Author: Anna Theodosis

During the Christmas season, Christians the world over admire beautiful nativity scenes celebrating the birthof the Prince of Peace in a manger. The Illinois State Capitol has one on display. However, this year, asatanic “baby” Baphomet figure (the devil depicted as half goat half man) received government approval togo on display at the State House rotunda in Springfield, Illinois, right next to the Nativity scene of Jesus,Mary, and Joseph.

Only days before Christmas, The Satanic Temple announced that it would install the abomination onDecember 20, 2021. The Satanists cynically invited the bishop of Springfield to attend the event after hepublished a statement against the sinful act.

A spiritual battle took place on the Last Frontier as forty local activists joined with members of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property and its Return to Order campaign in Soldotna, Alaska. They were there to protest the Satanic invocation that opened the Kenai Peninsula Borough Public Assembly on June 18, 2019.

The sun shone brightly in the Alaskan afternoon as the red and gold standard of the American TFP was unfurled and a corps of prayer warriors brandished their rosaries to make reparation for the public offense against God.

The lively group of protesters was met by a disjointed opposition. One protester came out with signs promoting abortion and mocked the praying of the rosary. A young woman who joined her even bragged that she had had an abortion and enjoyed it. What united the counter-demonstrators was a hatred of the Catholic Church.

But a battle without a foe is hardly worth fighting, and TFP members were avid to make reparation and engage in open debate.

“We were expecting some people to come,” said Zechariah Long, who flew in from Texas, “But this is amazing!”

TFP member Rex Teodosio encouraged the locals to keep up the fight to defend the public square against Satanism. “I know it is easy to forget about the battles fought here against Satanism, since Alaska is so distant for many.” He said, “But I hope that our presence here will encourage those that are already fighting, and inspire others to join in making their voices heard for God’s truth.”

The delegation also delivered the 25,000 signatures gathered by the Return to Order campaign to the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. Satanism is increasingly showing its ugly head in the public. Acts of public reparation and protest are perfect means to show that the devil is not welcome in society.

“We need to remember,” Mr. John Horvat said, “Satan is only allowed to do what God permits him to do. But God expects us to react accordingly, especially when Satanism becomes public.”

“Our efforts are therefore very important,” Mr. Horvat continued, “We must always remember that Lucifer is the eternal loser. And that the Blessed Virgin will fulfill the prophecy of old: She [the Virgin] shall crush his head!”

Satan showed his ugly head and was crushed by the Virgin at the Bladensburg Cross Memorial in Maryland.

Followers of the Satanic Temple planned a July 10 rally at the Bladensburg cross in Maryland to declare the controversial cross to be a symbol for Satanists. However, Satan received a mighty blow when the Temple members found Our Lady and nearly 130 prayer warriors already on the scene.

On July 10, members of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) hosted a Rosary rally in front of the Bladensburg Cross Memorial. The cross is a solemn landmark, which honours American veterans of World War I. It was the object of a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court battle where enemies of the cross tried to have it torn down. Fortunately, the Court ruled 7-2 in favour of this symbol of salvation.

Members of the Satanic Temple sought to dedicate the cross to those Satanists that died in World War I during their rally. However, Catholic protesters foiled their efforts as TFP members and friends offered reparation and showed their devotion to Christ’s cross. The friends of the cross to the opposition were approximately 130 participants to 70.

To be consistent with its stated purpose, the Temple’s rally should have been held under the cross on the traffic island where it is located. However, police kept people off the traffic island. The prayer protest was right next to the cross. The Satanic rally was far from the Cross, more than one hundred yards away. This can be considered a victory since the Satanists had no direct access to the Cross.

Quis ut Deus? Who is like unto God? This was the battle cry issued by Saint Michael the Archangel at the beginning of the first war in history, a war which will be fought until the end of time. That is, the struggle between the children of God and the children of Lucifer, that old serpent. It is no surprise, then, that this glorious champion of God’s cause in heaven would be a suitable patron for those devoted to His most sacred cause on Earth.

Devotion to Saint Michael flourished in the Middle Ages, particularly among the monastic orders as they viewed themselves as warriors of Christ. It follows naturally that these spiritual “special forces” in the combat for the salvation of souls would name their monasteries and shrines after Saint Michael the Archangel.

