Franciscan Media – A feast called the Conception of Mary arose in the Eastern Church in the seventh century. It came to the West in the eighth century. In the 11th century it received its present name, the Immaculate Conception. In the 18th century it became a feast of the universal Church. It is now recognized as a solemnity.

By Dr. Donald DeMarco, Catholic Exchange – The life of Christ is the greatest story ever told. But in terms of popularity, and thanks to television, our two most popular Christmas stories, that return to charm us each Christmas Season, are Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Franks Capra’s cinematic production of It’s a Wonderful Life. The latter was inspired by Civil War historian Philip Van Doren Stern’s short story, The Greatest Gift, written in 1943. Charles Dickens published his masterpiece exactly 100 years earlier.

By Stephen Moore, CNSNews – The study implies that consumers who pay with plastic and rack up reward points receive a $756 “subsidy” per year, while the poorer people who pay with cash pay $23 more. Egads. That’s the price of a movie ticket… Left-wing agitators have asked the Federal Reserve Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to do something about these inequities. Don’t be surprised if congressional members who hate credit card companies, including Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, call for regulations or cancellations of reward programs.

By Robert L. Kinney III, LifeSiteNews – A federal law change just weeks before COVID-19 hit America changed the definition of “covert agents” to include those who live and act in the United States – raising new questions about the government’s classified national security “exercises” and possible falsification of the COVID crisis… Previous articles discussed information which suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic may be a hoax, ruse, ploy, covert operational exercise, or national security exercise.

By Pamela Danziger, The Federalist – If you only watched corporate media’s coverage of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Organization abortion case before the Supreme Court this week, you’d think very few people still believed in Christianity and its values, prominent among which is the belief that life is divinely created and precious. But a recent poll suggests the majority of Americans do express a belief in God… In a survey of some 6,500 American adults, Pew Research Center found that many Americans still hold religious convictions including a deep and abiding belief in God, belief in heaven and hell, and the belief that God is not to blame for human suffering.

By Dan Gelernter, American Greatness – The federal government was not, of course, intended to be what it has become: the daily manager of every citizen’s life. The founders envisioned a federal government that remained in the background, available when it was necessary to get all the states fighting together to win a war, present to help explain a unified foreign policy, and above all to guarantee that goods and people could flow freely from one state to another with no impediment.

By Trey Blanton, Church Militant – After 16 years, Germany is changing leadership. Germans who oppose mandatory jabs will find that the newest “reich” on the block has no concern for fundamental freedoms… German forces are stomping down on the unvaccinated, whom the incoming chancellor blames for continuing cases of the China virus.

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture – All governmental forms can be used for either good or evil, and this is almost completely dependent on the virtue of those who govern. The ancient Greeks already knew that monarchy could be good or bad depending on the monarch, that aristocracy (the rule of the best) could easily degenerate into oligarchy (the rule of the wealthy, powerful and selfish few), and that democracy can degenerate into mob rule.

By Matthew Meritt, Crisis Magazine – The faithful can be thankful for priests who take their duties seriously, being a reproach to the world if they must, at the cost of their worldly reputations. As Chesterton says in his book Orthodoxy, “One can hardly think too little of one’s self. One can hardly think too much of one’s soul… Likewise, one can hardly think too much of the priest’s primary job—and those who tend to it faithfully, reminding their flocks of the reality of sin and forgiveness, both for them and the unfortunate priests in the news today.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – Billionaire Elon Musk dismissed all the fear-mongering about overpopulation Tuesday in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, saying people really should be concerned about rapidly declining birth rates… Unlike other famous billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who believe the world is growing overpopulated, Musk said depopulation is the real problem.

By John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews – With all the important news surrounding the global medical tyranny taking focus recently, this one issue taking place in the Catholic Church might have lost some attention. That is Pope Francis’ latest synod: the two-year long “Synod on Synodality: Communion, Participation, and Mission.”.. Catholic Family News, Matt Gaspers.. has read through the documents of the Synod on Synodality and explained what they mean.

By Claire Chretien, LifeSiteNews – The simple reason that “my body, my choice” does not work as an argument for abortion is because the unborn child being aborted is not part of his mother’s body. A child in the womb is a whole, distinct, living human being, with his own DNA, heartbeat, organs, and unique blood type. Your right to “reproductive freedom” does not include a right to violently dismember and destroy the body of your offspring.

By Mark Danis, Integrated Catholic Life – We should each make one firm decision right now, even before we finish reading this reflection. Let us all agree that we are going to make this the single best Advent of our entire lives… Go ahead, just say it to yourself. “I am absolutely committed to making this the best Advent of my life.”

By Spencer Lindquist, The Federalist – While documenting my former high school’s attempt to indoctrinate me with critical race theory six years ago, I remarked that now, several years later, “the situation has undoubtedly worsened.” Worsened it has. Now, Campbell Union High School District has promoted more than 100 “equity resources” to students and staff, including a document that taught students how to put a curse on those who say “all lives matter.”

By Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas, The Catholic Thing – Advent is a season concerned with developing particular attitudes more than prescribing certain actions. One difficulty of modern man is not that he does wrong things (although he does) as much as that he thinks wrong thoughts. Correct thinking leads to correct behavior. In theological language: Orthodoxy brings about orthopraxis.