"How WAS Your Christmas?"

“How was your Christmas?”

No, I am not asking you, my good readers, for a reply.

I placed the question in quotation marks because one can count on hearing this question from well-meaning who toil long and hard serving the public in various stores and markets.

“How was your Christmas.”

This question was asked of me on four different occasions yesterday, Friday, December 26, 2025, the Feast of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr on the Second Day within the Octave of Christmas, when I was out running errands, and each time I replied more or less the same way, mindful that those who asked this question were sincere but completely unaware of the beauty of this forty season of joy that began with First Vespers for Christmas at sunset on Christmas Eve, Wednesday, December 24, 2025, to the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Monday, February 2, 2026:

“Christmas is not only a one-day celebration. It is a season of forty days, lasting until the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 2.

“This season starts on Christmas Day and includes an eight day period, an Octave, of feasts celebrating the lives of saints, who were the friends of God here on earth and died in such a state sanctity that they can intercede for us with in Heaven much more powerfully than any of our friends can help us when we ask a favor of them, such as Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, Saint John the Evangelist, the Holy Innocents, Saint Thomas a Becket, and Pope Saint Sylvester I before concluding with the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on January 1.

“The highlight of this season between Christmas Day and the Feast of Our Lady’s Purification is the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentile as the Infant Christ the King is adored by kings of this earth, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. This great feast, which occurs on the Twelfth Day of Christmas (surely you have heard the song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas,’ right?), signifies the fact all earthly kings—political leaders in today’s terms—are to bend the knee and adore Christ the King, who is the Sovereign of all men and all nations in everything that pertains to the good of souls that He Himself has redeemed by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross.

“This is a great season of joy, a season that most people do not know about because of a revolution against the true Church Our Lord founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope whose missionaries converted the pagan and barbaric peoples of Europe during the First Millennium began with a proud and sinful German monk who could chose not to keep the Commandments and thus decided all on his own that it is enough to have “faith” in one’s heart and confess the name of Our Lord on one’s lips in order to be saved. Martin Luther’s revolution was meant quite deliberately to reject every revealed doctrine and liturgical doctrine of the preceding one thousand five hundred years, which is why you have never heard that Christmas is a forty season of joy.

“Our Christmas trees are supposed go up and be decorated on Christmas Eve and they are to come down after Holy Mass on the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“Christmas only starts on December 25, but it continues with many great feasts, including that of the Holy Name of Jesus on the Sunday between the Circumcision of Our Lord and the Epiphany (on January 2 if there is no intervening Sunday), the Feast of the Holy Family (on the Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany, the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome on January 18, and the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle on January 25.”

“Finally, we honor Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the Mother God, who was given to us by her Divine Son Himself, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as she stood valiantly at the foot of His Holy Cross on Good Friday:

‘When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son.  27 After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. (John 19: 26-17.)’

Saint John the Evangelist, the Beloved Disciple whose feast we celebrate today, Saturday, December 27, 2025, the Third Day of Christmas, represented us at the foot of the Cross because of his virginal purity and his great love of the Divine Master. Our Lady was given to him to be his mother, and through him she was given to us be Our Blessed Mother to whom we can fly with confidence in all our needs.”

Mind you, this is an elongation of what I told the hard-working people who asked “How was your Christmas” upon which I have elaborated in as brief a manner as possible in the event that any of them actually does access this site as I suggested.

As Catholics, of course, we understand the great joys of this season, which we must never take for granted, being especially mindful of the fact that most of the people we meet are truly clueless about First and Last Things, which is why we must take seriously the following words of Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., that I quoted in one of my four Christmas reflections on Christmas Day:

For nineteen hundred years the Pagans have persistently opposed the spread of the Holy Church. To this hour they wage a persecution of blood against those who profess the name of Jesus and worship Him as the Redeemer of the world. But those especially deserve our pity, who, calling themselves children of the Church, and exteriorly professing their faith, yet banish Jesus, their Saviour, from their hearts. To these the words of the evangelist point, where he says: "There was no room for them at the inn."