A great, yet largely unknown, sign of this devotion is the existence of a perfect ley line, known as the Sword of St. Michael, which connects a line of monasteries from Ireland to the very heart of the faith, the Holy Land. Let us take a journey through these spiritual battlegrounds.

Next in line is Saint Michael’s Mount, the lesser known sister-site of the famous Mont-Saint-Michel in France. Like Mont-Saint-Michel, it is on an island accessible by foot only when the tide permits.

Interestingly enough, many of the religious structures on the island were built by the same monks of Mont-Saint-Michel who received the island as a gift from Saint Edward the Confessor, the King of England in the eleventh century.

Long before it was occupied by any order, the island was a site of pilgrimage because of frequent apparitions of Saint Michael. According to sources from the Early Medieval period, the Archangel who is also the patron saint of fishermen, would guide nearby sailors to safety.

Later, the property was seized by the Crown and used as an outpost against the anti-Monarchist, anti-Catholic forces of Oliver Cromwell. Today, the site can still be visited, although much of the monastery has been assumed by secular buildings.

Never underestimate the power of Saint Michael the Archangel. Sandra, of Ocala, Florida, found this out firsthand. She prayed a novena to the Archangel for her son to overcome an addiction. He was eventually healed. However, Sandra never imagined what her heavenly protector was about to do for her.

On the morning of May 12, 2021, she fell asleep at the wheel of her car, which went catapulting, end over end, through a cow pasture. It flipped seven times, and the first responders are not sure how, but Sandra was ejected from the car and found peacefully lying in a patch of wildflowers.

She was flown to a nearby hospital and spent the next days recovering from eight fractured ribs, a punctured lung and a lacerated eye caused by being thrown through a barbed wire fence when she ejected. Little did she know that Saint Michael was preparing something even more unexpected in her life!

Two weeks later, Sandra received a call from Bob at America Needs Fatima. He wanted to schedule a visit of the pilgrimstatue of Our Lady of Fatima with someone named “Mary.” He dialed the wrong number. Sandra was a devotee of Saint Michael, but she was not on the America Needs Fatima list. In fact, she was not even a Catholic. Nevertheless, she enthusiastically asked if Our Lady could visit her home.

On June 16, 2021, America Needs Fatima volunteer Zechariah Long and I took Our Lady to the home of this devotee of Saint Michael. On the table reserved for Our Lady, we were touched to see a statue of the Winged Warrior. We were both impressed by her devotion and marveled at what Saint Michael had done for this woman. He not only healed her son but saved her from what could have been a violent death. We were now standing in her home with a statue of the Blessed Mother. We took the opportunity to give her a rosary and a booklet explaining how to pray it. Since our Lady’s visit, Sandra has expressed a desire to convert to the Catholic faith, and steps are being taken to fulfill her wish.

This story should inspire those who have lost belief in the holy angels and their solicitude for our well-being. God did not just create angels to help little children cross a bridge. They have an unbelievable power to convert souls trapped in addiction and prevent physical catastrophes. Indeed, Bob did not dial the wrong number but called the person for whom Saint Michael had a special love.

U.S. Soldiers in the Korean War

This is the true story of a Marine wounded in Korea in 1950. Writing to his mother, he told her of a fascinating encounter he experienced in the war. Father Walter Muldy, a U.S. Navy chaplain, who spoke to the young Marine and his mother as well as to the squad commander, always affirmed the veracity of this narrative.

We heard it from someone who read the original letter and retell the story here in all its details and in the first person to better convey some of the impact it must have had when first told by the son to his mother.

Dear Mom,

I'm writing to you from a hospital bed. Don’t worry, Mom, I'm okay. I was wounded, but the doctor says that I'll be up in no time.

But that’s not what I have to tell you, Mom. Something happened to me that I don’t dare tell anyone else for fear of their disbelief. But I have to tell you, the one person I can confide in, though even you may find it hard to believe.

You remember the prayer to Saint Michael that you taught me to pray when I was little: “Michael, Michael of the morning,…” Before I left home for Korea, you urged me to remember this prayer before any confrontation with the enemy. But you really didn’t have to remind me, Mom. I've always prayed it, and when I got to Korea, I sometimes said it a couple of times a day while marching or resting.

