Advent Devotionals Peddled by Conciliar Sect Betray True Catholic Spirit
The Catholic News Agency portal (November 23, 2025) promotes five Advent resources claiming to help Catholics “grow closer to Christ.” These include:
1. Ascension’s video series with “Fr.” Mike Schmitz
2. Hallow app’s “Pray25” challenge featuring actors Chris Pratt and Gwen Stefani
3. Gender-segregated devotionals from Blessed Is She
4. The Augustine Institute’s “How To Advent” series on FORMED
5. EWTN’s catalogue of journals emphasizing emotional experiences
Naturalism Replaces Supernatural Preparation
The article reduces Advent—a penitential season preparing souls for judicium tremendum (the dreadful judgment)—to self-help exercises. Ascension’s journal encourages writing “thoughts and insights,” embodying the modernist error that “truth changes with man, because it develops with him” (Pius X, Lamentabili Sane §58). Not one resource mentions the necessity of sacramental confession or fasting, despite Pius XII’s admonition that Advent requires “penance to prepare for the coming of the Divine Judge” (1957 Address).
Schmitz’s focus on “how God is shaping us through seasons of waiting” perverts the season’s purpose. Advent exists not for self-discovery but to prepare for the final coming of Christ the King, whose reign demands rejection of worldly attachments (Pius XI, Quas Primas). The silence about Christ’s kingship exposes the conciliar sect’s hatred for the Social Reign of Our Lord.
Celebrity Culture Defiles Sacred Liturgical Seasons
Hallow’s inclusion of Chris Pratt and Gwen Stefani—neither known for doctrinal orthodoxy—violates the Church’s perennial condemnation of worldly influences in spiritual matters. “The faithful must shun all participation in non-Catholic worship” (Canon 1258, 1917 Code). Pratt, a self-described “spiritual” person who rejects dogmatic religion, and Stefani, whose music promotes sensuality, are unfit to guide souls. This follows Vatican II’s blasphemous claim that “the Church knows how richly she has profited by the history and development of man” (Gaudium et Spes §44).
The pairing of actors with “Sister” Miriam James Heidland—a feminist psychologist masquerading as a religious—reveals the operation’s true goal: replacing lex credendi with therapeutic self-absorption. Heidland’s focus on “inner healing” echoes Carl Rogers, not St. John of the Cross.
Gnostic Division of the Faithful by Gender
Blessed Is She’s gender-specific devotionals impose an anthropocentric division foreign to Catholic tradition. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). The Church has always provided universal devotions like the St. Andrew Christmas Novena, never segregating souls by modern identity categories.
Dwyer’s devotional urging women to see “waiting filled with God’s loving action” ignores the eschatological urgency of Advent. Meanwhile, George’s male devotional based on the Prodigal Son presumes men are uniquely prone to rebellion—a Calvinist notion condemned at Trent (Session VI, Canon 23).
Protestantization of Sacramental Preparation
The Augustine Institute’s video series reduces Advent traditions to empty rituals. Their treatment of the Jesse Tree—which symbolizes Christ’s royal lineage—omits the unbroken continuity of the Davidic kingship fulfilled in the Church (Pius IX, Syllabus of Errors §17). FORMED, funded by dissident groups, promotes the heresy that “the Church is subject to continuous evolution” (Lamentabili Sane §53).
EWTN’s journals compound these errors. Heather Khym’s “guided meditation” approach replaces mental prayer with subjective feelings, violating St. Teresa of Avila’s warnings against imaginative innovations (Interior Castle). Alexander’s “True Gifts of Christmas” focuses on “cherished traditions” rather than the Incarnate God demanding adoration and reparation.
Omission of the Only True Advent Preparation
All resources avoid the sine qua non of Advent: the Sacrament of Penance. Pius XII’s Mediator Dei teaches that liturgical seasons require sacramental participation, not emotional exercises. None direct souls to the Traditional Latin Mass—the only intact liturgy preserving Advent’s prophetic intensity.
The article epitomizes the conciliar sect’s apostasy: turning a season demanding fuga mundi (flight from the world) into a self-affirmation workshop. As St. Charles Borromeo warned: “How will Christ find us watching if we’re engrossed in worldly vanities?” True Catholics prepare for Advent by returning to the Mass of Ages, reciting the Rorate Caeli, and making reparation for the abominations of the Vatican II sect.
Source:
5 Catholic resources to help you grow closer to Christ this Advent (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 23.11.2025