George M. Sipe @[email protected]

“The implicit assumption of pro-abortion activists is that the female body is somehow a defective version of the male body — which they take as the norm — and that women can be free and equal only if they are permitted to kill their unborn children. Rather than structuring our laws and forming our culture to foster solidarity and support for women, the pro-abortion movement treats the child as an intruder, a 'parasite,' and a threat to neutralize.”

–Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis

...authors of the forthcoming book: Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing

(found at Catholic Vote)

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

This Christmas morning, John 14:6 stands out to me. It is the point of our Lord's incarnation, the bottom line, and most succinctly and importantly - our call to action.

Give Jesus the birthday present He really wants -- you. In return, you will receive everything.

Remember this at the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The sacrifice we offer to join with our Lord's superabundant, once for all sacrifice is ourselves.

Merry Christmas!

God, who is outside of time, created time for our benefit. It is within time that we get to know Him, choose conversion of heart, grow in holiness, and welcome the love of our Father... or not.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 --
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the LORD swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them.

Anti-Catholicism in political circles is now nuanced on a per-person basis. Decades of "catholic" politicians have proven that Catholicism can be claimed as an identity without interfering whatsoever with political priorities. "Cultural catholicism" (not actual Catholicism) is eased by poor formation, lack of interest and often buoyed by bishops and priests who support the political agenda (don't look to these shepherds to address the cancer of this public scandal).

These bad Catholics, who will oppose the Church with all their heart, and with all their soul, and with all their mind, are politically considered the "good catholics". The faithful Catholics are the hated ones, as prophesied long ago by Isaiah (5:20).

We have reached the point where the most active, determined, relentless anti-Catholics are politicians who call themselves "devout Catholics" (Biden, Pelosi).

This is no deep insight on my part. Everyone knows this (or at least those who actually obey the first commandment).

Crisis has an interesting article on the topic this morning.

https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/choosing-the-presidency-above-catholicism

Cardinal Robert Sarah on gender ideology.

Do you...

- love your politics and wish to change the Church

* OR *

- love the Church and want to change yourself?

In the news, we frequently hear of Catholic politicians (directly or via surrogates) who proudly and loudly call themselves "devout". Several things jump out:

1. Actual, faithful Catholics do not promote themselves as "devout".

2. These same politicians are 100% committed to opposing the true, moral teaching of the Church in many areas (abortion, euthanasia, marriage, gender, trans, worthy reception of sacraments, etc.).

3. They either (a) subordinate Christ and His Church to the idol of politics or (b) believe in an alternate and opposite reality where they can somehow remain in a state of grace despite their enthusiastic immorality.

This is bad because:

1. They are causing great harm to society.

2. They are causing scandal in the Church.

3. They are ransoming their own soul.

Quick question: to whom do atheists cry?

A theory: the anti-Christ is (probably) not among us, but his prophets are.

They are the opposite of God's prophets, and somewhat obvious if you think about it. Consider God's prophets:

- served God
- glorified God
- revealed truth
- suffered
- made straight the path leading to Him
- loved the true God

In contrast, prophets of the anti-Christ:

- serve themselves
- seek their own glory
- sow division and confusion
- benefit personally
- obscure the road to salvation
- despise the true God

These prophets are unwittingly commissioned by Satan. They are political, business, cultural and religious leaders. They love the world above all else and believe they can make it like heaven. In all that they do, the ends justify whatever means are necessary.

There will be more and more of these false prophets. The pressure to travel their wide road will be immense. The penalty for non-compliance will be increasingly brutal.

If you are baptized, you are a prophet of the Lord and called to be His disciple. You can serve or reject that commission. You must choose.

Modern parenting. Clever, actually.

Are you "RIGID"? I am, thank God!

...rigid on the glorious truth of the Kerygma.

...rigid on the infallible truth of the Catholic faith, as taught and practiced through the ages (and in rejection of modernist heresies).

...rigid on the sanctity of all human life - precious from conception to natural death.

...rigid on 2 (and only 2) immutable genders.

...rigid on marriage as a lifelong, indissoluble bond between 1 man and 1 woman.

...rigid on the rejection of false prophets.

What are other common names for such rigid people? Grounded. Well-formed. Steadfast. Orthodox. Faithful.

Today's timely first reading (in part, Jer 23:1-3):

Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD.

Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.

I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadow; there they shall increase and multiply.

Pope Benedict XVI on the Traditional Latin Mass. He was, of course, 100% correct:

"What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful."

I was reflecting this morning on the phrase "all is lost".

It sounds like the most terrible, most dreadful, most hopeless, most painful, circumstance possible. It never is, except for 1 very specific, most crucial point in our lives. That is over the precipice in the unforgivable sin, final impenitence.

For those who reach that point, all is lost indeed. Their choice is made. There are no more second chances.

For those of us who are not at that point today, we may be tomorrow. Today is our second chance. It is our choice to either stay-the-course on the wide road or to amend our lives, benefiting not only in eternity but right now.