Well, one day, we were told to move forward to scout for Commies. It was a really cold day. As I was walking along, I perceived another fellow walking beside me, and I looked to see who it was.

He was a big fellow, a Marine about 6’4″ and built proportionally. Funny, but I didn’t know him, and I thought I knew everyone in my unit. I was glad to have the company and broke the silence between us:

“Chilly today, isn’t it?” Then, I chuckled, because suddenly it seemed absurd to talk about the weather when we were advancing to meet the enemy. He chuckled too, softly.

“I thought I knew everyone in my outfit,” I continued, “but I've never seen you before.”

“No,” he agreed, “I've just joined. The name is Michael.”

“Really?! That’s mine, too.”

“I know,” the Marine said, “Michael, Michael of the morning…”

Mom, I was really surprised that he knew about my prayer, but I had taught it to many of the other guys, so I supposed that the newcomer must have picked it up from someone else. As a matter of fact, it had gotten around to the extent that some of the fellows were calling me “Saint Michael.”

Then, out of the blue, Michael said, “There’s going to be trouble ahead.”

I wondered how he could know that. I was breathing hard from the march, and my breath hit the cold air like dense clouds of fog. Michael seemed to be in top shape because I couldn’t see his breath at all. Just then, it started to snow heavily, and soon it was so dense I could no longer hear or see the rest of my unit. I got a little scared and yelled, “Michael!” Then I felt his strong hand on my shoulder and heard his voice in my ear, “It’s going to clear up soon.”

It did clear up, suddenly. And then, just a short distance ahead of us, like so many dreadful realities, were seven Commies, looking rather comical in their funny hats. But there was nothing funny about them now; their guns were steady and pointed straight in our direction.

“Down, Michael!!” I yelled as I dove for cover. Even as I was hitting the ground, I looked up and saw Michael still standing, as if paralyzed by fear, or so I thought at the time. Bullets were spurting all over the place, and Mom, there was no way those Commies could've missed at that short distance. I jumped up to pull him down, and then I was hit. The pain was like a hot fire in my chest, and as I fell, my head swooned and I remember thinking, “I must be dying…” Someone was laying me down, strong arms were holding me and laying me gently on the snow. Through the daze, I opened my eyes, and the sun seemed to blaze in my eyes. Michael was standing still, and there was a terrible splendour in his face. Suddenly, he seemed to grow, like the sun, the splendour increasing intensely around him like the wings of an angel. As I slipped into unconsciousness, I saw that Michael held a sword in his hand, and it flashed like a million lights.

Later on, when I woke up, the rest of the guys came to see me with the sergeant.

“How did you do it, son?” he asked me.

“Where’s Michael?” I asked in reply.

“Michael who?” The sergeant seemed puzzled.

“Michael, the big Marine walking with me, right up to the last moment. I saw him there as I fell.”

“Son,” the sergeant said gravely, “you’re the only Michael in my unit. I hand-picked all you fellows, and there’s only one Michael. You. And son, you weren’t walking with anyone. I was watching you because you were too far off from us, and I was worried.

“Now tell me, son,” he repeated, “how did you do it?”

It was the second time he had asked me that, and I found it irritating.

“How did I do what?”

“How did you kill those seven Commies? There wasn’t a single bullet fired from your rifle.”

“What?”

“Come on, son. They were strewn all around you, each one killed by a swordstroke.”

And that, Mom, is the end of my story. It may have been the pain, or the blazing sun, or the chilling cold. I don’t know, Mom, but there is one thing I'm sure about. It happened.

Love, your son,

— Michael

“a sublime example of angelic influence
in Christian Civilization”

The incredible island of Mont Saint Michel is a sublime example of angelic influence in Christian Civilization.

The small patch of land lies in a bay off the coast of Normandy, France, and has held a Catholic presence since the eighth century when Saint Michael the Archangel appeared and requested that a church be erected there in his honour.

Over the centuries, the small church was expanded to an abbey hosting a community of Benedictine monks, then to a monastery with crypts and cloisters, and eventually, to a strategic military position with defensive fortifications and a medieval village.

