I mean this with all the love I can muster:
+JMJ+
Come on, friends. can we please not clog up the forum with threads about sinister people in black trench coats making "six" signs?
The evidence of the Devil's work and influence is everywhere.
So, too, is the evidence of the work and influence of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Church.
Try promoting THOSE things to your brethren instead of these bedtime horror stories.
Honestly, it saddens me deeply when people (not necessarily the people taking part in this thread) are so vastly ignorant of Church teaching, Church history and the lives and teachings of the holy saints. These same types of people often band together around sensationalist stories, 'mystical' occurrences and a 'bunker' mentality instead of encouraging one another with the TWO THOUSAND YEARS' WORTH of spiritual treasure they have at their disposal.
Why don't people start threads about great holy books they've read?
How about threads concerning the practice of approved, time-honored spiritual disciplines?
Well, a relative FEW people on this forum DO start threads like those, but there are not nearly enough of them.
I love you all dearly in Christ... please stop letting someone get you all excited about all this secrecy and spooky business. There's serious spiritual learning, growing, discussing and edifying to be done here.
Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
If only it were that simple.
A friend of mine couldn't make it to catechism class one day, so he asked me to
go over the lesson with him so he could catch up. I was reading my notes, and
portions of the textbook, and my friend sat there watching his TV while I was
talking. The topic was the sacrament of Penance, and over about a half hour of
this, I observed something happen three times: As soon as I started to read
a question or a definition of something really important, the TV movie would
start into a scene that shows a car chase, or a fist fight or a shootout or bombs exploding, or any combination thereof. The last straw was when I was reading
the question that sets up a discussion of the "unforgivable sin," and suddenly
Burt Reynolds was diving through the air to grab a child sitting on the parkway
as a gangster car jumped the curb trying to run over the child, and Burt caught
the boy just in time to whisk him down a hill toward a lake before the car
zoomed by. The noise was so loud I could hardly hear myself speak. I stopped
and asked my friend if he can remember what the question is. He said, "No."
I told him, "This isn't going to work. I can't compete with this TV movie. You're
paying attention to the TV and you're not listening to the lesson." He replied,
"Well, you keep pausing." I was pausing because I had asked him a question, or
I had just read something that requires a response from him, but he would not
reply to it, because he was intently watching the TV.
One of the topics in this chapter is habitual sin, and the conditions over which a
confessor withholds absolution. This is something my friend is afraid will happen
to him because he is confessing the same sins over and over to his confessor.
I thought it would be a topic of interest, but that TV movie was much more
engaging for him, somehow. I almost wish his confessor could see this scene
in my friend's parlor and he would have a better idea of the mentality he's facing.
TV is so full of shock value images that demand your attention, there isn't any
point in having it on while you're trying to read a book or have a conversation.
Actually, there isn't any point in having it on at all.
How do you grab someone out of their attachment to lurid "entertainment" to stop
and think about why they're so attracted to that, and how it is doing their soul
some serious damage? I've had discussions with him about watching TV and he
defends it by saying, "It's
entertainment!"
I can't help but wonder how many sorcerer-scenes there are in the images that
we could watch on TV. I don't have a TV in my home, for this very reason. I don't
want the
Devil's Tabernacle in my home.
It really struck me one time I went with this friend to a "holy hour devotion" which
begins with benediction and a short prayer and hymn. Then the priest leaves the
monstrance on the altar and goes to pray or hear confessions. My friend
commented later: "What was going on there? After the benediction there was
absolutely nothing going on for 50 minutes. I was bored out of my gourd!"
You see, he's accustomed to watching the Devil's Tabernacle, and that's why the
REAL Tabernacle was unfamiliar to him.
Topic: SORCERER AT WORK (Read 2248 times)