Updated: From Advent to Christmas: "The Friendship of Christ"

Just a reminder: On Monday, January 5, 2026 we'll conclude our Advent Series (suggested by Anna Mitchell, who is on maternity leave from the Son Rise Morning Show!) when Matt Swaim and I discuss "Christ in the Eucharist", another chapter in Robert Hugh Benson's The Friendship of Christ. I'll be on a little after 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central. Listen live here or catch the podcast later here. We'll continue discussing other chapters through the month of January!

Here is the link to the original post, with this poignant introductory comment from Monsignor Benson regarding "the Friendship of Christ":

a Friendship, it must be remembered, that is open not to Catholics only, but to all who know the Name of Jesus, and indeed, in a sense, to every human being. For our Lord is the "light that enlighteneth every man,"{1} it is His Voice that speaks through conscience, however faulty that instrument may be; it is He, since He is the Only Absolute, who is the dim Ideal Figure discerned standing in the gloom of all hearts who desire Him; it is He whom Marcus Aurelius and Gautama and Confucius and Mahomet, with all their sincere disciples, so far as they were true to themselves, desired, even though they never heard His historical Name of Jesus, or, having heard it, rejected Him, so far as that rejection was without their own fault.

This, then, is the explanation of Non-Catholic, and even of Non-Christian, piety. It would be terrible if it were not so; for in that case we could not claim that our Saviour could be, in any real sense, the Saviour of the world. 

Please read the rest there.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!