The mount’s surreal beauty provokes great joy and awe. From the coast, the tower is visible miles away, and at that hazy distance appears like a fantastic mirage more than a solid stronghold. This idyllic view invites marveling souls to turn beyond worldly considerations, and contemplate higher ideals.

The harmony of the military fortifications and the religious abbey perfectly honour Saint Michael in his different attributes. He is the one who rallied the angelic hosts with the cry of, “Who is like unto God?” and cast the rebellious angels along with Satan out of heaven. According to tradition, he is also one of the angels who stand before the throne of God singing eternal praise.

In a word, Mont Saint Michel’s transcendent beauty is an example of divine grace. Grace is the created participation in the uncreated life of God. When men correspond to the grace of God, the great marvels of history are worked and angelic edifices such as Mont Saint Michel are built.

The Catholic calendar reads for the feast of Saint Michael: Saint Michael, Prince of the Heavenly Host fought the rebel angels in the heavenly battle. He continues to lead the battle to free us from the devil. Our guardian angels depend on him. He is the custodian angel of the Church and the one who presents the Eucharistic Oblation to the Eternal Father. We are in the novena of Our Lady of the Rosary and in the novena of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces.

I call your attention to the fact that Saint Michael is the chief who fought against the devil and cast him into hell. He is the leader of the guardian angels of individuals and also of the guardian angels of institutions. He is himself the guardian angel of the Institution of institutions, the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Therefore, he has a custodian function, which one may ask how it relates to his attitude or mission of casting into hell those who rose up against Our Lord, on the one hand, and on the other hand the protection he gives the Church and men in this vale of tears and in this arena of life. And we see that these two missions are related. He defended God; God wanted to use him as His shield against the devil. God wants him to be the shield of men against the devil. God wants him to be the shield of the Holy Catholic Church against the devil. But he is not merely a shield: he is also a sword. He not only defends but also defeats and casts into hell.

This is, therefore, the twofold mission of Saint Michael. This is why in the Middle Ages the knights considered Saint Michael the first of all knights; the heavenly knight, perfectly loyal as a knight must be, ideally strong as a knight must be, pure as an angel as a knight must be, and victorious as a knight must be; a knight who placed his whole confidence in God, and then, after she was born, also in Our Lady.

So we should consider admirable Saint Michael as our natural ally in the struggle; because the counter-revolutionary movement wants to be nothing other than a group of men who execute, on a human level, mutatis mutandis, the task of Saint Michael the Archangel; in other words, to defend the honour of God, the glory of Our Lady, the Catholic Church, and Christian civilization. Therefore, we see this has an enormous affinity with us and that it is very fitting for counter-revolutionaries to make Saint Michael the Archangel their special patron.

Dom Guéranger has a text on the angels’ contemplative devotion:

“The Church considers Saint Michael as the mediator of her liturgical prayer. He stands between humanity and divinity. For His own glory, God, Who has established in admirable fashion the visible and invisible hierarchies, abundantly uses in His service these heavenly spirits who incessantly contemplate the adorable face of the Father and who know, better than men, how to contemplate the beauty of His infinite perfections.”

This is where it goes on to say that Saint Michael also presents the Eucharistic oblation to the Eternal Father. And this is also how he appeared to the three little shepherds at Fatima — with the chalice in hand.

“Mi – cha – El: who is like God? Of itself, this name expresses, in its brevity, the most perfect adoration, the most complete recognition of divine transcendence, and a creature’s humblest confession of his own nothingness; he is, therefore, the model of humility.”

Because he who exclaims that no one is like God, exclaims that he himself is nothing; this is perfect humility. The knight’s form of humility is not a gooey, sugary and illogic sentimentality.

“So also the Church invites the heavenly spirits to bless the Lord and sing His praises; to laud and bless Him incessantly. This contemplative vocation of the angels is the model of our own, as the beautiful preface to the Sacramentary of Saint Leo reminds us. It is truly fitting to render graces to Thee Who teaches us through the Apostle that our lives are meant for heaven; Who benevolently wishes us to transport ourselves in spirit to the place where these whom we venerate serve Thee, and especially to soar to those heights on the feast of the blessed Saint Michael the Archangel.”

