Volume VII/Issue 10/January 2023

Canceling Christmas, the War Continues

If the Left had its way, there would be no Christmas, no Easter and no Thanksgiving. If they had their way, anything related to Jesus would be canceled. In fact, [in] a…memo…in King County in Washington State, the [city] of Seattle…the…Department of Human Resources…write[s]: “Some employees may not share your religion, practice any religion, or share your enthusiasm for holiday decorations. Displays of religious symbols may only be displayed in an employee’s personal workspace. Religious symbols should not be displayed in or as a background to an employee’s virtual workspace.”… Talk host Jason Rantz adds… “You can celebrate LGBT Pride and wear a Black Lives Matter button throughout your day as a King County employee. But you better not show a nativity set or menorah on your digital workspace or your home office.”

Educators “Know Better Than Anyone” What Kids “Need to Learn,” Says Teachers’ Union

The largest national teachers’ union in the country took to social media…to reaffirm its contempt for parents and taxpayers. In a… tweet, the National Education Association (NEA) suggested that the same people who advocated for stultifying school closures, masking and the use of experimental vaccines in children “know better than anyone.”… The NEA represents three million “educators,” including public school teachers, staffers at colleges and universities and aspiring indoctrinaires. More than just a teachers’ union, the NEA is a partisan force that doesn’t simply seek to “advance the cause of public education,” but supports abortion; amnesty for illegal aliens; gun bans; race-based admissions and hiring; LGBTQ activist-dictated pronoun use; statehood for the District of Columbia; making race the crux of all educational considerations; and BLM.… The NEA gave $6.1 million to the New Jersey Education Association, which took out attack ads on parents who were critical of critical race and gender theories.

SCOTUS Hears Free Speech Case for Creative Web Designer

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments…regarding a Denver-area website designer subject to a Colorado state law that censors and coerces the speech of creative professionals whose religious beliefs do not conform to state accepted beliefs. …Colorado native Lorie Smith…creates unique and beautiful websites for her clients and started her business in 2012 to exercise creative freedom. Smith serves everyone but cannot use her design skills and creativity to express messages that violate her deeply held religious beliefs. However, under Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act, Smith could be punished simply for offering to create websites only celebrating weddings consistent with her beliefs that marriage is between one man and one woman. In addition, the law acts as a gag order that prevents Smith from expressing on her website the reasons why she only creates messages celebrating certain ideas. Ironically, Colorado’s public accommodation law allows secular artists but not religious ones like Smith to make “message-based refusals.”… In the amicus brief, Liberty Counsel presents the fact that artistic expression is pure speech that is fully protected by the First Amendment and must be protected from censorship or compulsion, particularly when the message is an unpopular one.  

The Funny Pharmacy

The Pope Speaks: Pope St. Gregory the Great

The Visit of the Magi

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is the king of the Jews who has just been born? For we have seen his star in the east, and come to worship him." Hearing this, King Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Bringing together all the princes of the priests and the scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, as it was written by the prophet," And you, Bethlehem, the land of Judah, you are certainly not the least of the cities of Judah, for from you will come the leader who will lead my people Israel. "Then Herod, having called the wise men in secret, learned from them the precise moment when the star had appeared to them, and sending them to Bethlehem, he said to them," Go and inquire carefully about child, and when you find it, tell it to me, so that I, too, may go and adore it."

After hearing the king, they went away. And behold, the star which they had seen in the east was before them, until it stopped above the place where the child was. At the sight of the star, they were filled with great joy. And when they came into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother; and worshiping, they worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him a gift of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they returned to their country by another way.

As you have just heard, dear brothers, in the gospel read to us, a king of the earth was troubled at the birth of the King of Heaven. For earthly greatness is confounded when heavenly majesty is revealed.

