Friday, November 28, 2014

No Right, No Wrong, No Rules for me...I'm Free! (Frozen, Sherlock, Psych, Black Friday)

Dear Parents,

The time for considering Christmas gifts is upon us, especially with the hyper-marketed "national holiday" known as Black Friday coming at the end of this week.  We will be told we must shop & spend and we willingly heed the siren songs:  "It's Christmas time...so buy and spend!"   However, good Catholic parents must carefully, very carefully consider the gifts given at this sacred time and extrapolate to any time!  This is your duty. 

What are we allowing into our homes?  So often under the guise of the new, the latest, coolest or even the seemingly cute & innocent, lack of vigilance and common sense or weakness and human respect allow destructive if subtle influences into the sacred temple which is the Catholic home; a place meant to be where the Holy Family would find rest;  a pure and loving welcome.

 Does it offend God?  Does it facilitate our love of God and movement towards our ultimate goal, heaven?  Does it increase virtue and the grace in our soul... or not?  Here are the questions we must ask: the questions of nobility, of beauty and of goodness, the questions of the saints.   Do not make the worldling’s excuses your own:  “It’s only entertainment."  "It’s not that bad.” "Everyone has it"  Maybe insidious of all: "It's not a mortal sin!"  If those are sentences we utter, questions we ask, statements we make, a red flag should go up and go up very quickly.

No parent worthy of the name  would even remotely consider hiring a prostitute for their boy at Christmas or ever, God forbid!  And yet we allow that music, that entertainment, those things which fill their minds with impure illusions and  liberal ideas to penetrate and  infiltrate their souls.  We not only do nothing against them, but are the very cause of their entry!  Or we place into their hands gadgets which allow access to the worst of the worst, music and images, unsupervised access to to a whole world inimical to the Cross of Christ! 

Do you think shows like Psych or Sherlock to use two currently popular examples from our own families of which the list is unfortunately very long are innocuous or merely entertaining?  Or rather are they harmful to the spiritual well-being of our children?  The words found in this message's subject line above, "No right, no wrong, no rules for me..." come from a nice, little animated movie, one you may have already watched many times with your children, one which they can sing every line to every song...songs which are basically pop rock ( and thus counter authority, sanity & holiness )--Frozen!  

Oh, it's only one line, one song, one scene...don't be extreme, Father.  How cute, it's Disney!  Yet that is exactly how this garbage, the garbage of the Revolution can be dumped into a good, Catholic home, hidden by cute characters and catchy little tunes (  and by the way all the other families are watching & listening to them too ).  
I seriously  doubt Our Lord would agree that those "little" offenses affecting the souls of children and causing countless temptations and falls are acceptable trifles nor that those so-called "small" drops of poison are not de-sensitizing the souls of the innocent.  Rather they are  to be crushed, crushed with the vehemence of the true soldier of Christ.  "No right...no wrong?"  Very same sentiment/philosophy which justifies abortion, homosexual union, etc.  This is EXACTLY how we have come to accept these abominations, these sins crying to Heaven for vengeance as a nation, as a people....little by little, drop by drop, line by line, movie by movie, song by song!

  Remember the words of Our Savior:  "You are either with Me or against!"  "If your eye offends pluck it out!"   "Better that a millstone be tied about your neck than to scandalize a little one!!"

Take a good look at the first scene--the character setting scene--from Psych, considered "family" entertainment.  Is that not gravely offensive to Almighty God and potentially destructive to souls?  Does that in any way facilitate our love of God and movement towards heaven?  Could that possibly increase the grace of God in our souls? ... edify and fortify our boys striving with so much difficulty to acquire that glorious & angelic virtue of purity in this perverted world?  Is Sherlock  with its thread of homosexual allusions and tension throughout really proper for a Catholic living room?  Almost countless other examples could be used here of which too many are all too familiar.  Are we now so blind, that we simply cannot see?  Are we now so desensitized ourselves that we no longer perceive?  God forbid!!!  Let not fornication or impurity be even named among us, as becomes saints!

My dear parents these precious souls are in our care, they are your children;  NO, they are GOD'S children and we are their earthly custodians, having received this sacred charge to watch and form them in the image of the Only Begotten of the Eternal Father..."with Christ dead to sin and alive to grace."  This is SERIOUS business, not for the faint-hearted;  a sacred charge and wonderful responsibility  placed upon the shoulders of a man & his wife in Holy Matrimony.  All the graces needed to fulfill this office have been promised and will be bestowed by the Almighty...and a crown is prepared for those who persevere!  

PLEASE then be vigilant and careful, watch and pray.  Please think seriously from the perspective of the Cross of Christ, of our holy Faith, as to whether something is helpful or harmful to their souls, facilitates or hinders their acquisition of virtue and increase in grace.  The Devil is content with the long term destruction, he does not need to destroy today, destroy in one shot; he does not need the prostitute; rather he is content to poison a soul drop by drop, day by day.  Once the poison enters, it can NEVER be removed, it can only be dealt with, mortified, contained to some extent and then it is much more difficult and quite often never done.  There is so much rot out there today which we are forced to wade though,  we MUST ensure that we do not willingly or weakly invite any of it in nor allow it anywhere near our children as far as we are able...so help us God!

Be assured of my prayers and cooperation in this noble task of formation.  Please cooperate at home.

May the all-loving God of might and consolation ever fortify and bless your efforts.

Father [SSPX]