This is a remarkable trait of devotion to the angels. The angels are inhabitants of the heavenly Court. And in the heavenly Court they live in eternal contemplation, a contemplation of one who sees God face-to-face; and all the great mystics tell us about their visions of parties that are held in heaven, which are true feasts indeed. They are not mere images or chimeras; they are true feasts in which God successively manifests His grandeurs and they acclaim Him with new triumphs which absolutely never end.

There is a heavenly happiness, a sense that heaven is the homeland of our soul and precisely the order of things for which we have been created; the one that fully corresponds to all our aspirations. There is such a sense of heavenly happiness through the face-to-face contemplation of God, Who is the absolute perfection of all things that some of it can and must transpire to earth. And in epochs of true faith some of that happiness filters down; something of that piety is felt by pious souls and communicated through the most pious ones to become a common treasure of the whole Church.

And that is what we lack so direly nowadays: One has no idea of heavenly happiness; and without the idea of a heavenly happiness one has no appetite for heaven; and people wallow in the sheer craving of the goods of the earth. But if they were able to understand even for a moment what the consolation of the Holy Ghost is like, what a grace from the Holy Ghost is like, what type of happiness the consideration of the heavenly goods actually brings; if they were able to understand that even for a minute they would begin to become detached from the goods of the earth and to understand how everything is fleeting, how all this is nothing, how there are values which are above all this and make the earth a little handful of dust.

That is exactly what is missing and what the angels can obtain for us; they, who are inundated with this happiness and, once in a while, communicate it to the saints. There is a kind of mystical phenomenon which is a concert — Saint Thérèse the Little Flower experienced it and tells about in The Story of a Soul — a marvellous, faraway concert with marvellous, otherworldly harmonies. It is a little bit of the eternal canticle of the angels that thus arrives to the ears of the blessed, precisely to give them an appetite for the things of heaven.

This appetite is abysmally absent in our times. Many people are only interested in and enthralled with things of the earth — money, politicking, worldliness, trivia in the daily news — but they are not enthused with elevated things, doctrinal things, and even less for specifically heavenly things.

Let us therefore ask the angels to communicate to us this desire of heavenly things with which they overflow. This is an excellent intention to be added to the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel: that he make us his imitators and perfect knights of Our Lady on this earth.

This Is How Saint Michael Cast Out Satan From Robbie Mannheim

This year marks the seventieth anniversary of the only documented exorcism in the United States of America.1 This is important because one of the biggest lies of the devil is to convince mankind that he does not exist. This perhaps explains the stunned reaction of audiences to the dramatized version of this exorcism in the 1973 movie The Exorcist.

The scenes in the film were so gruesome that they caused many theatre-goers to throw up while others fainted and had to be taken away by ambulance. One man leaving the theater said it best: “I believe, I believe!” This was the testimony of someone who once again believed in the devil.

While the vivid scenes of the movie showed the horror and repugnance of demonic possession, it left out the most important part of the true story of this possessed Maryland boy. He was freed from the devil’s clutches through the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima and the power of Saint Michael.

The state of world events is so uncertain that it is impossible to know the conditions in which we will celebrate Christmas or what the New Year will bring. This is a Christmas in which Canadians are filled with uncertainty, trials and insecurity.

One could rightly ask:

“Is it proper to have these concerns during Christmastime? Shouldn’t we have only consolations, joys and satisfactions during this season?”

To answer this question, we should consider the first Christmas night. Saint Joseph and, above all, Our Lady were filled with inexpressible joy in the grotto in Bethlehem.

However, before the Child Jesus was born, they suffered affliction. They had spent the night seeking a dignified place for Our Lord’s birth. Saint Joseph was humiliated seeing that his spouse would have to deliver the Christ Child in a stable where animals ate. While there could not have been a more stupendous event that evening, neither could there have been humbler surroundings.

The manger was all Saint Joseph and Our Lady had to offer the Child Jesus. Thus, the evening was filled with unfathomable joys, but also had its sufferings.

Although the Christ Child knew that Providence had dictated the conditions of His birth, it is possible that Our Lady and Saint Joseph did not know. They could have been filled with doubts concerning the reasons for their poor surroundings, perhaps even attributing them to a wrongdoing of their own. Though faultless, Saint Joseph, who was most responsible for providing for the Holy Family, probably asked Our Lord’s pardon for the lowly accommodations he had furnished for His delivery.