We must look for why it was an angel who appeared to the shepherds in Judea at the birth of the Redeemer, while it was not an angel, but a star who led the wise men from the East to worship him. This comes from the fact that the Jews knowing how to use their reason, it is a reasonable living being, here an angel, who was to inform them. The pagans, on the contrary, who did not know how to use their reason, are brought to the knowledge of the Lord, not by words, but by signs. Hence Paul's words: "Prophecies are given to believers, not to unbelievers, signs to unbelievers, not to believers" (1 Cor 14:22). The prophecies are given to the first as believers, not unbelievers. And it is as unbelievers that the second, unbelievers, receive signs.

It should also be noted that the preaching of the Apostles to these Gentiles is about our Redeemer reaching adulthood, while the announcement to the Gentiles by a star concerns Jesus little child, who still does not use his human body to speak . It was well in keeping with the reason that the preachers make known to us by their words the Lord when He spoke, and that the elements preach Him by their silence when He did not speak yet.

2. But in all the signs that marked the birth and death of the Lord, we must consider the hardness of heart of certain Jews, since neither the grace of the prophecies nor the miracles made them recognize the Lord. For all the elements have attested the coming of their Creator. And to speak of it in the manner of men, the heavens recognized in him their God, since they hastened to send him a star. The sea has recognized it, which offered itself at its feet as a solid path (see Mt 14:25). The earth recognized it, it trembled when the Lord died (see Mt 27:51). The sun has recognized him, which is the rays of his light (Mt 27:45). The rocks and the walls recognized him, they who split at the moment of his death (Mt 27: 51). Hell finally recognized him, he who returned the dead he held (see Mt 27, 52). And yet, the one whom all insensible elements have perceived as their Lord, the hearts of Jews still unfaithful do not recognize him as their God, and harder than stones, they do not wish to open themselves to repentance; they refuse to confess the one whom the elements, as we have said, have proclaimed God by the prodigies or the lacerations with which they have been the object.

The culmination of their guilt is that the one they despise once born, they learned long ago that it would be born. And they knew not only that he would be born, but also where he would be born. When questioned by Herod, they point out to him the place of the birth of the Savior, whom they learned through the authority of Scripture. And they put forward the proof that Bethlehem was appointed for the honor of seeing the birth of the new king, so that their knowledge becomes for them a cause of condemnation, at the same time as it brings relief to our faith. Isaac, blessing his son Jacob, well symbolized these Jews, who, though blind, prophesied: he did not see his son in the present moment, but foresaw for him many things in the future; just as the Jewish people, who were filled with the spirit of prophecy, but blind, did not recognize in the present moment the one whom he had predicted so much for the future.

3. Once the birth of our King is known, Herod resorts to trickery for fear of being deprived of his earthly kingdom. He asks to be told where the child will have been found; he pretends to want to worship him, with the intention of killing him if he can find him. But what can human malice do against a divine project? For it is written, "There is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is no plan against the Lord" (Pr 21, 30). Indeed, the star appeared to the magi leads them; they find the newly born King, offer him presents, and are warned in a dream that they must not return to Herod. Thus it happens that Herod can not find that Jesus he seeks. He represents in his person the hypocrites, who, pretending to seek the Lord, never get to find him.

4. In this regard, it must be known that according to the Priscillian heretics, every man is born under the sign of a star. To support their mistake, they rely on the fact of the new star that arose when the Lord appeared in the flesh, and they think that this star thus appeared has settled its destiny. But let us weigh the words our gospel uses about this star: "Until it stopped above the place where the child was." Since it is not the child who ran to the star, but well, if we can say, the star to the child, it is not the star that fixed the destiny of the child, but this newborn child who stared at the fate of the star. That the faithful, however, exclude from their minds that there is a destiny. For life is governed only by the one Creator who gave it to men. Man was not created because of the stars, but the stars because of the man. Thus, to say that a star fixes the fate of a man is to pretend that man is under the power of his own slaves. When Jacob, at the exit of the maternal breast, held his brother's foot in his hand, so that the first to be born could come out completely, the next one had to start doing it. And yet, although both of their mothers gave birth at exactly the same time, their lives were all different.

