Although I had wanted to revise this reflection, we were away for fifteen hours yesterday, something that was most unexpected. It was impossible to reply to e-mails or to revise this reflection as "yesterday" did not end until 2:40 a.m. this morning, which was followed by "today" five hours later. I beg the patience of those who are waiting resplies from me.  I also apologize for the garbled nature of the original posting of this reflection as I forgot to select "Full" to replace "Filter" for text appearance. I have no idea what this means. However, I do know that it is not good to forget to press the "Full" button. Humiliation is good. Deo gratias!

Obviously, today is the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, always the humble handmaid of the Lord who humbled herself this day, the last day of Christmastide, which ends after Holy Mass today, by submitting to the rituals of the law although she was not in need of such a ritualistic purification because of her Perpetual Virginity.

This is the day that Our Lady presented her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the same Temple where He would be found twelve years later answering questions of the rabbis, the same Temple whose curtain would be torn in two from top to bottom as He breathed His last on the wood of the Holy Cross to redeem us, thereby signifying the permanent end of the Old Covenant and the supersession of Judaism by Catholicism as the true religion. The aged Simeon, who waited patiently every day in the Temple for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to him, that he would not die before his eyes had seen and his arms had beheld the Messiah, sent the first Sword of Sorrow plunging through Our Lady's Sorrowful and and Immaculate Heart when he prophesied that the Child he beheld would be destined for the rise and for the fall of man, a sign to be opposed, a Sign of Contradiction. We must never fear to be signs of contradiction in our own lives in imitation of the THE Sign of Contradiction, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as He hung on the wood of the Holy Cross to redeem us as he was mocked and reviled by the very people from whose stock He had taken His Sacred Humanity.

We must be willing to suffer all manner of calumny and humiliation for the many times that we have preferred human respect to fidelity to Our Lord, for the many times we have refused to call upon Our Lady's maternal intercession, for the many times we have refused to "take sides," especially in our day by refusing to reject conciliarism and its ravenous wolves once and for all.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and Protector of the Faithful, pray for us.

Today is the Feast of the great Saint John Bosco, to whom we are very devoted. This is a revised reflection on an extraordinary priest who had a zeal for the salvation of souls in his youth, a zeal that would last until he died on this date in 1888, one hundred twenty-eight years ago.

Saint John Bosco stands a rebuke to everything that manner in which the conciliar revolutionaries refuse to seek converts to what they think is the Catholic Church and the manner in which they reaffirm unrepentant sinners in lives that could lead them to Hell for all eternity if they do not go to Confession and amend their lives. This brief reflection, written about four or five years ago, I believe, is an effort to capture the spirit of this magnificent teacher of the young, mystic and zealous apostle of souls.

As I need another solid eight to ten hours of uninterrupted work to complete "Sober Up, part ten," an amount of time that will not be available to me until the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Thursday, February 2,  2017, the concluding part of the series that began a few days after the election on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, may not appear until Friday, February 3, 2017, the Feast of Saint Blase and the tenth anniversary of the death of Sharon's father, John Griffith Collins III. Although much is happening at this time at a pace that is without any kind of precedent in American history, I want to be methodical in the presentation of my analysis, something that requires many hours of work. Remember, I write not for the short term but to provide the few people who read this site with analyses that seek to transcend the crises of the moment, and thus it is that I thank you for your patience. 

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey! 

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.

Saint Maria Domenica Mazzarello, pray for us,

Although it is now Monday, January 30, 2017, the Feast of Saint Martina, I have just now finished a brief and wholly inadequate reflection n the life and work of Saint Francis de Sales that I attempted to have ready for yesterday but was not able to do so because of the amount of transcription that had to be completed. 

As, however, the story of the Apostle of Charity and zealous foe of Calvinism is timeless--and quite relevant to our own times today, I present it to the readership of this site. 

The concluding part of the "Sober Up" series is being written at this time. It was interrupted on Saturday evening to pay this small tribute to Saint Francis de Sales.  

