Advisories

Dear Friends in Christ,

This week I want to focus on two advisories, one about books, the other about “chain” letters and emails. The first advisory is about books, specifically, books you might think are good for your children, but are really quite bad for them. I heard about these two books from a parishioner, but they have already been reviewed by both Catholic and other Christian leaders. These potentially dangerous books are Conversations with God and Conversations with God for Teens by Neale Walsch. The author uses a dialogue format in which a child or a teen asks questions and “god” answers.

The answers to the troubling questions on topics like cohabitation and sin are directly opposed to Biblical or any basically moral teaching. The books quote Scripture the way the devil would, to advance views on God and morality that contradict Christian doctrine. Keep them away from your children. Looking for good children’s gift books? A sequel to the Chronicles of Narnia is coming to theaters soon. Have your children read the original books by C.S. Lewis? It is a beautiful children’s series which teens will also enjoy. The message is very Christian and inspiring with plenty of fantastic scenes and images. There are seven books in the series, but each book has its own complete story.

My second advisory is about “chain” letters and emails. Sometimes I find photocopies of St. Jude novenas at the rear of church, which I always throw out. These are usually placed by people who think they will get a “miracle” by passing out ten or forty copies of the novena. The leaflet asks you to say the prayer for 9 or 10 or 30 days. This is a superstitious practice which violates the First Commandment. It pretends to have a power that only God Himself has.

The same goes for chain letters and chain emails. After some inspiring message, which may sound very good, they tell you to forward this email message to ten or twenty friends and expect a “miracle”. Again, this is superstition. The Catechism says: “To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition”(no. 2111). Whenever I receive these emails I always press the delete button. I would advise you to do the same. You might also ask the sender not to include you on their mailing list for such mail.

God bless you and your family.

Fr. Hildebrand