The Importance of the Octave Day of Christmas
Summary of Headings
- The Significance of the Octave
- The Ceremony of Circumcision
- Living Our Faith
- The Role of Silence and Simplicity
- Archbishop Lefebvre's Example
The Significance of the Octave
Today we have the blessing of being able to celebrate the Octave Day of Christmas. It's actually a very important feast day for any number of reasons, but the Octave, just a little bit of an explanation, the Octave Day was always a very important feast for the major feasts. So the few major feasts in the liturgical year would have what is referred to as an octave or eight straight days, including the day itself, of celebrating that feast day. So the Octave of Christmas was essentially eight days of celebrating Christmas continually. That concludes today. The final day of each Octave was a very big event and it was something that was considered to be very important for the celebration of each Catholic. A way to close out the feast as it were. As such, there was a lot more emphasis put on the Octave before they were essentially scrapped, later on in the church's history unfortunately. But still we celebrate it for what it's supposed to be. It is a day where the cycle of Christmas as it were comes full circle, or at least the very first part of the cycle comes full circle. It is also a day which is a commemoration in which our Lord Jesus Christ is formed. He was formally and ritually given his name, which is that of Jesus, because during the Ceremony of Circumcision that was what ended up happening. So eight days after their birth, the male children of the Jews were taken to the local synagogue where the Ceremony of Circumcision was performed. And the name that they were called by was officially given to them before God, not just before their parents. Their parents didn't just choose their names at random, but it was considered to be a religious ceremony, very much like baptism in that aspect. So people can have their own names for their children, but what's in the sacramental register is what God will call you in heaven, so get used to it. So it's very much like that in that aspect. Also we have the Ceremony of the Circumcision itself. Now obviously our Lord Jesus Christ, being the author of the law, and being the bridge into the new law, he therefore is not bound to the old law as it appears, by the fact that he actually allowed himself to suffer this particular introduction into the Jewish faith. But he offered to do so, voluntarily, as part of his expiation, as part of the sacrifice that he offered each and every day while he was here on earth, by obedience to the will of his Father. This is an important feast day for us because this is a core precept, shall we say, for how we are supposed to live our faith. Each and every day we are supposed to be believers of our Lord Jesus Christ, not just in word, but in work. Not just accepting the fact that he is God, not just proclaiming it as such, but by actually and concretely living that faith, by following him and choosing to accept his will above our own, and to join our will to his each and every day. That is what the example of this day should lead us to understand. We need to appreciate the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ because we need to follow suit. Considering all of these different points that this feast day represents, it's crucial that we have a strong spiritual life for the purpose of being able to appreciate the voice of God. He is calling, he is showing us the way. Now we need to hear him and we need to follow him. Now for that to happen, we need to first and foremost have the strength, and the silence, and the discipline, and everything else necessary to be able to hear his voice, and of course to follow it. The way this comes about, shall we say, is through the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. He shows us how it is we are supposed to practice our faith. He shows us how we are supposed to be good Catholics in this world, and so therefore we will be able to follow him by following his example, by listening to the example that he gives us. And the first way that we are supposed to do so is through piety and doctrine. It is not enough that we are supposed to be vaguely familiar with our faith, but we must know it inside and out. Our faith must be familiar to us on every level. Absolutely. We must know our faith. Now that doesn't mean we have to be scholars. It doesn't mean that we should be able to make a proper thesis of what the hypostatic union means, with all the philosophical determinations of the terms. But simply put, what we need is one of the more simpler faiths. But we need to have an informed faith. We need to have a faith that is educated. And as tempting as it might be, we tend to focus on the more superficial facets of our faith. The most recent imbroglios, shall we say, that people will drag the faith through. What the Pope said, what this group said over here. We listen to these things and that becomes the focus of our studies. Trying to understand or appreciate these rather obscure or not all entirely essential points, but rather focusing on the more materialistic parts of our faith. This is not appropriate. Our faith must be, must be, first and foremost, simple. So, we should always go back to its very basic core. The catechism. If you have not