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Francis de Sales, pray for us.

Saint Martina, pray for us.

[An original article, Sober Up, part nine, was posted a short while ago. It deals with the restoration and revision of the Mexico City Policy by President Donald John Trump that will be heralded day at the March for Life.]

Today’s article has been adapated and revised to place the observed forty-fourth anniversary of the decisions of the Supreme Court in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, January 22, 1973, in an historical context. This commentary contains an excerpt from an allocution given by Pope Pius XII that reminded Catholics they are never to support a single, solitary exception to the inviolability of innocent human life. Within the allocution is a moving story about a mother who sacrificed her own life in 1905 rather than to kill the child in her womb. The mother’s prayers from eternity won the daughter to whom she gave life shortly before she, the mother, died to the religious life. This is the sort of sacrifice that is foreign to the mind of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and it unknown to almost all "pro-life" naturalists, including President Donald John Trump, whose Mexico City Policy contains "exceptions" that both offensive to truth and actually needless from a medical standpoint.

We pray in reparation today for the ongoing chemical and surgical slaughter of the preborn in the United States of America and around the world. We pray for the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King and of Our Lady, Immaculate Queen, as the fruit of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Saint John Chyrsostom, pray for us. 

The hour is very late (or early), and thus there is time and energy enough to inform the few of you who read this site that this new article discusses the restored Mexico City Policy, which, despite President Trump's evident desire to show that he is sincere in his efforts to limit American taxpayer funding of surgical baby-killing and his unprecedented effort to shame the mainslime media for ignoring the March for Life, which takes place today, five days after the forty-fourth anniversary of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States of America in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, January 22, 1973, remains an instrument to fund evil under the cover of the civil law.

A republished companion article will be posted soon.

Pray for the safety of those participating in the March for Life today in Washington, District of Columbia, and those doing so in similar events around the nation.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint John Chyrosostom, pray for us.

Today is the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle and the Commemoration of Saint Peter. Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ personally intervened to effect the conversion of the fire-breathing hater and persecutor of Catholics, Saul of Tarsus. By so doing, of course, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man in His Most Blessed Mother's Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, violated the counterfeit church of conciliarism's prohibition of proselytism. Saul of Tarsus did not seek out Our Lord, but was sought out by Him so that he would become Saint Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles one of twin pillars of the Church of Rome along with the first pope himself, Saint Peter the Apostle.

"Sober Up, part nine," is progressing well as the basic documentation has been gathered to demonstrate to the relatively few people who read this site that the Mexico City Policy, which was reinstated on Monday, January 23, 2016, the Feast of Saint Raymond of Penafort and the Commemoration of Saint Emerentiana, according to the rules promulgated by then President George Walker Bush on March 28, 2001, as published in the Federal Register, continues to be a porous sham.

 Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles, pray for us.

Saint Paul, pray for us.

Saint Peter, pray for us.

This is being published just a few minutes before one o'clock in the morning on Tuesday, January 24, 2017, the Feast of Saint Timothy. 

Today's commentary, which took several days to complete, examines the continued silence about the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the part on the conciliar revolutionaries when they are gathered in public settings. Two of those who exhibited silence about the Holy Name of Jesus "prayed" in front of the President Donald John Trump and Vice President Michael Richard Penance on Friday, January 20, 2017, the Feast of Saints Fabian and Sebastian were Timothy MIchael "Cardinal" Dolan and "Father" Patrick Conroy, S.J., who said six years ago now that he never prays in the Name of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ except when he is doing something "Catholic." Ah, to do something "Catholic" one must be a Catholic, and apostates such as Messrs. Dolan and Conroy expelled themselves from the bosom of Holy Mother Church long ago by clinging to anathematized propostions and by their public embrace of false religions.

May God have mercy on us all.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Timothy, pray for us.

