A Silent Night Surprise in Times Square | #LightTheWorld

Now, this would have been something worth seeing in New York's Times Square, and I wish I had been there. It's just beautiful.

Ignoring the News

It's nine days before Christmas, and I find I'm starting to ignore the news.

While I'm fully aware that the country, not to mention the world, is a hot mess, I don't need to be continuously reminded of it during my favorite time of year. So, I'm concentrating on Christmas with excessive diligence this year.

One thing that helps me do that is the huge Nativity scene on display near my church's main entrance. I drive past it almost every day. The parish decorates to the hilt every year; below is a photo from last Christmas. The display is visible from blocks away, and it really can put one in a Christmas frame of mind. It certainly works for me.

My advice is to take a step back from the depressing scandals and sordid stories in today's news and find your own ways to focus more fully on the beauty of the season. Before you know it, in little more than a week, you'll be having yourselves a merry little Christmas.

Stamped Out

Scrooge & Grinch Inc. seem to have taken over Christmas this year. Gov. Gavin Newsom has canceled the California State Christmas tree lighting ceremony out of supposed fears for "public safety" after threats against the event from pro-Hamas protesters. He's lighting the tree "virtually." That means he'll be safely indoors, possibly behind a drape, so he doesn't get booed. 

Never mind that the annual tree lighting has been a tradition at the state capitol since the 1930s. It's a community event that includes a holiday market of local businesses for all to visit. Newsom isn't interested in all that personal interaction and neighborly goodwill. As most Californians have figured out, Newsom is a fraidy-cat who protects his own carefully cultivated skin at all costs. The man is a completely gutless wonder.

Closer to home, I've been trying to buy Christmas stamps for the past month. Either they haven't arrived at the post office yet, they are sold out, or they only have the reindeer/Santa hat variety. I'm hard-core old school. I want the Madonna and Child or the Magi on my Christmas stamps. I'll even settle for just the Christmas star shining in the sky.

Today was my third effort to procure Christmas stamps that actually show the meaning of the holiday. Oh, we're out right now, but we're getting more on Monday, I was told. I'm starting to wonder if there were ever any Christmas stamps ordered this year, outside of elves and gingerbread men. The postal clerk offered me flower stamps. Excuse me, it's the middle of December. Save the tulips for April.

I'm a practical person, and at this hectic time of year I really don't want to expend any more time or effort on stamp procurement. So, with some trepidation, I asked if the American flag stamp was available. You never know. America is in mortal danger of being canceled at any moment. Flag stamps could be a serious crime by now.

Fortunately, I was able to buy the flag stamps. It seems that America and Christmas do still go together, at least this year. Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Seriously??

Under the Weather

It's such a pity. On doctor's orders, an ailing Pope Francis had to cancel his trip to Dubai to attend the United Nations climate change conference.

Good. He does enough damage when he stays home, let alone when he's traipsing through a sea of open microphones. I view this papal disappointment as divine intervention.

I'm trying to be a good doobie about some of the startling statements the pope lets loose with, but it's a challenge. What the Fahrenheit does the climate have to do with the Gospel? The Lord gave very clear instructions on how his followers were to conduct the Church's business. It's called the Great Commission, and it's a very straightforward, two-part direction: teach the message and baptize people.

You can look it up. Christ said not a word about global warming or carbon emissions. Yet Pope Francis is writing encyclicals about climate change. To me, the pope getting so involved with the "green movement" is going way off track.

So, as an ignorant lay person, I wish the current head of the Catholic Church would concentrate on what the Boss told him to do. Christ's farewell words may sound simple, but two thousand years of Church history prove it's not easy. Pope Francis has plenty of work to do if he just stays focused on his job. The last thing he should be worried about is the weather.

Matt 28:16-20

Lines of Thanks

May your table be laden from there to here,
May your glasses be filled with good wine or cold beer,
May your company share time with laughter and cheer,
And may all of us thank God for our blessings this year.