done a revision of the catechism in a while, please do so. It's an unfortunate fact that most people stop actually learning the catechism shortly after their confirmation, if then. Sometimes it's even before that. That should never be the case. Our catechism must be a continual source of information, a continual source of study for us, for the entirety of our lives. One example to set this situation up, and shall we say it is an excellent example that we should start to contemplate throughout this new year, is that of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. He was, he had his doctorate in theology. He was a very learned theologian. As a matter of fact, his theological expert, who was supposed to assist him during the Second Vatican Council, because he was one of the council fathers, admitted that he hardly ever had to help him, and actually on the contrary, the Archbishop usually reeducated him a little bit in his theology. He was that well versed in his theology. But, he pointed out that a child with a catechism book can often teach a bishop a thing or two. It's important that he always kept close to the purest and most simple form of what the catechism teaches us. Listening to his sermons in any language, he had a very simple format of preaching, because that was how he believed, in simplicity. This is something we need to learn too. Rather than trying to get overly involved in all these other sorts of eschatological aspects of studies, it would be better just to go back to basics. What is the faith? What is the church? What is the Mass? These kinds of definitions serve us far better than trying to spell out in extremely complex details the latest scandalous statements of the Holy Father. Whatever may be the case. So simplify our doctrines. Simplify our studies. First and foremost, make sure we are studying. But make our studies simple. And not based upon worldly events and what's going on around us. But focused on the principles, nothing else. It's a waste of time otherwise, and sometimes dangerously so. The second aspect to it, of course, is piety. Again, how should we handle piety? Well, let's go back to the simplest of things. The simplest form of how it is we are supposed to worship. And again, simplicity. And the first element, and you will never ever stop hearing this from me, is silence. Mental and external silence. We can't control all the environments that we live in where there's a lot of noise and chaos, but if we have a spirit of silence within our souls, all that noise will not bother us. All the problems all around us will not actually do any damage to our spiritual calm. But that silence is the first element. If we want to be able to hear the voice of God, then we must be in silence. So that piety must be based upon silence in a world of noise. Discipline in the world of chaos. Control. And again, simplicity. We don't have to multiply devotions. As a matter of fact, I tend to recommend against it. It's not the number of devotions that we pray that makes us pious people. It's the simplicity of those devotions and the purity with which we offer those devotions. And it doesn't even have to be a devotion, necessarily. It is the time and the quality of time we spend with God. That is what the essence of the pious life is. Surrendering to God. Letting Him in. Sacrificing ourselves to Him. Dying in Him. That is what the pious life is supposed to be. Now, Archbishop Lefebvre loved to point out that piety without doctrine can fall into heresy very quickly and mislead us into hell. And doctrine without piety is cold and therefore has no purpose. We are supposed to have the two things balanced and mixed together. They are supposed to depend upon each other. The lex orandi and the lex credendi. How we believe is how we will pray and how we pray is how we will believe. The two of them are supposed to work together. That is a very good New Year's resolution. Just those simple points right there. And again, Archbishop Lefebvre is a magnificent example of this. Because, well, I think it's a good idea to speak more about him. This year, 2026, will mark the 40th anniversary upon which he announced to the world that he was going to consecrate bishops. And sent Rome into all a tizzy. And also, 35 years ago, he passed away. So it's a good moment to speak about him. It's also important because many of you, including myself, never actually knew him in person. And his work and his labors and his life are something that are crucial for us to know and appreciate, especially as the world gets more chaotic and absurd. We need the simplicity and the stability that Archbishop Lefebvre reflected and manifested constantly throughout his entire life. His defense of the Church, defined even the Pope himself, defined the wisdom of the world, standing for the virtue of Christ the King, standing for the honor of Christ the King, protecting and standing by the rights of Christ the King, when the whole rest of the world was willing and ready to abandon it. Isn't it interesting? It's an example that each and every one of us must follow in our own private lives, each and every day, much more so in our public lives, too. Having the courage to be able to step up and stand, despite age, infirmity, and any number of other human prudences, we can call them, is an example that each and every one of us must admire and