5. But to this, astrologers are accustomed to reply that the influence of a star acts at a very precise moment. We reply that the time of a birth is long. So if the appearance of the sky changes every moment, they will have to give a new horoscope for each part of the body of the newborn.

Astrologers are also accustomed to say that one who is born under the sign of Aquarius is destined by lot to exercise in this life the job of fisherman. It seems, however, that there are no fishermen in Gétulie. Who will pretend that where there is no fisherman, no one is born under the sign of Aquarius? Astrologers still insist that children born under the sign of Libra are future bankers; but many countries and peoples do not have bankers. It is therefore necessary for them to recognize, either that this sign of the zodiac is missing from them, or that its supposed effect is not fatal. On the other hand, among the Persians and the Franks, the transmission of royalty is hereditary. Who can tell how many other children are born as slaves at exactly the same instant as this or that king? And yet the sons of kings born under the same star as their slaves enter the crown, while those slaves begotten at the same time will die in their servitude. We said all this briefly about the star, so as not to appear to be silenced without refuting the stupidity of astrologers.

6. Magi offer gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold suited a king well; incense was presented to God as a sacrifice; and it is with myrrh that one embalms the bodies of the deceased. The magi proclaim, by their symbolic gifts, who they are worshiping. Here is gold: it is a king; here is the incense: it is a God; here is myrrh: he is a mortal. There are heretics who believe in his divinity without believing that his reign extends everywhere. They offer him good incense, but do not want to offer him gold too. There are others who recognize his kingship but deny his divinity. They offer him gold, but refuse to offer him the incense. Others finally confess both his divinity and his kingship, but deny that he has assumed mortal flesh. These offer him gold and incense, but do not want to offer him myrrh, symbol of the mortal condition he has assumed. For us, offer gold to the Lord who has just been born, confessing that he reigns in all places; offer him incense, recognizing that he who appeared in time was God before all times; offer him myrrh, recognizing that he whom we believe to be impassive in his divinity has also become mortal in assuming our flesh.

But gold, frankincense and myrrh can also be understood differently. Gold symbolizes wisdom, as Solomon testifies: "A desirable treasure lies in the mouth of the wise man" (Pr 21, 20, from the Septuagint). Incense burned in honor of God designates the power of prayer, as the psalmist testifies: "Let my prayer rise before your face like incense." (Ps 141: 2). As for myrrh, it represents the mortification of our flesh; so the holy Church says, concerning her servants fighting for God until death: "My hands have distilled myrrh" (Ct 5, 5). To the newly born king, therefore, we offer gold if we shine before it the brilliance of wisdom from above. We offer incense if, in the holy ardor of our prayer, we consume our carnal thoughts on the altar of our heart, thus allowing our desires of Heaven to spread for God their pleasant odor. We offer myrrh if we mortify the vices of the flesh by abstinence. For myrrh, as we have said, prevents the dead flesh from rotting. But to enslave this mortal body to luxurious debauchery is to let a dead flesh rot, as the prophet says about certain men: "The beasts of burden have rotten in their dung" (Jl 1, 17). That beasts of burden rot in their manure means that carnal men end their lives in the stench of lust. We offer to God the myrrh when, by the aromatics of our continence, we prevent the lust from making this mortal body rot. 

7. The Magi still give us a very important lesson by returning to their country by another way. Indeed, what they do on the warning they have received tells us what we need to do. Our country is paradise, and once we know Jesus, we are forbidden to return to it by the way we followed in coming. Because we have moved away from our country by pride, disobedience, the pursuit of visible goods and the greed to taste the forbidden foods. But to return to it, one needs tears, obedience, contempt for visible goods and control of the appetites of the flesh. It is therefore by another way that we return to our country, since we are far from the joys of paradise by pleasures, we are brought back by lamentations.

