs. I am hard-pressed to imagine a more physically filthy demise. Or a more terribly beautiful one. The tears that are welling up in your eyes right about now are the proof of that.

So, what do you think? Was Thomas Vander Woude’s death “ritually clean”? How do you think a musloid imam would address this situation if put before him hypothetically? Do you think that “allah” would allow a man into “paradise” who drowned in human sewage saving a son that islam considers to be non-human and would have been murdered at birth? But then, there is no “allah”, only a sick, twisted political cult comprised of sick, twisted, perverted men. And Satan squealing with satisfaction.

Christ, on the other hand, is Real. Not only is He real, but He was there, in the septic tank with Thomas Vander Woude. Christ knows all about diving into tanks of shit, because that is exactly what He did for us. He was literally born in shit, in a cave that acted as a shelter for livestock. The floors were covered in shit, as were the walls. Don’t think that wasn’t symbolic and carefully planned by Him. You don’t think He could have worked it out so that there was one room left at the inn? Sure He could have – but He specifically chose the shit. He chose the shit because humanity fell into the septic tank, and we are all, every single one of us, drowning in our own shit. We just call it “sin”. We ourselves are not shit – shit is merely the byproduct of our sins, which we freely choose, but it isn’t what we are and it certainly isn’t how we were made, nor what we are intended to be.

The funny thing is, most of us don’t feel Jesus underneath us, holding us up. It just feels like we are standing on a solid base. You know why? Because like Thomas Vander Woude, Our Blessed Lord isn’t struggling. He isn’t squirming or flailing as He sucks our shit into his lungs. He’s just down there, supporting us, holding us up, drowning in our shit, with more solidity than the foundations of the earth, so that we can have life and have a chance to be saved. I reckon the challenge in day-to-day life is to never delude one’s self into thinking that we are standing on the bottom of the tank and holding ourselves up. We aren’t. That’s Our Blessed Lord down there, whether or not we perceive it, or even believe it.

Remember this the next time you hear some musloid waxing philosophical on ritually clean death and admission criteria to “allah’s paradise”. And don’t belittle Christ, His Incarnation and His Sacrifice by encouraging such stupidity of thought. The fates of men’s souls aren’t trivia, and it sure as heck isn’t a game of tag played with pork products. Shooting someone with a pork-coated bullet doesn’t make you the judge of mankind, determining who goes to hell and who doesn’t. That task belongs to Christ and Christ alone, since it is Christ and Christ alone who has willingly drowned in the shit of every human being. And for that we should feel nothing but gratitude, and we should manifest that gratitude every day of our life.

—————————————–

**The word “shit” is used very intentionally and without apology in order to convey the brutal reality and enormousness of the Incarnation and Passion. People used to understand this – before Superfun Rockband church, and, let’s just say it, the Novus Ordo, utterly riddled with sodomites, turned Christianity into an effeminate, intellectually insipid pablum of narcissistic self-absorption, materialism, sentimentality and mind-numbingly bad “entertainment”.

Thomas and Josie Vander Woude.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/266401/diocese-investigates-sainthood-cause-of-virginia-father-tom-vander-woude-who-saved-son

It’s getting to be that time for the traditional viewing of “Scrooge” from ARSH 1951. With the recent push for so-called “Noahide Laws” which would categorize significant portions of the Bible and the Holy Mass and any proselytizing of Jews as “antisemitic hate speech”, this piece hits even harder this year. Let us pray with Holy Mother Church:

“…for the faithless Jews: that Almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts; so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Almighty and eternal God, who dost not exclude from thy mercy even Jewish faithlessness: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.“

I have written on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” before, but it has been several years, and I think a recapitulation is in order given current events.

The ARSH 1951 film “Scrooge” starring Alastair Sim is the definitive film version of “A Christmas Carol”.  It is traditional viewing for me on Christmas Eve night, and has been since childhood.  For those of you with any ties to the Kansas City area, the old independent Channel 41 would show “Scrooge” at 10:00pm on Christmas Eve annually, followed by either Luciano Pavarotti’s ARSH 1978 Christmas concert, or (sigh) the non-Christian Mormon choir singing Christmas Carols.

But “A Christmas Carol” took on a whole new life and depth of meaning for me when, after my in-depth study of Diabolical Narcissism several years ago, I realized that the reason why “A Christmas Carol” is such a compelling story, is because it depicts an all-out miracle.  The “transformation” of Ebeneezer Scrooge is nothing less than the supernatural healing of a full-blown Diabolical Narcissist psychopath.

The pre-conversion Scrooge character is a classic DN.  He is a cerebral narcissist – highly successful in his profession, a miser, caring for nothing but “his work” – which just happens to be usury (Usury? In London? Nooo….), sitting alone in his room every night, lovelessly single, devoid of human empathy, haughty, critical and disdainful of everyone and everything, looking down on and actively resentful of normal, loving people – embodied by his clark, whom he psychologically abuses, Bob Cratchit, and his family.

Love, joy, gratitude and generosity disgust and enrage Scrooge. He hates occasions of happiness, and actively seeks to disrupt and destroy them, especially holidays.  The people around him walk on eggshells to his face – but either pity or dislike him behind his back.  In the “Ghost of Christmas Future” act, Scrooge is genuinely surprised to discover that almost everyone is glad that he is dead – the exception being Bob Cratchit himself, the most direct recipient of Scrooge’s abuse.  Bob Cratchit is thus a metaphor for Christ.

Not only does “A Christmas Carol” firmly establish in its opening act the total lovelessness of Scrooge, the total self-purgation of all charity from his soul, but it even shows HOW IT HAPPENED, and the exact moment when Scrooge made the conscious choice to expel all love from his soul and to never love again.

