A retired New York bishop has filed for personal bankruptcy protection in federal court after a state jury verdict found him, along with other officials, personally liable for the collapse of a Catholic hospital pension fund that left about 1,100 retirees without the lifetime monthly payments they were expecting.

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December 22, 2025

Our Morning Offering – 22 December – Exsultet Orbis! Let the World Rejoice! Feast of St Thomas, Apostle


One Minute Reflection – 22 December – “Blessed are they who have not seen and yet, have believed.” – John 20:29

Feria (Fourth Sunday of Advent) propers & Advent Antiphons (EF)

Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent commentary & prayer (Gueranger) (EF)

Advent Weekday readings & commentary (OF)

Advent: December 22nd readings & commentary (OF)
December 22, O King of the Nations (O Rex Gentium)

Daily Gospel

ADVENTCAzT 2025 – 23 – Monday 4th Week of Advent – “Thy kingdom come!”

Saint Ischyrion Martyr in Alexandria

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

Saints of the Day

The Final Days Before Christmas — 4th Sunday of Advent Explained
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O Rex Gentium (December 22)
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Audio version of Gueranger
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The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation banning so-called gender transition procedures for minors, but the measure looks likely to stall in the closely divided U.S.

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More than 1,000 police, SWAT and paramilitary units carried out a crackdown on Christian churches across at least 12 congregations for days in Yayang Town, Zhejiang province, detaining hundreds, according to a watchdog report.

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Please pray that Jesus will heal the pain I am having and that it's nothing that I have to be seen for. I ask in Jesus name and if it is God's will. THank you and God bless you. Carmen

The Pentagon hosted a first-of-its-kind outdoor Christmas worship service led by evangelical leader Franklin Graham. Hundreds of military personnel and civilians gathered in the Pentagon courtyard to hear Graham’s Christmas message and enjoy performances by Christian singers Matthew West and Anne Wilson. The hour-long event highlights Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ongoing initiative to host evangelical prayer services at the Pentagon. Attendees also had the opportunity to meet Graham and his son Edward, a former Army officer and Samaritan’s Purse COO.

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Just a simple prayer for my son Jakeb's health and happiness. He gets very depressed at Christmas and holidays and I'm afraid this year might be extra hard for him. Please pray that God protects him and keeps bad thoughts out of his head and gives him some joy. I ask in the name of Jesus. Thank you and God bless you.

A change to priestly formation programs in the Diocese of Charlotte will see seminarians spend a year as high school or middle school teachers. Charlotte’s Bishop Michael Martin says the move will give seminarians a chance to experience the “ordinary demands” of Catholic lay life, and to better understand how to teach the Catholic faith.

But the plan has prompted some pushback among diocesan clerics, with sources saying both that the idea is a disruption to priestly formation, and that Catholics in the diocese are experiencing a kind of “Martin fatigue” — a sense that the area’s new bishop has made major changes without sufficient consultation of local Catholics and clergy.

Some priests in Charlotte say they are overwhelmed by recent liturgical and administrative changes in their diocese — and that those changes have impacted clerical morale.

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I thought it might be good for Christians to know about this in some way here.

A disturbing pattern is taking shape, and it is long past time we stop pretending otherwise.

From Australia to American college campuses, from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, recent acts of violence and terror are not random eruptions of chaos. They are symptoms of a deeper ideological sickness that is metastasizing across the West. These incidents point to the same underlying threat: the steady advance of Islamization working in concert with radical leftist movements, united by a shared hostility toward Judeo-Christian values, and moral order.

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Not sure if posting this thread will even work but a lot of us are affected by the glitches in the forum that prevent posting. I was unable to post a reply a minute ago, not sure if making a whole new thread is also a problem. At any rate, for times like these I wanted to share this invite link to the OBOB Discord server I made a while back. You don't have to download anything if you don't want to, just click this link and the chat can run on your web browser. You may have to sign up to make a username or something but it's free.

If we can't have discussions on here for the time being we can at least carry them over to Discord until CF is fixed.


Cheers.

Many of my posts contradict traditional and, often times, denominational theologies. As a result, I inevitably get someone responding in a condescending or patronizing manner. I get it. We are all fallible, and often times reaction tends to proceed a thoughtful response.

So, I thought I would take a moment and give some insight into my thought process, as well as a followup to my last post, "To Hell or Not To Hell."

My approach to truth and Scripture works like this: truth does not depend on our agreement or support. It exists on its own and remains true whether we recognize it or not. Because truth describes reality, it is always logical. It will never contradict the basic laws that allow us to understand the world we live in. Those same laws are what make truth recognizable in the first place.

So when something in Scripture appears to violate logic or contradict reality, the most likely problem is not the truth itself, but our understanding of it. In those cases, it is far more reasonable to assume that we are misunderstanding what the author was communicating to his original audience. Scripture was written in a different time, culture, and language, and meaning is shaped by those contexts. If we ignore that, we risk reading our assumptions into the text instead of understanding what was actually being said.

