I guess third orders are puritan and Amish like?
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5. They are not to go to unseemly parties or to shows or dances. They shall not donate to actors, and shall forbid their household to donate.[/color]
[color=rgb(var(--color_15))]* Or other forms of entertainment where the vice of the world is put on display. Nor are they to pay for use of entertainment platforms for secular means such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, and the many others. This is how we are interpreting “donate to actors.”
• The computer or phone, too is not to be used for any type of secular entertainment which brings our faculties to their base function.
• Here we are including secular news sources as worldly entertainments and base use of our faculties, as we know that mostly all news has become sensationalized, anti-God, and ideologically-driven and so must be avoided. This is especially the case for men who become very easily addicted to these forms of sensory gratification.
• iPhone, Androids, and all like phones are forbidden unless mandated by our work place, in which their use is permitted for work but not personal use.
• All phones are to be simple.
† “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world” (John 2:15). This contempt of the world and its pleasures passed from the Heart of our Divine Redeemer to that of His Apostles. The Rule of the Third Order, being drafted from the counsels of evangelical perfection, naturally bears the impress of this same spirit, and declares that the noisy turmoil and dissipation of the gαy world is incompatible with the sanctity of a Christian life.
Let the Tertiaries, then, never forget that in their profession they have renewed before God and men the vows made at their baptism, to renounce the devil and all his works. They must observe not merely the letter of the Rule in this respect, but also the spirit of it. They are forbidden balls, where modesty is so often imperilled, and theatres, where human passions have their full sway, and where the most solid virtue suffers some taint. Let us hear on this subject an eminent master of spiritual life:
“Were the theatre to confine itself to the representation of memorable historical events, to the reproduction of the edifying actions of great men, it would not be objectionable. But this is not the case. We find there, on the contrary, everything combined to excite the passions. The splendor and fascination of the stage, the artful representations enhanced by seductive decorations, the ensnaring pantomimes and indecorous dress of the actors and actresses — what can they produce but temptations? Add to this the subjects which compose the plays: what are they but a glorification of the passions? Very often, also, religion and sacred persons and things are held up to ridicule, and made subservient in a most unworthy manner to the gratification of a morbid curiosity. And were it even possible for a person to witness such spectacles without arousing his passions, it is nevertheless sinful to expose ourselves to temptation, because it is our duty always and everywhere to watch over our senses and to repel dangerous thoughts and ideas. Can it, moreover, be excusable to spend money for such things, whilst poverty and distress surround us and clamor for relief?”
As to dancing — it is at best a frivolous amusement, usually fraught with dangerous consequences for soul and body, and therefore an abomination to virtuous persons. The propensity to indulge in it betrays a great levity of character and want of religious zeal. We may therefore reasonably conclude that dancing is an insurmountable obstacle to that perfection, which members of the Third Order are supposed to profess.
The members should also avoid public houses, and, in fact, any places of loose public resort. Gambling of any sort is strictly for-bidden, as well as acting, or taking part in any conversations or actions inconsistent with modesty and purity. At the same time innocent recreations are not forbidden. Tertiaries must, then, try to steer the middle course between the pernicious follies of the age and a moroseness and melancholy which are incompatible with the real Christian spirit of love and joy. They must strive to edify the world by their modesty and charity, so as to make virtue and piety attractive, by a greater sweetness, kindness, and benevolence, towards all with whom they are brought in contact. So will they win souls to Christ, and their apostolate will bring forth fruit a hundred-fold.
The reading of bad books, papers, novels, plays, in a word of the trashy literature of the day, in which vice and passion are clothed in the most seductive colors to insinuate their fatal poison into the soul, is one of the chief causes of prevalent immorality and infidelity. Tertiaries should have recourse to their spiritual director or prefect for advice in the selection of reading matter, and they will be sure of partaking of wholesome mental food[/color]
Topic: TVs everywhere (Read 11880 times)