I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION." Those words, uttered by the Mother of God herself to Saint Bernadette Soubirous in the Grotto of Massabielle near Lourdes, France, on March 25, 1858, was a Heavenly ratification of the solemn, infallible proclamation of the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854, in the Bull Ineffabilis Deus.

"I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION."

Our Lady was conceived in the womb of her holy mother, Good Saint Anne, without any stain of Original or Actual Sin in anticipation of the merits that would be won by her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, on the wood of the Holy Cross. She, the Singular Vessel of Devotion, had the perfect integrity of Adam and Eve before their Fall from Grace in the Garden of Eden.

It is important, therefore, to get the doctrine of Original Sin right in order to understand the great miracle worked by God in the soul of the fairest flower of our race, Our Lady, from the very first moment of her Immaculate Conception. To get anything about the doctrine of Original Sin wrong leads to the efforts on the part of Modernists to deconstruct the doctrinal definitions of Original Sin and of the Immaculate Conception.

Alas, the Catholic Church, our Holy Mother on earth, our Mater and Magister, is as spotless as the Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary. Holy Mother Church does not deconstruct infallible dogmatic definitions. Holy Mother Church cannot do so, which is why we need to pray to Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces and our Immaculate Queen, to help us to make no concessions to the counterfeit church of conciliarism that has promulgated an abominable "liturgy" and whose officials feel feel to "reinterpret" dogmatic truths according to Modernist propositions that have been condemned by the authority of our spotless Mother on earth, Holy Mother Church.

Mindful of the effects of our own sins on our immortal souls and of our need to make reparation for them to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, may we make the Secret prayer for today's Holy Mass our own:

"Receive the saving Victim we offer to Thee, O Lord, on the solemn feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: and grant that, as we confess that by Thy prevenient grace she was kept free from every stain of sin; so, by her intercession, we may be delivered from all our offenses. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God."

A number of prayers from The Raccolta in honor of Our Lady's Immacualte Conception can be found in Appendix A. Appendix B contains material on the Immacualte Conception as found in The New English Edition of The Mystical City of God.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

A blessed Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to you all!

Work continues on the next original article.

For today, however, I offer the readers of this site a brief and revised reflection on two saints who opposed heresy, Saint Nicholas of Myra and Saint Ambrose of Milan. 

Finally, I am requsting that those who are able and willing to make a non-tax-deductible financial gift to do so at this time as the continued treatment that I started with a chirorpactor on the Feast of Saint Sabbas is going to cost more money than I have and still be able to pay other very pressing bills. The chiropractor says that my spine is "wickedly curved" and that it it will take at least two months of weekly treatments, including electro-acupuncture and being flat on my back on a table equipped with a mechanism that "rolls" the spine to exercise it without weight-bearing, to determine if any kind of real relief can be provide. As I do not want a second spinal surgery (the one I had on February 14, 1968, was quite enough!) and as I do no need to be able to function a bit better than I am at this time, the chiropractic option is the only one that I have, but it is going to cost more (seven dollars per week) than I can afford. Any help that you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Obviously, as I have noted before, this is superb penance for my sins. This cross has been fashioned for me perfectly by the loving hand of God to chastise me, and it is a sign that He is not through with me, that He has not given up on my salvation. All I can do in gratitude for such a gift is to give whatever merit I night earn from this suffering back to Him as the consecrated slave of His Co-Equal, Co-Eternal Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. I always keep uppermost in my mind the fact that His graces are sufficient for the moment and that nothing I--or anyone else, of course--suffer in this passing, mortal vale of tears is the equal of what one of my least Venial Sins caused Our Lord Jesus Christ to suffer during His Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross and caused the Sword of Sorrow to be plunged through and through His Most Blessed Mother';s Immaculate Heart. Deo gratias!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Nicholas of Myra, pray for us.

Saint Ambrose of Milan, pray for us.

This is the commentary on which I have been working recently but whose completion was interrupted both by health probems and other events upon which I chose to comment soon after they occurred.

This commentary is about another sad case of what has become common in the United Kingdom and elsewhere throughout the so-called "civilized" world: the medical and judicial tyranny that consigns innocent children to death even though their parents are willing to provide the love and the care that they need.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Sabbas, pray for us.

Although I am nearing completion on a commentary upon which I have been working in dribs and drabs for the past two weeks in the midst of my current infirmities and the cataract surgery I underwent last week, I have decided to write a commentary about the late Sandra Day O’Connor, whose Sangerite background meant nothing to the man who nominated her on July 1, 1981, to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States of America, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Many things are happening in the world and in the counterfeit church of conciliarism. I assure you I am working as hard as I am physically able to complete commentaries on the matters of the day and will be posting each over the course of the next few weeks.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Peter Chrysologus, pray for us.

Saint Sabbas, pray for us.

