Tag Archives: Christmas

End the year with a Te Deum

Editor’s Note: To all my friends and readers here at CatholicCyber-Militia.com (all dozen of you!), it is my prayer that AD 2020–as rough and disastrous as it was–was, in God’s often unknowable Providence, a source of spiritual growth and rich blessing for you and yours.  That being said, I expect there are few people (perhaps outside Beijing and Davos) who are sad to see it go.

2021 is likely to be fraught with more dangers, uncertainty, and persecutions.  The Children of Darkness, as Abp. Viganò has so aptly labeled them, will continual their triumphal march to destruction, hell-bent (literally) as many of the Children of Light with them as possible.  Our task remains the same:  to remain true to the King of Kings until His return in glory.  

2020 is almost done.  Despite all the evil which we’ve seen run rampant, our God and King is still firmly upon His Throne.  We need to celebrate that critical and eternal fact!  You might want to consider ending the year with an extra prayer (if not several).  Might I recommend to you the Te Deum?

The Te Deum, also sometimes called the Ambrosian Hymn because if its association with St. Ambrose, is a traditional hymn of joy and thanksgiving. First attributed to Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, or Hilary, it is now accredited to Nicetas, Bishop of Remesiana (4th century). It is used at the conclusion of the Office of the Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours on Sundays outside Lent, daily during the Octaves of Christmas and Easter, and on Solemnities and Feast Days. The petitions at the end were added at a later time and are optional. A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who recite it in thanksgiving and a plenary indulgence is granted if the hymn is recited publicly on the last day of the year. (CatholicCulture.org)

Below you’ll find the prayer, along with videos offering chanted forms of the prayer in both English and Latin.

Prayer:

O God, we praise Thee, and acknowledge Thee to be the supreme Lord.

Everlasting Father, all the earth worships Thee.

All the Angels, the heavens and all angelic powers,

All the Cherubim and Seraphim, continuously cry to Thee:

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts!

Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy glory.

The glorious choir of the Apostles,

The wonderful company of Prophets,

The white-robed army of Martyrs, praise Thee.

Holy Church throughout the world acknowledges Thee:

The Father of infinite Majesty;

Thy adorable, true and only Son;

Also the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

O Christ, Thou art the King of glory!

Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.

When Thou tookest it upon Thyself to deliver man,

Thou didst not disdain the Virgin’s womb.

Having overcome the sting of death, Thou opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.

Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father.

We believe that Thou willst come to be our Judge.

We, therefore, beg Thee to help Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy Precious Blood.

Let them be numbered with Thy Saints in everlasting glory.

V. Save Thy people, O Lord, and bless Thy inheritance!

R. Govern them, and raise them up forever.

V. Every day we thank Thee.

R. And we praise Thy Name forever, yes, forever and ever.

V. O Lord, deign to keep us from sin this day.

R. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us.

V. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, for we have hoped in Thee.

R. O Lord, in Thee I have hoped; let me never be put to shame.

Prayer Source: Thesaurus Precum Latinarum

Christmas – Abp. Fulton Sheen

Editor’s Note:  Yeah, it’s been a weird year. May God be praised that it is almost over!  We now approach an equally uncertain 2021, but between now and then, we celebrate God’s greatest intervention in human history!  He has intervened many times throughout history to save His people.  May He intervene once more in the affairs of man, and once more we pray that—at this season of Hope and Redemption—that the Divine Assistance may always be with us!  From all of us here at CatholicCyber-Militia.com (that’s me, and occasionally one other guy), may you and your family receive abundant blessings this Christmas!

Blessed Fulton Sheen, pray for us!  Here are some of his thoughts on this most holy of nights, taken from his book Life of Christ:

[E]very other person who ever came into this world came into it to live. He came into it to die. Death was a stumbling block to Socrates — it interrupted his teaching. But to Christ, death was the goal and fulfillment of His life, the gold that He was seeking. Few of His words or actions are intelligible without reference to His Cross. He presented Himself as a Savior rather than merely as a Teacher. It meant nothing to teach men to be goo unless He also gave them the power to be good, after rescuing them from the frustration of guilt.

