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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Occult movies	lisa	Saturday, September 18, 2004
Question: Thank you for answering my questions, and God bless you. I hope you are feeling better, Brother Ignatius. We are approaching Halloween and a slew of occult type movies will be available. I am a practicing Catholic and a mother two children, girls both 10 and 11. I know it is harmful to watch these movies but I am addicted. I am ashamed to say that I have thaught this attraction to my children. I confessed this sin and I am more ashamed to say that watched part of this movie that I allwoed my daughters to alo watch part of. But after 15 minutes we changed the channel. I was upset that we were attracted to it. I talked with them and said that the feeling of attraction is bad. Is it a serious enough sin to keep me away from receiving Jesus in Holy Eucharist. ???
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM+ Dear Lisa: I praise God that you are concerned about this issue and also praise God that you were able to step back from the movie after 15 minutes. To fall into indulgence of the movie and then have the guts to turn if off 15 minutes later is a wonderful and beautiful object lesson for your girls -- that even when we fall, we can catch ourselves before getting in too deep. As for this being a mortal sin, no this is not mortal. Ask God's forgiveness with a prayer of contrition and perhaps do some self-imposed penance. I think it would be a good penance to sit down and develop a plan of action for how you may avoid these movies in the future. Think of strategies. For example, if a movie you REALLY want to see is showing a 7pm, plan to take your girls out to a restaurant for dinner at that time. In otherwords, think of ways to avoid the temptation. Most temptation comes in short windows of opportunity. So if we can distract ourselves for the few minutes when this window is open, we can avoid the sin. For example, if tempted to watch an inappropriate TV show, get up and do the dishes. By the time the dishes are done, the temptation should be gone. To borrow a line from John Irving's novel, Hotel New Hampshire: "keep passing the open windows." God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Occult movies

lisa

Saturday, September 18, 2004

Question:

Thank you for answering my questions, and God bless you. I hope you are feeling better, Brother Ignatius.

We are approaching Halloween and a slew of occult type movies will be available. I am a practicing Catholic and a mother two children, girls both 10 and 11. I know it is harmful to watch these movies but I am addicted. I am ashamed to say that I have thaught this attraction to my children. I confessed this sin and I am more ashamed to say that watched part of this movie that I allwoed my daughters to alo watch part of. But after 15 minutes we changed the channel. I was upset that we were attracted to it. I talked with them and said that the feeling of attraction is bad. Is it a serious enough sin to keep me away from receiving Jesus in Holy Eucharist. ???

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM+

Dear Lisa:

I praise God that you are concerned about this issue and also praise God that you were able to step back from the movie after 15 minutes. To fall into indulgence of the movie and then have the guts to turn if off 15 minutes later is a wonderful and beautiful object lesson for your girls -- that even when we fall, we can catch ourselves before getting in too deep.

As for this being a mortal sin, no this is not mortal. Ask God's forgiveness with a prayer of contrition and perhaps do some self-imposed penance. I think it would be a good penance to sit down and develop a plan of action for how you may avoid these movies in the future. Think of strategies. For example, if a movie you REALLY want to see is showing a 7pm, plan to take your girls out to a restaurant for dinner at that time. In otherwords, think of ways to avoid the temptation.

Most temptation comes in short windows of opportunity. So if we can distract ourselves for the few minutes when this window is open, we can avoid the sin.

For example, if tempted to watch an inappropriate TV show, get up and do the dishes. By the time the dishes are done, the temptation should be gone.

To borrow a line from John Irving's novel, Hotel New Hampshire: "keep passing the open windows."

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.