Today, Sunday, December 3, 2023, the First Sunday of Advent, is date of which the Feast of Saint Francis Xavier, S.J., is celebrated. This feast, though, is reduced to a commemoration this year because the Sunday Mass takes precedence over it.

This article, which was substantially revised and enlarged reflection some years ago, on the life and the tireless apostolic work of the great Jesuit missionary and one the original members of Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s Company of Jesus, Saint Francis Xavier.

The title of the revised article reflects the disparaging term that Jorge Mario Bergoglio used to compare believing Catholics with modern-day faithful, believing Mohammedans who take the words of the blasphemous Koran seriously by committing acts of wanton murder against “infidels.” Saint Francis Xavier worked tirelessly for the conversion of those who belonged to false religions. Then again, he was a true Jesuit priest. Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a lay Jesuit revolutionary masquerading as a “pope," a man who expelled himself from the bosom of the Catholic Church in his youth as he mocked the Immemorial Mass of Tradition and taught to disparage Catholic doctrine as being in opposition to the Gospel of Christ the King.

A Novena in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which begins today and ends on December 11, 2023, can be found in the appendix to this reflection.

Finally, I have learned about the death of Bishop Clarence Kelly, the founder of the Society of Saint Pius V, which is now called the Congregation of Saint Pius V.  

My late father's first cousins attended Mass offered in the garage of a house in New Hartford, New York, which is just south of Utica, New York, that was offered by then Father Clarence Kelly of the Society of Saint Pius X. His Excellency provided Holy Mass to untold numbers of Catholics who had come to the conclusion that the "new Mass" was either no Mass at all or, at the very least, a scandal to the faithful. It was under his leadership that "The  Nine" presented their concerns about some of the policies of the Society of Saint Pius X to Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who promptly dismissed those concerns and, soon thereafter, dismissed The Nine themselves. 

I prayed for Bishop Kelly every day for a very long time, and will pray for the repose of his immortal soul now that he has died. Please pray for the respose of his immortal soul. 

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. 

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, S.J., pray for us.

This is a revised commentary about this holy season of Advent, which marks the beginning of a new ecclesiastical year that began with First Vespers for the First Sunday of Advent on Saturday, December 2, 2023. 

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.

[A brief update late on December 1, 2023: The naturalists keep dropping with proverbial flies, Kisiinger one day, Sandra Day O'Connor two days later. Well, I will have a very brief commentary about the pro-abortion jurist's career, which was as a public of the public record when the "pro-life" President Ronald Wilson Reagan nominated her to replace Associate Justice Potter Stewart, one of the seven justices who voted in the majority in the case of Roe v. Wade, January 22, 1973, on July 1, 1981. I, for one, was outraged at the time as her pro-abortion credentials were fully known to one and all. More in the next commentary.]

Henry Alfred Kissinger has died.

This brief commentary explains that his enduring legacy is one that, far from promoting true peace, helped to advance a militant global warfare against the binding precepts of the Divine and Natural Laws, thus furthering prideful man's warfare against the Prince of Peace and His true Church.

The cataract surgery on my right eye three days ago went very well, although I was very tired on Tuesday and had to see the surgeon again on Wednesday for a follow-up visit. The article that I have been working on since the before the surgery is nearing completion, and I thank you for your patience and understanding as I underwent the surgery at the same time as the penitential pain caused by my completely degenerated lumbar spine. I am working as I am able to do so. Thank you.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Blessed Edmund Campion, pray for us.

This article is very brief. Its intriguing title comes fron a quotation of what a Brazilian bishop, Bishop Jose Mauricio de Rocha, told the priests of his diocese when he had returned from the first session of the "Second" Vatican Council before it had ended.

There are several other comnentaries in the works. As the first of two cataract removal surgeries takes place tomorrow, Novenber 28, 2023, and requires my presence at an ambulatory surgery center by six o'clock in the morning, I will need to retire from work early today, the Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, and probably won't be able to get the next article completed until Thursday. Thank you.

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, pray for us.

Saint Catherine Laboure, pray for us.

The date of November 27 is the Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, although not on the universal General Roman Calendar, can be celebrated if not otherwise impeded as was the case yesterday.

This is a republished reflection on the story of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal that was written originally in 2010 and revised substantially eight years ago. I offer today for those who would like to have a refresher course on the history of this feast, which, of course, centers on Our Lady as the Mediatrix of All Graces.

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, pray for us.

Saint Catherine Laboure, pray for  us.

As I have busy preparing the next original commentary, I simply forgot to republish my annual reflection about Saint Catherine of Alexandria, whose feast was yesterday, Saturday, November 25, 2023. 

The new commentary should appear in about twenty-four hours in addition to my annual reflection about Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Sylvseter the Abbot, pray for us.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, pray for us.

Saint Peter of Alexandria, pray for us.