ADVENT REFLECTIONS: In Advent, we prepare ourselves not only for the Christmas Season (which does not end, but rather BEGINS on December 25), but also we prepare for the Second Advent (or Second Coming) of Jesus Christ at the end of the world. Therefore, liturgical churches (Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and Lutheran) will often include Sunday readings that reflect on the end of the world. It seems strange reading this at this time of year, but that’s the purpose. We need to prepare for Christ’s Second Advent just as much as we contemplate and remember his First Advent 2,000 years ago.

The following is an essay I wrote for Advent 2021. It explores a topic common to many American Christians today, particularly Evangelicals. Having once been an Evangelical myself, the transition to Anglican, and then Catholic, was a rather radical one for me. One of those adjustments I had to make was on the teaching of the Rapture, which is extremely popular in Evangelical circles. Not all Evangelicals subscribe to it, but the vast majority do, and I was one of them. I no longer believe in the Rapture, and this essay explains why.

https://completechristianity.blog/2021/11/26/why-i-dont-believe-in-the-rapture/

Full Daily Office, in one volume, according to the English Patrimony of Divine Worship. This office uses reverent language in traditional English and is fully approved by Rome…

https://acsociety.org/news/new-print-run-of-cts-ordinariate-daily-office-set-for-february

Vaccine developers have “a pretty good degree in confidence” that fully vaccinated people who’ve gotten a COVID-19 booster are protected against the omicron variant, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Sunday.

https://www.newsmax.com/us/scottgottlieb-omicron-boosters/2021/11/28/id/1046445/

Let me make this crystal clear, so there can be no misunderstanding. Any church, that complies with government lockdown orders, will eventually die out. There are no exceptions to this. We saw what the first lockdown did to most churches. Many of them are deep in the financial hole now, and they’re lucky if more than half of their former congregation ever returned. Another church lockdown this winter will finish them off.

Churches must do everything within their power to prevent this from happening. First and foremost, they need to file lawsuits against all governments trying to lock them down. Second, they need to organize peaceful protests and vigils against governments trying to lock them down. Such vigils can even be done on the street, outside of churches, to make a point. “We’re coming here every week whether they let us in or not.” They can be held outside of city hall, state capitol buildings and governor’s mansions. This should be accompanied by copious letters to the editors of newspapers and as much media coverage as possible. Third and finally, churches should make it clear that they’re more than willing to comply with mask mandates within reason, and try to socially distance inside their buildings whenever possible, and provide plenty of hand sanitation dispensaries. OpenIng doors, and windows, and providing better ventilation inside the building are also possibilities worth considering. However, lockdown, or even limiting people from attendance (which is the equivalent of turning people away) is unacceptable and goes against our religious beliefs. Don’t be afraid to use the words “religious persecution” as needed. Yes, the survival of our churches is at stake. Start acting like it.

This is an old photograph of the Protestant “Crystal Cathedral,” which is flanked by a newer photograph of the same building, now purchased and renovated by the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Orange, renamed “Christ Cathedral.”

What this represents, in actuality, is a trend in the US Catholic Church. The bishops are moving toward the mega-church model. Why? It’s simple really, and the artificial (intentionally man-made) priest shortage plays a huge role. To keep the American priesthood as gay as possible, or at least as milquetoast as possible, straight men (who are fervent Catholics) must be purged from the seminaries, and this has been going on since at least the 1970s.

However, as the US priesthood ages, many of these men are no longer able to carry the load of two or three parishes. So rather than open the seminaries to devout and straight men, so as to fill the pastoral seats in parishes, they have instead decided to reduce the number of parishes by merging them into mega-parishes, so they can return to a 1:1 ratio of one priest for every one parish. It’s just that each parish will now be a mega-church where the number of Catholic laypeople are still plentiful.

The former Crystal Cathedral, now Christ Cathedral, is the future model for all dioceses in the mainstream Roman Rite. If you don’t like it, you’ll need to move to either a Latin Mass, and Ordinariate parish, or else Eastern Catholicism.

TRANSLATION: “No lockdowns while I’m in charge. We only do that while a Republican is president, so as to destabilize the country during an election year, cheat like crazy and reinstall a Democrat into the Whitehouse.”