The story of every human life begins with birth and ends with death. In the Person of Christ, however, it was His death that was first and His life that was last. … 

The manger and the Cross thus stand at the two extremities of the Savior’s life! He accepted the manger because there was no room in the inn; He accepted the Cross because men said, “We will not have this man for our king.” Disowned upon entering, rejected upon leaving, He was laid in a stranger’s stable at the beginning, and a stranger’s grave at the end. An ox and an ass surrounded His crib at Bethlehem; two thieves were to flank His Cross on Calvary. He was wrapped in swaddling bands in His birthplace, He was again laid in swaddling clothes in His tomb — clothes symbolic of the limitations imposed on His Divinity when He took a human form. …He was already bearing His Cross — the only cross a Babe could bear, a cross of poverty, exile and limitation. His sacrificial intent already shone forth in the message the angels sang to the hills of Bethlehem:

     This day, in the city of David

A Savior has been born for you,

The Lord Christ Himself. (Luke 2:11)

Vatican Nativity Scene: Aliens, Again?

More evidence that aliens are interfering in the Vatican. Just look at the 2020 Nativity Scene!*

This special edition of The H-Files delves into the mystery behind the bizarre display the Vatican put up a few days ago. The creatures it depicts do not look human…

*No, this isn’t the actual opinion of CCM; it’s just a fun video. We actually subscribe to the “Three M’s” as the explanation for how weird (and disturbing) our clerical leadership has become.

Wishing You a Pachamama Christmas

Pachamama Christmas

Not every outfit calling themselves “Catholic” is worthy of our attention.

That goes for fly-by-night charities, certainly, but it also large chunks of religious orders whose names you probably recognize.

It’s a sad state of affairs that we have to view solicitations for our cash from organizations with perhaps hundreds of years of goodness behind their names, but such is the state of our Church in the midst of this crisis.

Here is one very disturbing example:

In case the words in this image are blurry, here is the text of the Christmas greetings which the Franciscans International are offering you in their hideous little e-card:

In the context of the nativity, Luke tells us about the meeting between Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. The two women, both expecting a child, meet each other with attentiveness and sensitivity. At the opening of the Synod, Pope Francis asked us to approach the peoples of Pachamama Christmasthe Amazon on our ‘tiptoes’.

In this picture you see Mary, who we honor as the ‘new Eve’ or Mother of Life, together with Pachamama, who some indigenous peoples honor as the ‘earth mother’. Francis of Assisi too describes the earth as our mother in the Canticle.

Celebrating Christmas, I wish that we may approach God and each other on our ‘tiptoes’ so that we experience in these meetings the ‘real living’.

On behalf of Franciscans International,

Markus Heinze, OFM
Executive Director

 

 

Are all Franciscans bad?  Have they all openly embraced paganism and apostacy as this particular whack-job branch of the order has?  No, of course not!

But…just because they wear the Franciscan habit doesn’t mean that they are faithful sons of the saint from Assissi.  Just remember those scenes from the Amazon Synod where, back in October, we were treated to the sight of a Franciscan in full habit prostrating himself on the ground before an image of this pagan idol which has apparently captured the hearts and mind of our senior Church leadership.

As you write out your checks for various charities during this holy season of Advent, be careful.  Be discerning.

And…if by some odd circumstance, you’ve written a Christmas check to the Franciscans International…for goodness’ sake, stop payment on it!  

Christmas and “Cultural Appropriation”

Large Hand grabbing a Nativity Scene

It’s a thing that’s all the rage in our politically-correct culture (“rage” in the sense that it’s wildly popular and also “rage” in the sense of those who delight in virtue-signaling their imagined outrage at something unspeakably offensive):  If you dare to don a sombrero but you’re not Mexican, that’s “cultural appropriation.”  It’s a BIG no-no these days.  At best, those guilty of cultural appropriation are insensitive and ignorant.  At worst, they’re intentionally evil bigots or racists, probably both.  It’s all part of the Snowflake Syndrome rampaging through college campuses and trendy social circles.