When I say "logic" I am talking about coherence with reality as God designed it. Simply put... Because truth describes reality, it is always coherent; therefore, when Scripture seems illogical, the problem is not truth itself but our understanding of the text.

That is basically how I approach scripture.

As a followup to my last post...

I discovered purely by coincidence that my conclusion is what is understood to be "Conditionalism." Something I learned from a Podcast by Kirk Cameron. A podcast that has created a lot of backlash for Kirk. Every response to his podcast, that I saw, was in defence of eternal punishment. Something him and I were both brought up initially believing. So of course, I couldn't help but wonder if both Him and I are just simply misunderstanding what has been written in scripture. After giving it a lot of thought, and again, following my thought process, I have come to the conclusion that both Kirk and I are standing on solid ground. Let's follow the logic through...

- Eternal is a state of perfection. Imperfection cannot exist eternally. Anything imperfect breaks down, deteriorates, changes, and moves towards an end.

- Punishment presupposes imperfection. It assumes guilt, deficiency, unresolved wrong doing, and a lack of restoration. It is a response to imperfection.

Therefore, eternal punishment creates a contradiction. If punishment were eternal, it would mean that imperfection never ends and justice is never completed. This would imply that God's judgment never finishes and His justice is never satisfied.

Basically.... to be eternal and perfection go together, because anything imperfect eventually breaks down. Punishment exists because something is wrong, not because something is complete. If punishment lasted forever, imperfection would also last forever, which would mean creation is never fully restored. For that reason, eternal punishment and eternal perfection are logically at odds with each other.

Annihilation without punishment denies God's justice. Whereas, a duration of Punishment followed by a natural death, as I explained in my post, but could also be understood as eventual annihilation, allows for not only God's justice, but also His love and grace even towards those who did not love him back.

St. Andrew's Chapel, which was founded by the late theologian R.C. Sproul in 1997, overwhelmingly voted earlier this week to leave the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) after just two years in the denomination.

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Video:

Tom Homan warns 'bloodshed' will continue unless 'hateful rhetoric' from politicians stops​

Everyone needs to follow the law and respect those who are trying to follow the law and who care about the welfare of everyone. Homan stressed how many women and children are not dying or not being abused by closing the border. Those who continue with the violent rhetoric need to stop.

The Gift of Healing.

It's important to note that the gift of healing is healing through human agency. It's not when God sometimes answers faithful prayer, even sometimes miraculously. That would be a redefinition of the gift of healing and is unbiblical. Everyone has the right to cry out in prayer and ask for anything. Sometimes God answers those prayers and sometimes, though very rarely, it can be answered in a miraculous manner. But mostly those prayers are answered through providence. That being non miraculous means. God providentially governs everything. It doesn't need to be a miracle for it to be from God.

Here is the Biblical gift of healing...

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Luke 4:40 When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.

Jesus healed them all.

Acts 5:12-16 And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch. so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Peter healed them all.

Acts 28:9 So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed.

Paul healed them all.

That's the Biblical standard for the gift of healing.

The gift of healing was limited to Jesus, the Apostles, the seventy, and a few close associates like Phillip. It was never meant for the purpose that is wrongly being taught today. It was meant to confirm the message and the messenger. We now have the faith once for all delivered. People are quick to point out that healing and miracles are listed as gifts for the Church in some books from the Bible, but what they fail to realize is that Apostles are among those listed as the gifted because they were part of God's plan at that time and therefore also part of His Church.

Of the whole history of man in scripture, miracles through human agency were performed in three brief periods of time, each being about one hundred years. You can confirm this in your Bible if you do a study about when the miracles were happening. With the exception of a very few miracles like Samson's, the rest of them are clustered together in three one hundred year periods. In each of those one hundred year periods God was speaking to His people and that always resulted in what He said being recorded (His written Word). But now we have the faith that was once for all delivered.

Healing in the atonement.

Many charismatics claim that Isaiah 53 is proof that there is healing in the atonement, and therefore that results in the gift of healing for today. Let's take a closer look at Isaiah 53 and see what God was saying. The correct context of that chapter must be considered.

Isaiah1:4-6 Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment.

In Isaiah 1, God was using physical sickness as a analogy for spiritual sickness from sin when speaking of Israel. Considering that context, Isaiah 53 makes perfect sense.

Isaiah 53:3-6 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The right context doesn't allow modern charismatic interpretations of Isaiah 53.

Now...still not convinced?

1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.

The apostle Peter applies Isaiah 53:5 to salvation from sin.

Again, lets look further into the context,

1 Peter 2:25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

The expression healed (In 1 Peter 2:24) Means "to be forgiven." The phrase "but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." shows what Peter means by "healed" in verse 24.

