Christmas approaches once again, the celebration of the incomprehensible love of the Holy Trinity for mankind and all His creation, which caused the Son of God to empty Himself, be united to frail and fallen human flesh, and be born as a little child after his conception and growth in the womb of His Most Pure Mother, Mary, from whom He received His human flesh.

There are sometimes speculations about what the world would be like if Christ had never been born.  Unfortunately for us, speculation is not necessary.  Evidence of a world free from the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ is all around us.

What would governments celebrate if Christ had not come?  Satanism, which is occurring in Iowa:

A Satanic idol and altar has been placed in the Iowa Capitol building for the Christmas season, with some Republican lawmakers even defending it.

The Satanic Temple, a “non-theistic religious group” that promotes ritualistic abortions, installed the display last week, which features a ram’s head gilded with mirrors on a mannequin cloaked in red with a pentagram that will remain until Friday, Dec. 15.

. . . But Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) and State Rep. Jon Dunwell (R) faced backlash for defending the idol placed in the Capitol building, saying it was within the Satanic Temple’s free speech rights.

What would health scientists do if Christ had not been born?  Invent gene therapy injections for people that have been insufficiently tested and that regularly manifest new dangers, as with the covid shots:

A new study by published in the journal Nature last week revealed that the mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) COVID-19 gene therapies can unexpectedly cause cells of the body to misread the mRNA coding and produce unintended proteins (also known as ribosomes), a process described in the study as “frameshifting.”

What would environmental scientists do if Christ did not incarnate?  Dream up totalitarian schemes that would decimate humanity, such as those issuing from COP28, the UN, etc.:

Asked about “fossil fuel” elimination in 2019, Greenpeace co-founder and former Greenpeace Canada President Dr. Patrick Moore, an environmental scientist, said eliminating hydrocarbon energy would be a “recipe for mass suicide.” “It’s amazing that somebody in government would propose that we eliminate all fossil fuels in 12 years,” he told The New American, saying that if done globally it would result in the “decimation of the human population” and the cutting down of virtually every tree.

Speaking of the IPCC being allowed to dictate and even enforce policy under the guise of stopping climate change, Patrick Wood, author of several books on technocracy and the leading critical expert on the movement, warned of disastrous consequences. If such a scheme were to move ahead, it would mean the end of freedom and the emergence of a new form of government dreamed up almost a century ago and pushed by David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission.

“That a single group of deluded technocrat scientists should declare themselves to be the sole enforcers of their own ‘science’ is patently insane,” he told The New American. “If they are not summarily stopped, it will give them the dictatorial power to implement every facet of Agenda 21, the UN 2030 Agenda, Global Biodiversity Assessment, and more — in other words, total scientific dictatorship.”

What would education look like without the God-man?  A lot like the rubbish that is on offer from elite universities across the United States:

The presidents—Harvard’s Claudine Gay, MIT’s Sally Kornbluth, and Penn’s Liz Magill—beclowned themselves with their inability to straightforwardly condemn anti-Jewish hatred on campus in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 atrocities in Israel. They hemmed, they hawed, they tried to ‘contextualize’ the outbursts from left-wing students, so that they could stay on the right side of the woke narrative.

“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, yes or no?” a Congresswoman asked Magill.

“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” Magill replied.

So: according to the president of the University of Pennsylvania, it’s only against her university’s rules to call publicly for the genocide of the Jewish people if you try to kill Jews—and even then, it “can be” harassment. It all depends, you see.

This could go on quite a bit longer, but we think the reader gets the point by now.  We see very clearly where the world is going without Christ.  It behooves us, then, if we want la belle Louisiane, our cultural kinfolk and blood relatives elsewhere in Dixie, and the wider world to be reflections of Heaven, then Christ must really and truly and literally be at the center of everything.  If that is not explicitly done, then even in a rural, conservative State like Iowa, the devil will corrupt public and private life.  Every institution must bow before Christ, as was foreshadowed in the dreams of the Holy Patriarch Joseph:

He said to them, “Hear this dream which I have dreamed: behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and stood upright; and behold, your sheaves gathered round it, and bowed down to my sheaf.” . . . Then he dreamed another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream; and behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me” (Genesis 37: 6-7, 9).

With Christ radiating from the center, then everything begins to take on a new and better hue – government, learning, the life of youths, time, etc.  This is illustrated for us very well in the life of one of Louisiana’s holy French kinsmen, St. Aubert:

THIS great prelate was one of the greatest ornaments of the seventh age, and eminent promoters of learning and piety in the Gallican Church. His youth, that most precious season of life, he dedicated to God by the mortification and the absolute conquest of sensual appetites; he was careful to employ all his time usefully, and was a great proficient in sacred learning. Having with great zeal served the Church for many years, he was consecrated bishop of Arras and Cambray on the 24th of March in 633.  Though solitude, in which he conversed in heaven, and consulted God on his own necessities, and those of his people, was his delight, yet he knew what he owed to others; his door was always open to persons of all ranks and conditions, and he was ever ready to afford every one all comfort and assistance, spiritual and corporal, especially the poor, the sick, and distressed. With extraordinary watchfulness and sagacity he discovered the roots of the disorders which reigned among the people: his prudence and zeal applied the remedies, and all the obstacles he met with, he surmounted by his courage and constancy. His instructions, supported by the wonderful example of his own life, had incredible success in reforming the manners of his numerous flock. It was the first part of his care to train up a virtuous clergy, and to qualify them for their sacred functions by learning and good habits: ignorance, especially in those who are the teachers of others, being a most fatal enemy to virtue, and a rooted and experienced piety being necessary in all youth, that when they attain manhood and are exposed to the dangers of public life in a corrupt world, they may be able to resist the influence of vice and bad example. St. Aubert converted to God innumerable sinners, and induced many persons of quality of both sexes, to renounce the world. The great King Dagobert often resorted to the saint to be instructed by him in the means of securing to himself an eternal kingdom. He listened to him with respect and attention, always rejoiced exceedingly in his heavenly conversation, and received from it the greatest comfort and edification. Out of respect for him he bestowed on his church of our Lady the royal estate and manor of Oneng. . . . By St. Aubert’s zeal, religion and sacred learning flourished exceedingly in all Haynault and Flanders. Having worthily sustained the burden of the episcopal charge for the space of thirty-six years, he died in 669 . . . His festival was kept from the time of his death, on the 13th of December, as appears from the most ancient calendars of that and neighbouring churches . . . This festival is a holiday at Cambray, where are also kept two other annual feasts in his honour: the elevation of his relics when they were first enshrined on the 24th of January: and that of their translation the 5th of July.

Bearing such things as these in mind, let us prepare ourselves appropriately as the great day of Christ’s birth approaches, so that we may celebrate it in a fitting way, and, thereafter, make Christ truly the King of all, as the ancient Orthodox hymns say:

Prepare, O Bethlehem, for Eden has been opened to all! / Adorn yourself, O Ephratha, for the tree of life blossoms forth from the Virgin in the cave! / Her womb is a spiritual paradise planted with the Divine Fruit: / If we eat of it, we shall live forever and not die like Adam. / Christ comes to restore the image which He made in the beginning!

Today the Virgin comes to the cave / to give birth ineffably to the pre-eternal Word. / Hearing this, rejoice, O inhabited earth! / With the angels and the shepherds glorify / the pre-eternal God, Whose will it was to appear as a young child!

Joyeux Noël, mes amis!

Merry Christmas, my friends!