Make no mistake about it, a clear message was sent to his Democrat associates in the governors’ mansions and mayors’ houses. If you lockdown your state, or city, while Biden’s in charge, you’ll do so without his approval and you cannot expect his support. Biden wants to be re-elected, and even he understands that can’t happen if the economy is decimated and the people are near a revolutionary state. The real question is this. Will his handlers allow him to do this? I have a feeling he’s bucking their advice right now.

https://theepochtimes.com/biden-no-new-lockdowns-anticipated-over-omicron-covid-19-variant_4128873.html

Before all the anti-Catholics start piling on, they should know that nobody (and I mean nobody) is more upset about the corruption in the Vatican (and many Archdioceses) than we faithful and practicing Catholics. Anti-Catholics can feign injury all they want, but the truth is, it really doesn't affect them at all, since they're not even members of the Catholic Church, and they know it. The intent behind such feigned injury is to hurt Catholics, and twist the knife, in an attempt to get us to leave the Church, or at the very least turn us against Church teaching. A sincere approach by a non-Catholic would be to say they support us and are praying for us. But that's not what these anti-Catholics do. Instead they indict us alongside our corrupt leaders, and then feign injury for what is happening in the Church, calling on us to leave it, or at least turn against it. Their actions are almost (and I said "almost") as sick and twisted as the perverts in the Church hierarchy they pretend to be hurt by.

In the case of this photo, recently released over this last weekend, we see a weak and feeble Pope Saint John Paul II, riddled with Parkinson's Disease, giving a typical papal blessing to Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell back in 2003. This was less than 2 years before his death. The poor man was literally drooling on the Chair of Peter by this time. He clearly was no longer in control of the Vatican, with everything left to his appointed handlers. Regularly, visitors were paraded in front of the ailing pope, to kiss his ring and receive his blessing. This type of thing is done for thousands of people every year. This in no way implies that Pope Saint John Paul II approved of their activities or even knew who they were. The man himself had already publicly said there is no room in this Church for anyone who would (sexually) harm a child.

Pope Benedict XVI said the Anglican Patrimony (English Patrimony), as celebrated in the ordinariates, is a "treasure to be shared" by the entire Catholic Church...

https://angelusnews.com/faith/how-anglican-devotion-can-enrich-advent-for-catholics/

Rome has approved a new way of doing the Divine Office for English-speaking Catholics, but it's only new for cradle Catholics. It's actually a very, very old way, dating back to the 1500s and prior. It follows the Anglican Patrimony (English Patrimony) and can be obtained in a single-volume book with all the readings, psalms, collects and hymns included. It uses traditional English, as opposed to contemporary English, and follows a pattern more closely related to the older Roman Office before the reforms of Vatican II...

https://acsociety.org/news/new-four-part-instructional-video-for-the-ordinariate-cts-divine-worship-daily-office

💥 YES!!! 💥
This is remarkably good news! Let me explain how things really work. The more business property is distributed among the people (family-run businesses and cooperative ownership between families), the more capital will be disbursed among the Middle Class. That is a game changer, not just in economics, but also in morality. Middle Class people are more religious than the super rich. They’re more Christian, and they’re more likely to give to conservative Christian churches. This in turn boosts the influence of those churches in the general population, changing the worldview of society as a whole. In other words, the business-owning Middle Class is the engine of Christendom. It’s always been this way and always will be. The more business is distributed among the Middle Class, the more Christian a society will become. I’m sure the American Marxists never saw this coming when they used (abused) the pandemic to further their communist agenda.

https://theepochtimes.com/historic-number-of-workers-quit-jobs-to-become-their-own-bosses-amid-covid-19-pandemic_4132796.html

This entire Divine Worship Office can now be found online, FREE of charge, for anyone interested. You can add a button to your smart phone linking to this page, and then convert it to reader mode for easy reading. The office is updated daily — all approved by Rome.

http://prayer.covert.org/

If you're a Catholic, looking for something more traditional, but still in English, then THIS just may be the answer...

https://completechristianity.blog/2019/12/15/the-english-patrimony-is-all-catholics/

If the Supreme Court actually overturns Roe v. Wade, (and I'll believe it when I see it, not before), then how much freak-out, violence and political mayhem do you think the Left will resort to?

A growing number of Evangelicals are leaving mainstream Evangelical churches, over such things as the Rapture doctrine, Zionism and shallow spirituality. They haven't lost faith. So where are they going? The answer may surprise you, and the trend has been well documented for over three decades now...

https://completechristianity.blog/2021/12/02/evangelicals-on-the-canterbury-trail/