The Te Deum: Giving Thanks and Praise to God
There is an eschatological note to this final day of the calendar year, as there was a month ago in the end of the liturgical year with Christ the King, and the beginning of Advent. In the first reading this morning, the Apostle John warns of Antichrist, and that already many antichrists have come, whose spirit may be recognized primarily, as the Apostle warns elsewhere, in the denial of Christ’s Incarnation – see, Arianism, and Islam today. We may extend this. to include opposition to the Church, the sacraments, to the truth of the end and purpose of Man. As the Catechism puts it, the antichrist will preach a ‘secular messianism’, a salvation in this world alone, that our happiness and security are to be found in the hic et nunc, the here and now – in fact, ‘stay safe’ might be his motto. Hence, radical environmentalism and ‘population control’ – becoming more bizarre and cult-like, bitter fruits of the socialism, and communism, and the moral disorders of hedonism, selfism, relativism, transgenderism, with an easy euthanasia when it all becomes too much and the inevitable suffering becomes ‘intolerable’.
Catholics are full of hope, but not in this world. Our true hope, as Pope Benedict points out in his encyclical Spe Salvi, is in heaven. So we take all things from the hand of God, whose providence brings good out of all. So we Christians live in joy and expectation in the midst of the strife, like children, in laughter, life and love itself, with each new year bringing us a little closer to eternal life, for which we were made, and hopefully many new little souls to enjoy that life (see Sean Fitzpatrick’s reflection, and Terry McDermott’s marvelous piece in these pages on children who offer their brief lives and their crosses to Christ. How much we ‘adults’ have yet to learn!).
On that note, we are offered a plenary indulgence for reciting – or, better yet, singing! – the Church’s ancient hymn of praise and gratitude, the Te Deum on this New Year’s Eve. We should give thanks for all things, our works, prayers, joys and, yes, our own sufferings. So rejoice, belt it out, loud and clear, and fill thyself with grand, good cheer, for our redemption is nearer at hand now than it was last year.
And may 2025 be filled with Christ’s grace, peace and truth, for one and all.
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Closed, Unsustainable, Descending Loop
As a follow-up to my thoughts on Payette’s payout, here be a stark image of where are here in Canada. As the graph shows in, well, graphic terms, since 2025, the public sector has contributed to 95.5% of economic growth. The private sector – which funds the public sector, or is supposed to – has[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Presidential Pardon of Weronika Krawczyk
As a good news, follow-up to our story from Poland, of the persecution of Weronika Krawczyk for her pro-life views, we heard that she has been granted a presidential pardon. One might still wonder why one needs a presidential pardon for simply holding the long-held belief that the child within the womb is a child,[…]Continue reading→
Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000 1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]Continue reading→
Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→
Pope Leo and a Rosary for Peace
Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics across the world to join him in a Rosary for peace today, at 18:00 Rome time (6 pm), which would be noon from where I write (EST). If you are able, whether at that time or another, and in whatever way you pray, to join in intercession with the[…]Continue reading→
Payette’s Payout
I was glancing through some headlines, and noticed a mention of Julie Payette – engineer and astronaut and sometime the Queen’s representative in Canada – which brought back vague memories. She was appointed Governor-General by Justin Trudeau in 2017. Ms. Payette resigned in 2021, amidst claims that she created a ‘toxic work environment’, with allegations[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→