Therefore it is necessary, dear brothers, that always dwelling in fear and always in expectation, we have before our eyes of heart, on the one hand, our guilty actions, and on the other, the extreme rigor of judgment. Consider that the rigorous Judge will come; he threatens us with judgment, but he remains hidden. He strikes sinners with horror, and yet he is still patient. If it differs from coming, it is to find less to condemn. Expose our faults in tears, and in the words of the psalmist, "let us hasten to present ourselves before him by confession" (Ps 95, 2). Let us not take in any of the delusions of pleasure or the seductions of vain joy. Very close, indeed, is the Judge who affirmed: "Woe to you who laugh now, because you will grieve and weep" (Lk 6, 25). Solomon also said, "Laughter will mingle with sorrow, and joy will end in mourning." (Pr 14, 13). And also: "I kept laughing for a mistake, and said to joy: why do you let yourself be trapped?" (Ecc 2, 2). And again: "The heart of the wise is in the place of sorrow, and the heart of fools in the place of joy." (Ecc 7, 4)

Let us have great fear of the commandments of God, in order to celebrate in the truth his solemn feast. For the acceptable sacrifice to God is the pain inspired by sin. The psalmist attests to it: "The sacrifice in honor of God is a contrite spirit" (Ps 51:19). Our past sins have been washed away by baptism; but since then we have committed many others, and we can no longer be washed by baptismal water. Since even after baptism, we have defiled our lives, baptize our conscience with our tears. Thus, we will return our country by another way. Property has removed us by their attraction; that the evils bring us back there by their bitterness, with the help of Our Lord.

St. Francis de Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life

Preparation.

1. PLACE yourself in the Presence of God.
2. Ask Him to inspire your heart.

Considerations.

1. Consider the material gifts God has given you—your body, and the means for its preservation; your health, and all that maintains it; your friends and many helps. Consider too how many persons more deserving than you are without these gifts; some suffering in health or limb, others exposed to injury, contempt and trouble, or sunk in poverty, while God has willed you to be better off.

2. Consider the mental gifts He has given you. Why are you not stupid, idiotic, insane like many you wot of? Again, God has favoured you with a decent and suitable education, while many have grown up in utter ignorance.

3. Further, consider His spiritual gifts. You are a child of His Church, God has taught you to know Himself from your youth. How often has He given you His Sacraments? what inspirations and interior light, what reproofs, He has given to lead you aright; how often He has forgiven you, how often delivered you from occasions of falling; what opportunities He has granted for your soul’s progress! Dwell somewhat on the detail, see how Loving and Gracious God has been to you.

Affections and Resolutions.

1. Marvel at God’s Goodness. How good He has been to me, how abundant in mercy and plenteous in loving-kindness! O my soul, be thou ever telling of the great things the Lord has done for thee!

2. Marvel at your own ingratitude. What am I, Lord, that Thou rememberest me? How unworthy am I! I have trodden Thy Mercies under foot, I have abused Thy Grace, turning it against Thy very Self; I have set the depth of my ingratitude against the deep of Thy Grace and Favour.

3. Kindle your gratitude. O my soul, be no more so faithless and disloyal to thy mighty Benefactor! How should not my whole soul serve the Lord, Who has done such great things in me and for me?

4. Go on, my daughter, to refrain from this or that material indulgence; let your body be wholly the servant of God, Who has done so much for it: set your soul to seek Him by this or that devout practice suitable thereto. Make diligent use of the means provided by the Church to help you to love God and save your soul. Resolve to be constant in prayer and seeking the Sacraments, in hearing God’s Word, and in obeying His inspirations and counsels.

Conclusion.

1. Thank God for the clearer knowledge He has given you of His benefits and your own duty.

2. Offer your heart and all its resolutions to Him.

3. Ask Him to strengthen you to fulfil them faithfully by the Merits of the Death of His Son. OUR FATHER, etc. Gather the little spiritual bouquet.