The human heart can but too well be compared to an inn which is filled with a number of guests, and from the interior of which resound the words which refuse our Lord admittance: There is no room here for you! Pass on! The door of an inn is constantly open. There is a continual coming and going, and the character of the guests is not inquired into. It is no place for prayer, or the fulfillment of one's religious duties; on the contrary, we find there only tumult and continual restlessness.

Thus it is with the heart of him who leads a life in compliance with the spirit of the world. Such a heart is open to all that passes; all sorts of inordinate desires find their way into it, so that there is no room for Jesus to find therein a permanent abode. But certainly this does not hinder the Infant Jesus from again knocking, and attempting still to find a place for Himself in the deluded heart of man. By His inspirations He knocks repeatedly at the door of the heart, and exclaims: Open your heart! "Who are you, and what do you wish?" is the question from within. The Infant Jesus replies: Look at me, lying in a poor manger in a stable. I have come to disengage your heart from love of riches, to teach you the love and practice of the virtue of poverty. The worldling answers: "Go, there is no room here for you." Could a different answer be expected? The worldling's love is centered on his money, his attention on the increase of his temporal possessions. What a multitude of thoughts, desires, plans, and projects keep him busy! There is no vacant spot for the poor Infant Jesus.

Jesus knocks at the heart of the worldling. "What do you wish?" Open thy heart, that I may make my home with thee. I would like to teach you to love and practise the virtue of humility. But the worldling wishes to hear nothing of humility; his heart is filled with a longing for esteem and glory, with self-praise, self-will, and self-love. What a tumult reigns in such a heart! Innumerable thoughts of vain desires, of vain ambition come and go. No room for you, says the deluded worldling; pass on!

Jesus knocks at the door of the heart. "What do you wish?" Open; let me in. I will teach you to despise all sensual, worldly pleasures, and to practise the spirit of self-denial; to mortify yourself, and to bear with patience all your trials and tribulations. I wish to replenish your heart with a true love of the cross. "Depart as quickly as possible," says the terrified worldling from behind the door of his heart; "no room for you!" Oh, not to suffer, not to renounce, but to enjoy myself, this is his watch-word! He burns with the desire of spending his entire life in the enjoyment of earthly delights and pleasures. "Suffering Child, pass on; no room here for you!"

The Infant Jesus again knocks. Open your heart. "What do you desire?" Allow me to enter. I will teach you to love retirement, to practise prayer, and thus to live on earth as if you were already in heaven, eternally united with Me. "No room for you; begone!" resounds from the inn of the human heart. It is only fond of intercourse with men; it is full of human respect, full of the fear of man.

Finally, the Infant Jesus raps at the door of the heart. Open. "What do you wish?" I desire you to assist Me in spreading My kingdom on earth; to convert sinners; to gain souls. "Pass on, is the answer from the inner heart. Why should I trouble myself about others? I am no priest. It makes, very little difference to the lukewarm Christian whether others are treading the path of salvation"; he may even go so far as to say all religions are alike; "let each one believe what he chooses." Poor heart! Certainly, Jesus will leave you. But no, Infant Jesus, do not depart! See, we open to Thee our hearts; enter, and take up Thy abode therein, until the gates of heaven open for us, and we make our home with Thee amid the rejoicings of the blessed for ever and for ever! Amen! (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., Christmas Sermon.)

Yes, we have been baptized and confirmed through no merits of ours into the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith have an obligation to help others see the world in light of eternity and live always in the shadow of the Cross. This can be done in simple ways, such as telling a person who has a saint’s name, but who knows nothing about the origin of his name to do an internet search, say, about Saint Patrick or Saint Joseph, or Saint Matthew, or Saint Peter, and it can done also by simply giving a person a truly blessed Green Scapular.

It is our joy to know the fullness of the Christmas season, and it is a joy we must share with those we meet as we keep close to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph while praying the Joyful Mysteries of Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary.

A continued blessed Christmas to you all!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.