Nevertheless, the evening’s joys overcame all its sadnesses to such an extent, that the latter were completely forgotten.

We should celebrate Christmas in the same manner, though we be concerned with the crisis in the Church and breakdown of society and aware of our insufficiency to face these calamities.

Realizing that we are chosen to follow Our Lady throughout these troubling times should fill us with joy and overcome the sadness we endure for our personal failings and the godlessness that surrounds us.

At the feet of the newborn Christ Child, we should thank Him for having called us to this struggle and these times. We should realize that we are only capable of resisting through His Redemption for which His birth was a necessary condition. We ought to express this gratitude through the intercession of Our Lady, the Universal Mediatrix, and Saint Joseph.

We should ask Saint Joseph, Our Lady and the Christ Child for a soul continually mindful of Our Lady’s words at Fatima:

“Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!”

Thus, we will be able to overcome all sadness and advance joyfully in the fight, seeking heroism and even sacrifice.

Thus, Canada Needs Our Lady prays that Our Lady grant you this indomitable joy for Christmas and bring you ever closer to her and her Divine Son!

...the “Audacious Dream”

“God manifested Himself to us in a marvelous manner.”

It is December 25, and the world stops for a brief moment. It can only be a short pause on Christmas day because there are too many “important” things to be done, places to go and people to see. But, before the world must return to the frenetic intemperance of the daily hustle and bustle, this quick respite is enough to give a most necessary and calm reprieve of sanity, peace and order to our burdened souls.

Of course, the world does not stop willingly. It even tries to secure some advantage from this unnecessary break by making frantic attempts to commercialize and secularize the feast. Despite it all, the peace of Christmas somehow prevails.

Stopping for Christmas challenges the modern world. To those enmeshed in our secular society, the birth of the Christ Child interrupts their lives with moral considerations that they would prefer not to consider. To practical atheists, Christmas is a curiosity that provokes painful memories of innocence long lost.

Shallow Christians find the feast to be a sentimental time for some vague joy that they prefer not to make more profound. All these are somehow threatened by the date; yet all are forced, willing and unwilling, to stop to observe it.

However, faithful Christians everywhere are not threatened but strengthened by Christmas. We stop because Christmas reminds us that we are called to live in the presence of an Almighty God of infinite grandeur and majesty. This fact provokes in us a sense of wonder at the immense gulf between the Creator and His creatures.

Seeing our wonder and our desire to understand Him, God manifested Himself to us in a marvelous manner. He incites in us great aspirations or dreams for a better world to come. He bridged the gulf by presenting to us that which Catholic thinker Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira called the “most striking, indisputable, and audacious dream imaginable.”

That dream was the fact that the Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us. On Christmas night, we hear the antiphon that proclaims this daring reality: Puer natus est nobis, Et filius datus est nobis, “For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us.” (Is. 9:6)

On that ineffable night when our Saviour was born to Mary Ever Virgin, an immense impossibility became possible: the God-Man was born and revealed Himself to us. On that holy and silent night, one can sense the sweetness and perfection that emanated from the Divine Infant in the manger in Bethlehem. He who seemed so inaccessible suddenly became accessible to all, kings and shepherds. He who appears so weak became powerful enough to stop the whole world for centuries to come.

To honour the grandeur of that sublime moment, we must stop not just once but every year to marvel at this fact that only increases our wonder at this good God that gave to us His only Begotten Son.

However, there is yet a greater reason for us to stop and marvel. The Birth of Christ also signaled the coming of a Redeemer who, for love of us, would reestablish the link broken by our first parents. In that marvelous and joyful Birth, we find foreshadowed the sorrows of His Passion. We stop and adore He who was born so that we might be redeemed, saved and united with Him for all eternity.

Finally, we stop because Christmas means much more than just our personal salvation. Christ made possible a civilization we call Christian. From the poverty of the manger in Bethlehem, an immensely rich channel of grace was opened for us. From Heaven descended torrents of blessings, which paved the way for the most audacious dreams and the immense possibilities of a world centered on the sublime principles, virtues and teachings of the Gospel. In Christendom, it became possible to practice the Commandments and evangelical counsels, inside an order that the pagan world then judged (and today’s neo-pagan nightmare still judges) impossible.