[Late-night update on Friday, January 20, 2017: Although I would like to have had another article ready for posting by now, it is not possible to complete my article, and it is probably best for me to wait as it will deal with the religious indifferentism displayed at the inaugural ceremonies yesteday for President Donald John Trump and that will be displayed tomorrow at the so-called Washington National Cathedral in Washington, District of Columbia. Tomorrow's event could actually be called "Assisi West" as representatives of twenty-six religions will offer prayers or/or remarks. 

[For the moment, however, remember that the conciliar presbyer who serves as the Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, "Father" Patrick Conroy, S.J., who is only a year older than I am, chose not to invoke the Holy Name of Jesus in his closing prayer at the Congressional luncheon honoring President Trump and Vice President Michael Richard Pence, a baptized Catholic who apostatized in his youth. "Father" Conroy is a true son of both Americanism and the conciliar revolution as he said in an interview in 2011:

"I never pray in the name of Jesus -- except when I'm doing something Catholic -- saying Mass, for example." (http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2011/05/the_rev_patrick_conroy_ref....)

[This quotation will figure prominently in my next commentary.]

The new segment in the "Sober Up" series focuses on how successful Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Soetoro has been in the past eight years as he has helped to institutionalize various moral evils beyond any attempt for well-meaning naturalists to denounce those evils by their proper names. Thus it is that Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), who is certainly a well-meaning man, was forced to use the "settled law" line with respect to baby-killing and perversity, and that Betsy DeVos, President Donald John Trump's nominee to be the United States Secretary of Education, was forced to disavow efforts to convert those engaged in sodomite behavior out of their chosen sins. Democrats never compromise in their support of evil. Republicans always bend to the "reality" of evils once institutionalized.

Catholicism is the only foundation of personal and social order.

A brief reflection on Saints Fabian and Sebastian will be added in the commentary to be posted late tomorrow or Sunday.

Part nine of this series should appear on Monday or Tuesday as there is much to assess, starting with President Trump's inauguration address and the executive actions he took in the hours that followed.

Finally, as we have another four days to go before I receive the meager monthly payment support the family as a result of my paying into a certain "social security system" during my thirty plus years as a college professor, any and all non-tax-deductible financial gifts would be greatly appreciated at this time as they are very greatly needed. We do very much need your help at this time. 

Thank you.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saints Fabian and Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Agnes, pray for us.

Although the next installment of "Sober Up" is nearing its completion, I thought that it would be helpful to the few readers of this website to contrast the work of the saints whose feasts have been celebrated and commemorated yesterday and today with the apostate work of the conciliar "popes," including Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

It is a very late (or early) hour. The next installment of "Sober Up" should appear in about twenty-four hours.

Today's brief reflection also includes the Chair of Unity Octave that began yesterday and is concluded on Wednesday, January 25, 2017, the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saints Marius, Martha, Audifax and Abachum, pray for us.

Saint Canute IV, King of Denmark, pray for us.

Saint Wulstan, pray for us.

The counterfeit church of conciliarism is coallpsing under the weight of its false premises. 

Although even "conservatives" within the counterfeit church of conciliarism would never admit it, the fact remains that the upcoming appearance of the population controller named Paul Ehrlich at a conference next month at the conciliar occupied Vatian on "Biological Extinction" is the direct result of Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria/Paul VI's endorsement of the personalist view of marriage that had been condemned by Pope Pius XII on April 1, 1944, which became the basis for accepting that which had always been foreign to the mind of Holy Mother Church, namely, the concept of "family limitation."

Yes, Paul the Sick made it possible for Paul Ehrlich to appear at the Vatican even though he did not intend this to be the case. Then again, Martin Luther did not intend the wreckage that occurred in the immediate aftermath of his revolution against the Divine Plan that God Himself instituted to effect man's return to Him through the Catholic Church. Montini/Paul VI is no more a reliable teacher of the Faith than Luther even though he, Montini, has been "beatified" by Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Luther has been declared to be a "reliable witness" of the Faith.

Several other articles are in the line-up to be posted. Once again, the absence of articles does not mean an absence of the work that goes into producing them.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Antony of the Desert, pray for us.