Psalm 118:24

Ten Questions for bin Laden Fans

There apparently is a burgeoning fan club among American youth for the cold-blooded murderer Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11/01 slaughter. These empty-headed ignoramuses read his 2002 two-page screed called "Letter to America" online and are swooning with their newfound historical enlightenment.

Can today's young folks really be this gullible and downright stupid? Evidently, yes, they certainly can. Quite eagerly, too. It's a depressing testimony to the total failure of our educational system and societal breakdown.

I have a few questions for these newly accomplished historians. No links today; go do some research and look up the topics for yourselves. Be forewarned--you might need to activate some brain cells. Pace yourselves.

My questions, a mere fraction of what could be asked, appear below:

1. What can you tell me about the Dreyfus Affair and the Balfour Declaration?
2. Can you explain what a "pogrom" is?
3. Did you ever study the rise of Hitler?
4. Did you learn the facts of the 20th century Holocaust?
5. Have you read about the Arab-Israeli war in 1948-49? 
6. What do you know about the Suez Crisis in 1956?
7. What happened in the 1967 Six Day War? 
8. Have you learned anything about the 1973 Yom Kippur war? 
9. Can you identify the year Jewish people first lived in Israel and which century Muslims did?
10. Have you ever read THE BIBLE?

Run along now, young geniuses, and do some homework.

Note to the fawning fan who is a bikini model: If you were lucky, bin Laden would only have you stoned to death.

NEVER FORGET

Thoughts on Veterans Day

Several branches of the US military are suffering from a recruitment crisis. What a surprise.

I can't imagine too many young people are interested in signing up to put their lives on the line for diversity & equity training, woke ideology indoctrination, and medical coverage for gender dysphoria. Whatever happened to the armed services learning how to fight to protect our homeland? I don't know about you, but I don't feel as safe as I used to feel.

Today, Veterans Day, we honor those brave men and women who served to protect and defend our nation. Their contribution and sacrifice should not be overlooked in today's ridiculous social chaos. Thank you to all who served in the United States military. You kept us free to disagree.

Caught in History's Loop

It's a shame that significant facts and events of Western history are rarely taught to young students today. If they were, students might have some knowledge of and perspective on human nature and the societal pitfalls into which we are so prone to stumble.

Take the Jacobins of France--please. In his writings and podcasts, historian Victor Davis Hanson often compares today's "woke" radicals to them. For those who unfortunately don't follow the wise professor, a single page in the second volume of The Outline of History by H.G. Wells sums up the do-loop of history our fractured nation currently finds itself in.

Read this snippet from page 764; I've highlighted what struck me as especially relevant today. Try to convince me it's not an encapsulation of some of our current woes: 

Notice any similarities between France in the 1790s and today's global chaos? I'd encourage anyone to do more reading on it. Good luck with that communist utopia, globalist elites. History proves that people, no matter the century, are predictably problematic.

When Right Is Right

 “In each and every generation they rise up against us to destroy us..."

~ from Passover prayer

It's difficult to argue with that quote. History proves that the Jewish people always are in the world's crosshairs. They are justified in defending themselves.

I think they should do what they need to do in Israel and tell every other country and government official trying to restrain them to--how can I say this politely?--get lost.

That's just one Catholic white woman's opinion. I'm far from alone, but that isn't even relevant. To quote Bishop Sheen, "Right is right." Protect your people, Israel. It's only right.

War and Justice

Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses; it has removed the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares.

~ Jeremiah 9:21

When I was growing up, my father would always react to cold-blooded murders reported in the news with one sentence: "Take him out and shoot him."

In my idealistic youth, this was a horrifying statement to hear. I would protest that the murderer deserves a trial, due process of the law--all the niceties of mid-20th century American society. Dad was impervious. He would shake his head and reiterate, "Shoot him."

I'm much older and wiser now and, having witnessed so much deliberate evil, I often wish I could tell my father he was right. But in the case of the Hamas atrocities against Israel, I think a quick execution by gunfire is far too kind to the monsters that perpetrated such sadistic slaughter against innocent civilians, including infants.

A fearsome war is coming as Israel fights to survive as a nation and to protect its people. The war will be just, and it must be won.

Psalm 102:2