Now, to the question "Is there healing in the atonement"?

There is a sense in which physical healing took place in the atoning work of Christ, but that healing waits to be realized in the future. The physical part of salvation (a physical wholeness) is something we look forward to, not something we possess today.

Rev. 21:4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

The healing ministry of Jesus...

Matthew 8:16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick,

8:17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses."

Now, you say that this means we're to claim healing in the atonement, and in a sense that is correct. Other than the authentication of the message and the messenger, Jesus healed people to illustrate the healing in the glory to come. But that's not yet realized. If the healing of the atonement were fully realized now, no Christian would ever be sick or die. The atoning work of Christ spiritually transforms us now and will physically transform us in the future.

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Note: This is not to say that God cannot and does not heal today, even miraculously if He so desires. What it does mean is that He heals according to His will in answer to faithful prayer and no longer heals through the gift of healing (through human agency). It is not God's purpose that all Christians live in perfect health and many times God has a purpose in sickness. Never the less, it is all from God.

Miracle in the Biblical sense of the word...."a miracle is an extraordinary work of God that involves His immediate and unmistakable intervention in the physical realm in a way that contravenes natural processes.

Providence....."Providence is Gods faithful, moment-by-moment control over everything He has made to ensure that everything He has created achieves the end He has chosen."

Many people today confuse providence with miracles (In the Biblical sense of the word). I believe what is happening today is that people are being taught to see Him only in miracles, and as a result, they are trying to make everything into a miracle. But God does not need for us to try to make everything into a miracle to be glorified. He did not create the universe and wind it up like a top just let go, occasionally intervening with a miracle here and there. He created the universe and governs it by His providence. He is intimately involved in every aspect of our lives. All of it. We will glorify God most if we see this. God is sovereign over all things, not just in miracles.

The gift of healing is not for today. The Bible, and the [lack of] evidences prove this overwhelmingly.

Dave

President Donald Trump at a Dec. 19 rally threw his support behind "My Pillow Guy" Mike Lindell, touting him as his favorite to be the next governor of Minnesota.

A former crack addict, Lindell and his company came to national attention for his offbeat, mostly late-night TV commercials pitching his pillows. In recent years, he’s become known for backing Trump's claims of fraud after the 2020 presidential election.

Israeli officials have grown increasingly concerned that Iran is expanding production of its ballistic missile program, which was damaged by Israeli military strikes earlier this year, and are preparing to brief President Donald Trump about options for attacking it again, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans and four former U.S. officials briefed on the plans.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to meet later this month in Florida at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. At that meeting, the sources said, Netanyahu is expected to make the case to Trump that Iran’s expansion of its ballistic missile program poses a threat that could necessitate swift action.

The federal government has now filed lawsuits against 21 states, plus D.C., demanding registrants’ unredacted private information — including driver license numbers, social security numbers and dates of birth — in a campaign decried by local officials and legal experts as an unconstitutional attack on states’ authority to run elections and an illegal attempt to create an unprecedented national voter database.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon heralded the lawsuit against Georgia in recent interviews, complaining that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) had told her to “pound sand” in response to her voter data demands.

...In refusing the DOJ’s demands, states say the agency lacks the authority to compel production of the data and has failed to ensure compliance with federal and state privacy laws.

Dhillon has promised to sue every state that does not comply with the DOJ’s demands.

The complaint filed by the DOJ in D.C. included drafting comments from voting section trial attorney Brittany E. Bennett, who represented the Georgia GOP in a failed lawsuit that sought to ban the state from using Dominion voting machines.

Evangelicals, non-denominational Christians and people who identify with no religion are the leading religious groups among the majority of Americans who oppose the rapid increase in the number of artificial intelligence-generated videos on social media, according to findings from a new study that has surprised researchers.

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January 1, 2026: I first posted this video about the Trump Prophecy in the News section of the forum since I wanted to be able to give others the opportunity to think for themselves and hopefully support what God Wills for their lives (FreeforChrist moved the original post here so I'm editing it). And I think that that is important since I've witnessed how God saves from satan's deception (In my case, I was saved from what I call an "alien or strange" invasion from satan that it was able to execute by manipulating an unsuspecting person who didn't know God. From what I could tell, this person thought she could make me need her in some way if she followed what satan wanted her to do. We were in 5th Grade. The whole class was present even the teacher. I'm not sure exactly who God sent or how many but back then I thought it was Jesus. Right now I think it was Michael but It could have been Jesus and a whole host of angels since I don't know the severity of the invasion).
People should know that God is serving justice by making it clear who is accepting His Love or not. I personally call this "news." I consider a "conspiracy" a detailing of what kind of lie/plan satan is using to get people to think they can deal with satan without God or support others in that.