What Are Your Children Watching on TV?

I recently asked my niece what her secret to surviving high school was and she answered brilliantly, in my opinion. Her answer revealed a self-confidence and non-conformist attitude that reveals the grace of God and His call on her life. She said that she stays away from two things: 1) She doesn't obsess over boys and stays away from girls who obsess over boys 2) She does not watch or follow the "hot" new "teen" tv shows Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, etc.
If your teen is an avid fan of Gossip Girl, you may want to read on. This "hit" show has been rated the most popular show for teens ages 12-17. It won this year's Teen Choice TV Award in many categories. So what's all the fuss about? Well, they say a picture is woth a thousand words. Feast your eyes on the show's newest ad campaign to your right. I think you get the picture right? Our youngsters are increasingly being bombarded by the mass media saturating the market with more obscene and completely inappropriate material. It seems that there is now an increasingly inverse relationship between age and obscenity. The younger the age the more obscene the tv show becomes. Sure, why not completely anhialate any sense of decency and innocence that a child has starting very young because, after all, the mass media is just paving their way into and desensitizing them into more and more depravity like pornography because well, it sells, it boost ratings, it makes certain individuals filthy rich.
Our children deserve more, at every age. They deserve to be exposed to God's plan for their lives. These programs put more distance between our teens and God's plan for their lives, playing right into the hands of the enemy.  Please read on to learn what Parent TV Council has to say about this"choice" tv show that our teens in the millions are watching weekly.
Their overall rating is a red traffic light which means:

Show may include gratuitous sex, explicit dialogue, violent content, or obscene language, and is unsuitable for children.

GOSSIP GIRL
Production Companies: 17th Street Productions
Producers: Bob Levy, Josh Schwartz, Leslie Morganstein, and Stephanie Savage
Creators: Josh Schwartz

Based on a series of popular novels by Cecily Von Ziegesar, Gossip Girl follows the lives of young, privileged socialites in New York City. Now in its third season, the youngsters have begun college. Blair Waldorf, attempts to assert her status at NYU while her lothario boyfriend, Chuck Bass, makes a name for himself in business. Meanwhile, Serena Van der Woodson rekindles a troubled relationship with Carter Bazen, and Dan Humphrey tempts fate by getting involved with Blair’s nemesis, Georgina.

Sex continues to be the main source of concern for parents. The show conveys the message that sex is a tool used to manipulate people. For instance, early in the season, Blair and Chuck add spice to their relationship by getting beautiful women to sexually tempt Chuck so that Blair can play the scorned girlfriend and humiliate the women in front of him. Real consequences are non-existent in this fantasy world and the characters play musical chairs with their sex-partners, but suffer no physical or psychological ramifications. Though graphic simulated sex scenes are only sprinkled throughout the season, there are plenty of provocative kissing scenes, erotic situations, and skimpy clothing. Drugs and alcohol are omnipresent on the show though none of the characters are legally old enough to drink. Language on the show can be problematic at times with frequent use of the words “whore,” “ass,” “bitch,” “slut,” “screw,” “damn,” and “hell.”  the previous season contained an attempted sexual assault and occasional brief fist fights.

Gossip Girl is not recommended viewers under age 18.

The Secret of the Rosary

The Blessed Virgin Crushing the Serpent's Head with Her Heal

The holy Rosary is a powerful weapon against overcoming evil.

SAINT DOMINIC:
The holy Rosary was brought to the world, firstly by Saint Dominic himself, whom on retreating to a forest to pray continuously for three days and nights for the conversion of the Albigensians and sinners, fell into a coma. Our Lady appeared to him and said:
“Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world … the Angelic Psalter (the holy Rosary)which is the foundation stone of the New Testament.”
Saint Dominic had hardly finished this prayer when he saw the Blessed Virgin near at hand, surrounded by a multitude of angels. She struck the possessed man with a golden rod that she held and said: "Answer my servant Dominic at once." (Remember, the people neither saw nor heard Our Lady, but only Saint Dominic.)
"Then listen well you Christians; the Mother of Jesus Christ is all powerful and she can save her servants from falling into hell. She is the Sun which destroys the darkness of our wiles and subtlety. It is she who uncovers our hidden plots, breaks our snares and makes our temptations useless and ineffectual.
"We have to say, however reluctantly, that not a single soul who has really persevered in her service has ever been damned with us; one single sigh that she offers to the Blessed Trinity is worth far more than all the prayers, desires and aspirations of all the saints.
"We fear her more than all the other saints in heaven together and we have no success with her faithful servants. Many Christians who call upon her when they are at the hour of death and who really ought to be damned according to our ordinary standards are saved by her intercession.
"Oh if only that Mary (it is thus in their fury that they called her) had not pitted her strength against ours and had not upset our plans, we should have conquered the Church and should have destroyed it long before this; and we would have seen to it that all the Orders in the Church fell into error and disorder.
"Now that we are forced to speak we must also tell you this: nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins and by means of this they obtain God's forgiveness and mercy."
Then Saint Dominic had them all say the Rosary very slowly and with great devotion, and a wonderful thing happened: at each Hail Mary that he and the people said together a large group of devils issued forth from the wretched man's body under the guise of red-hot coals.
When the devils had all been expelled and the heretic was at last entirely free of them, Our Lady (who was still invisible gave her blessing to the assembled company, and they were filled with joy because of this.
A large number of heretics were converted because of this miracle and joined the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary.
SAINT LOUIS DE MONTFORT
Saint Louis gives insight into the very real dangers of evil, of course taken far more seriously in Saint Louis’ time. This loss of such seriousness is a sad thing indeed! The images Saint Louis colourfully depicts, bring to life these dangers, now so invisible to our sensibilities. The Rosary as a prayer to combat the evil one, is a must!
St. Louis Mary DeMontfort has indeed given an impressive account of how powerful Mary's Rosary is in overcoming evil.