Saints from East and West

January 14 - Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Saint Augustine, who often urges the authority of 5t Hilary against the Pelagians, styles him "the illustrious doctor of the churches." Saint Jerome says that he was a "most eloquent man, and the trumpet of the Latins against the Arians;" and in another place that "in Saint Cyprian and Saint Hilary, God had transplanted two fair cedars out of the world into His Church."

Saint Hilary was born at Poitiers, and his family was illustrious in Gaul. He himself testifies that he was brought up in idolatry, and gives us a detailed account of the steps by which God conducted him to a knowledge of the faith. He considered, by the light of reason, that man, a moral and free agent, is placed in this world for the exercise of patience, temperance, and other virtues, which he saw must receive a recompense after this life. He ardently set about learning what God is, and quickly discovered the absurdity of polytheism, or a plurality of gods: he was convinced that there can be only one God, and that He must be eternal, unchangeable, all-powerful, the first cause and author of all things. Full of these reflections, he met with the Christian scriptures, and was deeply impressed by that sublime description Moses gives of God in those words, so expressive of His self-existence, I AM WHO AM: and was no less struck with the idea of His supreme dominion, illustrated by the inspired language of the prophets. The reading of the New Testament completed his inquiries; and he learned from the first chapter of Saint John that the Divine Word, God the Son, is coeternal and consubstantial with the Father. Being thus brought to the knowledge of the faith, he received baptism when somewhat advanced in years.

Hilary had been married before his conversion, and his wife, by whom he had a daughter named Apra, was yet living when he was chosen bishop of Poitiers, about the year 350. He did all in his power to escape this promotion; but his humility only made the people more earnest in their choice; and, indeed, their expectations were not disappointed, for his eminent qualities shone forth so brilliantly as to attract the attention not only of Gaul, but of the whole Church. Soon after he was raised to the episcopal dignity he composed, before his exile, a commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew, which is still extant. That on the psalms he compiled after his banishment. From that time the Arian controversy chiefly employed his pen. He was an orator and poet. His style is lofty and noble, with much rhetorical ornament, somewhat studied; and the length of his periods renders him sometimes obscure: Saint Jerome complains of his long and involved sentences and tragic manner - the old rhetorical tradition was not yet dead. Saint Hilary solemnly appeals to God that he accounted it the great work of his life to employ all his faculties to announce Him to the world, and to excite all men to the love of Him. He earnestly recommends beginning every action and discourse by prayer. He breathes a sincere and ardent desire of martyrdom, and discovers a soul fearless of death. He had the greatest veneration for truth, sparing no pains in its pursuit and dreading no dangers in its defence.

The Emperor Constantius and a synod at Milan in 355 required all bishops to sign the condemnation of Saint Athanasius. Such as refused to comply were banished, among whom were Saints Eusebius of Vercelli, Lucifer of Cagliari, and Dionysius of Milan. Saint Hilary wrote on that occasion his "First Book to Constantius," in which he entreated him to restore peace to the Church. He separated himself from the three Arian bishops in the West: Ursacius, Valens, and Saturninus, and the emperor sent an order to Julian, surnamed afterwards the Apostate, who at that time commanded in Gaul, to enforce Saint Hilary's immediate banishment into Phrygia. Saint Hilary went into exile about the middle of the year 356, as cheerfully as another would take a pleasure trip, and recked nothing of hardships, dangers or enemies, having a soul above the smiles and frowns of the world and his thoughts fixed only on God. He remained in exile for some three years, which time he employed in composing several learned works. The principal and most esteemed
of these is that On the Trinity. The earliest Latin hymn-writing is associated with the name of Hilary of Poitiers.