That moment happens when young Scrooge’s beloved sister, Fan, dies in childbirth.  Ebeneezer Scrooge’s mother, it is revealed, also died in childbirth, and Scrooge’s father blamed him for her death, and “never forgave him”, abusing him, and them sending him away.  As is so common, Scrooge, already wounded, repeated the very error of his father and blamed Fan’s newborn infant son for her death.  Even worse, Scrooge, whether implicitly or explicitly, also declared war on God – Love Himself – by rejecting love and consciously emptying himself of it.  The very moment of this decision is shown at the 32:54 timestamp.

Immediately, Scrooge descends into psychopathic usury, and, as we have discussed, even descends into that horrific sexual perversion – ASEXUALITY, by dumping his fiancée and living a life of LOVELESS, MISERABLE, ELITIST SOLITUDE.  Even his only “friend”, Jacob Marley, he held in indifference and even contempt.

The other point here which is TOTALLY lost on the modern world is the fact that EBENEEZER is quite possibly the most HEBREW name ever, and that EVERYONE understood when Dickens wrote the book that Scrooge was one of the many JEWISH USURERS in London.  So, this story isn’t merely about the healing of the heart of a miserable old narcissist, A Christmas Carol is the story of the miraculous conversion to Christianity of a JEW.

The story closes with the words, “And it was always said that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”

That, friends, means that Ebeneezer Scrooge, an ethnic Jew and atheist (as almost all ethnic Jews today are), received baptism and became a believing Christian.  It is left to the reader to understand that the Cratchit Family were his “sponsors” in this.  It is also obliquely implied at the beginning of the story that Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, married a Christian girl – “it was the making of me”, and thus invites Scrooge to their home for Christmas dinner.

So, if you can spare the time this year, do sit down and watch this, and see if the “Christmas morning” scene wherein Scrooge is miraculously healed of his Diabolical Narcissism, and radiates genuine love and joy, doesn’t pack a bit more of a punch.  Because for a Diabolical Narcissist psychopath to be thus healed is a greater miracle than levitation, bilocation, or most any other physical miracle.

A Merry Christmas to one and all!  God bless you, everyone!

This day you shall know that the Lord will come, and save us: and in the morning you shall see His glory.

Happy Gaudete Sunday!

Here is the Communion Verse of Gaudete Sunday, one of my favorite Communion Verses of the entire year:

Isaiah 35:4

Say to those who are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is our God, He comes to save us.

Ann’s Mulled White Wine

(Scale up in proportion. Make WAY more than you THINK you’ll need.)

2 bottles dry white wine
2 VERY healthy sloshes Cointreau or Grand Marnier – Orange Liqueur
Dark brown sugar (start with 1/3 cup)
Honey (to taste)
Star Anise
Cinnamon
Whole Cloves
Nutmeg
Ginger

Warm it up. Ladle it into heat-proof vessels.  I am personally using copper mugs (usually deployed in the summer for Mule drinks of all kinds – Moscow, London and Messico.)

And here’s a joyful musical interlude: “Christmas Is Coming” off the Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack. This song is Advent Compliant. Remember, it’s not Christmas yet… but it’s coming! Enjoy!

St. Lucy, stabbed in the neck with a sword and holding her own gouged-out eyeballs.

(Abridged from the Acts of St. Lucy, pre-7th Century.)

The glorious virgin and martyr St. Lucy, one of the brightest ornaments of the church of Sicily, was born of honourable and wealthy parents in the city of Syracusa, and educated from her cradle in the faith of Christ. She lost her father in her infancy, but Eutychia, her mother, took singular care to furnish her with tender and sublime sentiments of piety and religion. By the early impressions which Lucy received and the strong influence of divine grace, Lucy discovered no disposition but toward virtue, and she was yet very young when she offered to God the flower of her virginity. This vow, however, she kept a secret, and her mother, who was a stranger to it, pressed her to marry a young gentleman who was a pagan. The saint sought occasions to hinder this design from taking effect, and her mother was visited with a long and troublesome flux of blood, under which she laboured four years without finding any remedy by recourse to physicians. At length she was persuaded by her daughter to go to Catana and offer up her prayers to God for relief at the tomb of St. Agatha. St. Lucy accompanied her thither, and their prayers were successful.

Hereupon our saint disclosed to her mother her desire of devoting herself to God in a state of perpetual virginity, and of bestowing her fortune on the poor: and Eutychia, in gratitude, left her at full liberty to pursue her pious inclinations. The young nobleman, with whom the mother had treated about marrying her, came to understand this by the sale of her jewels and goods, and the distribution of the price among the poor, and in his rage accused her before the governor Paschasius as a Christian, the persecution of Diocletian then raging with the utmost fury. The judge commanded the holy virgin to be exposed to prostitution in a brothel house; but God rendered her immovable, so that the guards were not able to carry her thither. He also made her an over-match for the cruelty of the persecutors, in overcoming fire and other torments. After a long and glorious combat she died in prison of the wounds she had received,—about the year 304….

It is a matter of the greatest consequence what ideas are stamped upon the ductile minds of children, what sentiments are impressed on their hearts, and to what habits they are first formed. Let them be inured to little denials both in their will and senses, and learn that pleasures which gratify the senses must be guarded against, and used with great fear and moderation: for by them the taste is debauched, and the constitution of the soul broken and spoiled much more fatally than that of the body can be by means contrary to its health.

There are few Lucys nowadays among Christian ladies, because sensuality, pride, and vanity are instilled into their minds by the false maxims and pernicious example of those with whom they first converse. Alas I unless a constant watchfulness and restraint both produce and strengthen good habits, the inclinations of our souls lean of their own accord toward corruption.

–(Taken from Vol. III of “The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints” by the Rev. Alban Butler.)

St. Lucy, pray for us.

Christ, have mercy on us.