That is why everyone stops for Christmas. The powerful image of the Christ Child still has the capacity of capturing the modern imagination if only for a brief moment, amidst a world of sin and distractions. During the blessed season, the grace of God still reaches out and draws all men of good will toward Him despite so much rejection.

Others stop for the wrong reasons. Sadly, some atheists or rationalists stop merely to smirk at such considerations. They do not realize that, by limiting themselves to their sterile musings, they embrace the narrow vision of a soulless and pragmatic world, bereft of wonder.

But for those of us who celebrate a Merry Christmas (and not unhappy holidays), we stop at this time every year to recreate a marvelous wonder world visibly expressed by decorated trees, Nativity scenes and joyous caroling that reflect this joyful reality of Christ’s coming.

More importantly, we gather inside our souls the peace of the Christ Child that calls us to return to order by realigning ourselves to live in function of a world created by God, turned toward God, and where God shows Himself actively intervening out of love for us.

“Send down the dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One: let the earth be opened, and bud forth the Redeemer.”

Thus begins the Advent hymn, “Rorate Caeli,” that mournfully calls upon God to hear our prayers. We are made to sigh with longings, as the Fathers of old, asking God to consider not our iniquities. The hymn ends with the assurance that “I will save thee, be not afraid, For I am the Lord Thy God, The Holy One of Israel, Thy Redeemer.”

As we enter Advent, most people will breeze through the season without reflection on its meaning. They will prepare for our secular celebration of Christmas with parties and shopping. Few will apply the lessons of this most august liturgical season to their daily lives.

For faithful Catholics, observing Advent should mean putting ourselves in a position analogous to the Fathers of old. This can be more easily done by imagining ourselves in the plight of the Prodigal Son.

Indeed, we are in much the same situation as the Prodigal Son. We find ourselves, through our own faults and those of society, in an agitated and frenzied world that is not our true home. We suffer amid an immoral world that only lives for pleasures and amusements. We desire to return home but do not know how to do it.

Thus, we should observe a “Prodigal Son” Advent. Here are three ways to make this liturgical season more meaningful to our lives.

Advent: From the Latin ad-venio, to come to.

“Send down the dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One: let the earth be opened, and bud forth the Redeemer.”

These words of the Advent hymn, Rorate Caeli, echo the longings of the Fathers of old for the coming of a Redeemer who would blot out our iniquities and save us.

Words like these can also awaken an appetite for wondrous, divine things far superior to earthly considerations. No fleeting delight the world can offer compares with the deep and spiritual joy these heavenly topics bring.

Such thoughts touch us because God gave us a natural capacity to know Him and supernatural reality. Our souls sigh for Him and the superior reflections that will satisfy our yearnings. In vain do we seek beauty, happiness and well-being without touching upon this higher realm of transcendentals found in the supernatural order.

When, through our malice, we do not tend to those good and heavenly things proper to our nature, we reach for their contrary. We become attracted to horrendous and vile things that favour our most deep-rooted and unbridled passions.

So many today have descended this dark path. The sense of true spiritual joy seems to have abandoned the world, and an earthly and macabre feast absorbs ever-greater numbers of people. We can say that this dark spectacle prepares humanity for the adoration of the devil.

However, from the depth of our decadence and abandonment, we can sense the same yearnings as the Fathers of old. They longed for the coming of the Saviour. Thus, hymns like the Rorate Caeli can speak to our souls amid the dark anxiety.

This Advent, we must ardently ask Our Lady for graces that will rain down like the dew in the night, to irrigate and make fecund this hymn’s sublime scriptural words that call us back to God. We need graces that will touch those devastated by our modern world, graces of restoration.

This heavenly dew would give humanity what it now rejects. We hope that it will trigger a process whereby we might disconnect from the macabre self-centered world of frenetic intemperance and embrace that most profound and eternal order of things that shines like the star of Bethlehem. We will then feel the relief and joy of abandoning this evil world and fulfilling our soul’s noblest yearnings.

The hymn ends with the assurance that “I will save thee. Be not afraid, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.”

Thus, this Advent, we must ask with an insistent ardour that the gates of Heaven open and, once again, let shine the lumen Christi, the light of Christ upon the earth, initiating the triumph and reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.