The emperor, again interfering in the affairs of the Church, assembled a council of Arians, at Seleucia in Isauria, to neutralize the decrees of the Council of Nicaea. Saint Hilary, who had then passed three years in Phrygia, was invited thither by the semi-Arians, who hoped that he would be useful to their party in crushing those who adhered strictly to the doctrine of Arius. But no human considerations could daunt his courage. He boldly defended the decrees of Nicaea, till at last, tired out with controversy, he withdrew to Constantinople and presented to the emperor a request, called his "Second Book to Constantius," begging permission to hold a public disputation about religion with Saturninus, the author of his banishment. The issue of this challenge was that the Arians, dreading such a trial, persuaded the emperor to rid the East of a man who never ceased to disturb its peace. Constantius accordingly sent him back into Gaul in 360.

Saint Hilary returned through Illyricum and Italy to confirm the weak. He was received at Poitiers with great demonstrations of joy, and there his old disciple, Saint Martin, ere long rejoined him. A synod in Gaul, convoked at the instance of Hilary, condemned that of Rimini in 359; and Saturninus, proving obstinate, was excommunicated and desposed. Scandals were removed, discipline, peace and purity of faith were restored. The death of Constantius in 361 put an end to the Arian persecution. Saint Hilary was by nature the gentlest of men, full of courtesy and friendliness to all: yet seeing this behaviour ineffectual, he composed an invective against Constantius in which he employed the severest language, probably for good reasons not now known to us. This piece was not circulated till after the death of the emperor. Hilary undertook a journey to Milan in 364 to confute Auxentius, the Arian usurper of that see, and in a public disputation obliged him to confess Christ to be the true God, of the same substance and divinity with the Father. Saint Hilary, indeed, saw through his hypocrisy; but Auxentius so far imposed on the Emperor Valentinian as to pass for orthodox. Hilary died at Poitiers, probably in the year 368.

Advice You Can Bank On

A Catholic Perspective On Finances 

January 2023 – The Parables of the Prodigal Son and the Shrewd Manager (Luke 15:11-29, 16:1-13)

Luke 15: 11-29 describes the parable of the prodigal son. In it, the son who receives half of his father’s wealth uses it wastefully yet is received with welcome arms back to his father when he comes sauntering back, penniless. His father throws him a party, and the son who saved his inheritance is upset to have not had the same treatment.

Luke 16:1-13 is the story of the shrewd manager who is about to be fired for squandering his possessions. Right before he is about to be fired, he makes, what most would consider, a drastic last attempt to “save face” with his master’s debtors – he fraudulently writes them off. The manager’s master compliments him for his shrewdness.

In both of these parables, the focus is not of punishment for squandering and mismanagement, but reward for relationships rekindled, as in the parable of the prodigal son, and of creating friendships in the parable of the shrewd manager. These are somewhat surprising results to acting frivolously.

We have stressed in past articles on proper budgeting, saving for an emergency, and how to make more money if we need to. While all of those things are still true, the overarching theme we are striving for is proper stewardship; what we do with what we are given, while we are here. We are saving to eventually spend, not just for the sake of saving.

It is prudent to have money set aside for an emergency, and as we’ve talked about before, and a good starting amount is about $1000. Most insurance deductibles fall within that range, for example. For larger projects, or for a down payment on a house, however, $1000 wouldn’t be nearly enough. We are called to be a servant to the Lord, not our debtors. “The rich ruleth over the poor: and the borrower is servant to him that lendeth.” (Proverbs 22:7).

We might save for our children’s college, for a home for our family, or for a newer car. In each of these instances, we are saving to spend, and sometimes it’s for the benefit of someone other than ourselves entirely. There is an inherent relationship that is built upon our generosity, or the generosity of others when we give and receive. We are always grateful when receiving as are those who receive. This is especially noticeable this time of year.

In both stories of the prodigal son and the shrewd manager, Jesus does not say that frivolity and wealth is inherently bad. Rather, we see that proper stewardship and good relationships are both things that bring us closer to God – and should we squander ourselves, we should only seek to increase our dependence on God.

“No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13).