also try to emulate. We won't have to stand up the same way he did, quite literally the only bishop against the entire world. We don't have quite as much writing on our shoulders as he did, the Mass and the sacraments and the traditional faith, all upon him. And yet, we have our own little share in that same fight, here and now. We must fight to defend the Church, against the people within the Church. We must fight and defend the Church, even against our own selves and weaknesses and inclinations. We must fight to protect the doctrine against the comforts of the world and the desires for peace, or shall we say, absence of war, not true peace. The desire to avoid detection or to stand out from the crowd. We must stand firm. And that only comes from the simplicity of doctrine and piety, which Archbishop Lefebvre manifested so perfectly, and he himself said that we are supposed to follow providence faithfully and completely, never trying to pull ahead of it and guide it the way we think it should go, and never dragging our heels behind it trying to resist it, never trying to run away from it, but docilely follow it. A man who the world regards as a prideful, arrogant, and stubborn person, I was going to say Frenchman, but I've decided against it, sorry, actually was a model of docility and humility. And how do we know that? Because he put himself last in everything that he did, and he put Christ first, and he chose to defend the faith despite the fact that it was not something that he necessarily felt up to do. He had retired before he started the Society of St. Pius X. He had found a little apartment in Rome, and that was going to be his entire life. And yet he chose voluntarily to accept the burden, not just of forming some few seminarians who wanted to maintain some of the traditions, but eventually to take upon himself the mantle of Christ himself to defend the Church, to stand and to place himself on the cross in union with our Lord Jesus Christ, to sacrifice himself for the purity of the priesthood, and to serve the Church. This was what his goal was, and this is what his determination and his life was all about. It's easy for us to forget just how close the Church came to losing all of this if it weren't for that one gloriously simple and stubborn man who was stubbornly docile to God. That example comes from our Lord Jesus Christ, and nowhere else. That odd combination of being humble enough to stand up to the entire world, that odd paradox, that example is something we must embrace now, to follow Providence wherever it goes. But first, to know what Providence is according to what Catholic doctrine teaches us, and according to what our own personal pious life tells us. Those things are necessary. If we wish to serve God, then let's start with that simple New Year's resolution. Like Christ, accepting the law of God, accepting our simple limitations, accepting the fact that we're not all powerful and can't dictate to God what we should do, but rather submitting ourselves, very much as our Lord Jesus Christ did, voluntarily, and accepting the path that he set for us. Regardless of whether it's one we want, or one we have to walk. And regardless of how hard, or difficult, or easy it is, we choose him, and choose him always first, as Archbishop Lefebvre did. And let's never underestimate the value of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, because that is where a lot of the faith was lost. Doctrine, each and every doctrine, is necessary for us. The Church doesn't do anything superficially, or extraneously. All of it is necessary. All of it is important. And all of it, we should be ready to die for it, each and every last article of the faith, and each and every part of the Mass. We should never lose sight of it. And again, comfortable as it may be, easy to just go along, to get along. But we cannot do that. And we have a most marvelous example of why not. So let us learn from his life, study it, learn it, stay close to the traditional Catholic doctrine of the Church, and make sure that we appreciate and embrace the faith, for all that it offers, the Mass, for all that it offers us, so that it can nourish us, and we can find in the Lord, all the lessons of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His saints, all of the strength and guidance that we could possibly use for every eventuality in our lives, so that we can be eternally happy with Him in Heaven. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Summary
Today we have the blessing of being able to celebrate the Octave Day of Christmas. It's actually a very important feast day for any number of reasons, but the Octave, just a little bit of an explanation, the Octave Day was always a very important feast for the major feasts. The final day of each Octave was a very big event and it was something that was considered to be very important for the celebration of each Catholic. A way to close out the feast as it were. As such, there was a lot more emphasis put on the Octave before they were essentially scrapped, later on in the church's history unfortunately. Considering all of these different points that this feast day represents, it's crucial that we have a strong spiritual life for the purpose of being able to appreciate the voice of God. He is calling, he is showing us the way. Now we need to hear him and we need to follow him.