And that got me thinking.  If it’s inappropriate for somebody to wear garb considered unique to one particular race, nation, or culture, why is it not considered inappropriate to hijack the second most important holiday for a billions of Christians and use it as an occasion for commercial profiteering, donning the stylized garb of a completely misunderstood/mischaracterized Catholic saint, or trivializing it with the addition of reindeer and dancing snowmen?

Take that peppermint chip off your shoulder.  

Should Christians take offense when we see people who are obviously clueless about our holiday going to great lengths to appropriate the holiday for their own use, tossing out doctrines they find uncomfortable while retaining the emotionally-satisfying portions (and adding ridiculous components of their own invention to boot)?  Would a Muslim tolerate such behavior by the population at large during Ramadan?  (Imagine for a moment a clever ad agency executive who invents “Robbie the Ramadan Raccoon” as an appealing way to sell toys and seasonal apparel to celebrate the holiday…that kind of hijacking of a religious holiday probably wouldn’t be too well-received.)

If we’re bold in proclaiming our faith, we might respond with a gentle reminder like “Jesus is the Reason for the Season,” and leave it at that.  It’s a subtle way of saying, “Hey, Christmas is important to me, and maybe it should be important to you as well.”  But that’s about as far as it goes.

Do I think we should all put a big peppermint chip on our shoulders starting the first Sunday of Advent and stomp around just daring anyone to knock it off, then howl “cultural appropriation!” when they do?

Of course not.  The Christmas message is meant for the entire world.  And while committed Christians understand that the Crib leads to the Cross, this most essential aspect of Christmas is pretty much entirely lost to our secular friends and neighbors.  Throwing a hissy-fit because secularists have hijacked Christmas to suit their own materialistic and/or self-satisfying ends doesn’t do anything to promote the salvation of their souls.  We just need to figure out a way to re-direct the world’s attention away from the cash register and back towards the Creche (and ultimately, the Cross).  And, considering that for so many people, a Nativity scene has value only if it can serve as a backdrop for that awesome Christmas selfie to go on Instagram, this is quite a challenge.

A chance to evangelize…just a little, anyway!

Should we, as believing Christians, take advantage of the numerous teaching moments presented to us as a way to share our faith, and just maybe evangelize the lost and unbelieving world which surrounds us?

Yeah, probably.

Here’s an example of one potential “teaching moment:”

“Do you know what the origin of your candy cane is?  It’s based on something called a crozier, the staff carried by Catholic bishops like Saint Nicholas.”

That lead-in sentence, inoffensive and disarming as it appears on the surface, would allow me to enter into a broader discussion on the real St. Nicholas, tying the entire modern and utterly ridiculous “Cult of Santa Claus” back to an authentic historical (and Christian) origin.  Such a conversation isn’t an In-Your-Face/Take-This-Pamphlet type of event.  It’s more of a non-threatening “fun fact” type of thing which nonetheless diverts the listener’s attention back in the general direction of our Christian understanding of Christmas…even if tangentially, and even if only for a moment.

They’re on OUR turf now!

And, of course, the few remaining Nativity scenes I might see in public offer me a similar opportunity for a casual, two to three sentence evangelization opportunity.  In a way, we can consider somebody stopping to admire a Creche (even if only pausing for that all-important Instagram selfie) as having stepped onto “our turf,” and speaking to them in a friendly manner about the display’s meaning is not an intrusion.  If they’re showing even passing interest in the trappings associated with Christendom’s second most important holy day, then in a way, they’re pretty much “fair game.”

Imagine yourself stopping to admire some brightly colored lights strung up for the commemoration of Ramadan.  If you stopped to admire them, and a well-meaning Muslim came up to you and said, “Hi.  Do you know why we celebrate Ramadan?” would you take offense?  Probably not.  If you have any manners at all, you’d probably listen politely, and perhaps even engage in a friendly conversation.

We can take that attitude as well.

IF I have to guts to actually go through with it.