"If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins 'you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory.' Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practise black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if-- and mark well what I say-- if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins." -St. Louis de Montfort from The Secret of the Rosary

Satan and all the other evil spirits fear Mary because of her role as the Mother of God and because through her the Redemption of mankind was able to take place.

Remember she was the Woman in the book of Genesis that God promised would crush the head of the Serpent.

 

The power of the Rosary must never be taken for granted.
It is a gift and a weapon given by the Mother of God to her children to bring about peace in individual lives and throughout the world.
Saint Louis’ writing is also very colourful, regarding the many beautiful accounts of visionary experiences encountered by people over the centuries through devotion to the Rosary.

POPE JOHN PAUL II



October 19, 2010 Thoughts of October: Month of the Rosary

Holiness is beautiful

As November 2, 2010, election day, approaches we should keep in mind the spiritual battle that is being fought right now outside of thousands of abortion centers across the country and the world by way of the 40 Days for Life Campaign.
What is the 40 Days for Life Campaign? It is a prayer vigil that is taking place in a record 238 locations in the US, Canada, Australia, England, Northern Ireland and Denmark. It started on September 22, 2010 and will end on October 31, 2010. Here is the link if you want to learn how you can participate, even for an hour of prayer, at a vigil near you Click here to get involved.
I spent a good 20 years as a robot Catholic, going to church because it's what I had to do. Then, starting around my college years, I was a fallen away Catholic. I had left the church as I was trying to "find myself" in the world. The irony is obvious. A child of Christ cannot find themselves anywhere in the world. We are called to be in the world but not of it. But I was so lost spiritually and emotionally that I did not know that my faith was where I would find myself.  I'm revealing all of this because in separating myself from my faith I thought I would find the truths of my life: my reason for being, what was really right and wrong. My separation led me to many lies that the media spoon-fed me and I took in as truths, the secular culture wanted me to participate in the culture of death...and I finally did. 
During that time, a friend of mine became pregnant and she decided to have an abortion.  I drove her to the clinic and waited while she had someone kill the child growing inside her. I didn't look at it that way then. Having a minor in Women's Studies in college, I "learned" that I was "helping" my friend choose for herself what she would do with her body. I pushed God, Jesus, Mary and the Communion of Saints who died preserving the sanctity of life right aside and made up my own rules outside of the Bible and all it teaches to opt for what felt right, what I had heard and read in books was "right" and "just". You could say I was culturally brainwashed. That's not an excuse, it's an accurate description of the wrong thinking that was so ingrained in my head after 6 years of higher education. If you don't have your faith as a frame of reference, as a moral compass for time at the university, you become indoctrinated in the secular culture's beliefs.  Now don't go there, I'm not downing the noble pursuit of higher education by any means, I'm just stating how easy it is to fall prey to the culture of death that lives in the ivory towers that are many of our universities.
Eight years ago I returned to the faith by way of my husband who became a living example for me of the pursuit of holiness, a call that our faith begs us to take up in our families, in our schools, in our churches and workplaces.  Recently, I confessed (yes, it took me that long to do so) my support for my friend that had the abortion. To my shock, but not really a total surprise, the priest told me that supporting abortion is just like having an abortion in terms of the level of sin that it is. He talked with me about what it was I had done and we discussed what the Catholic faith teaches about the sanctity of life. I left having been absolved of my sin, but my pursuit of holiness is now that much stronger to encourage other Catholics to defend life.
Recently, we participated in the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil as we went to an abortion clinic off of Powers Ferry Road here in Marietta, GA and prayed that the mothers would change their minds and save their babies. We prayed for the workers at the clinic, in particular the doctor doing the killing. It was more than an act of penance for me it was a liberation from the chains of the world that have held me captive for so long. I spent the first 40 years of my life living out my will and my needs and my desires and it got me nowhere but in and out of some expensive counseling for depression and anxiety.  The next 40 years of my life will be lived for God and to bring His light to the increasing darkness that the enemy is casting on believers, families, children, the weakest amongst us, the unborn.
I understand now that being Catholic means being pro-life and defending the weakest amongst us. There is no easy out from this stance.
However, according to a 2009 Gallup Poll, Catholics don't find abortion or embryonic stem cell research to be a moral problem any more than non-Catholics do. Embryonic stem cells are obtained from prenatals at a point very early in development. Obtaining these cells typically results in the destruction of the prenatal. The direct and voluntary killing of a prenatal is always a serious sin against God because prenatal life is developing human life.
According to Pope John Paul II, “Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral. This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law which man, in the light of reason, finds in his own heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is reaffirmed by Sacred Scripture, transmitted by the Tradition of the Church and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.” (Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, n. 57).
It's not too late to get involved in the 40 Days for Life; your heart and spirituality will be changed because of it.